Chapter Linguaggi teologico-politici della diseguaglianza e rivoluzione economica (1270-1350)

Abstract

The so-called ‘medieval economic revolution’ (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) also saw the emergence and spread of theological, economic and political languages that analysed, interpreted and judged the social and market situation. This discursive system was based on treatises, quodlibetal questions, legal opinions, and legislation. From one side, this system rationalizes the new socio-political order by stating the economic and moral productivity of its hierarchies. On the other, it contributes to the construction of this new order by verbalizing and theorizing many of its implicit features. Therefore, the economic and political inequalities characterizing this new reality, starting with the different degrees of the citizenship or the wage differentials, become part of a coherent and hegemonic world view.