Bonum commune and its Uses in Political Discourse at the Beginning of the Fourteenth Century

This paper focuses on the Late medieval period, when bonum commune gained a key-role in political discourse, although its apparent self- evidence could conceal divergent ways of interpreting it. In his well-known monograph The Common Good in Late Medieval Political Thought Matthew Kempshall was able to show how the relationship between common and individual good was interpreted in diverging way by authors of the late XIII century. The present contribution will focus on three authors that were active in the following decades: Marsilius of Padua, Augustinus of Ancona and William of Ockham and to describe similarities and differences in their use of the expression “bonum commune”. A deeper awareness of the history of the expression 'common good' can to a certain extent contribute also to contemporary debate.