Two historiographical theses in the first half of the 20th century on the use of the concepts of nature and end in Dante Alighieri’s political thought

Abstract

In this paper I will critically examine the historiographical positions of Francesco Ercole (1884-1945) and Bruno Nardi (1884-1968), two Italian scholars, specialists in Dante´s work who lived in the first half of the twentieth century. These intellectuals particularly studied Dante´s political philosophy and they inquired about the articulation of “nature” and “end”, which are two essential concepts in the elaboration of the political theories in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. This article aims to show that in Dante´s political treatises Monarchia and Convivio, the ideas of “nature” and “end” are functional for defining the autonomy of a community with respect to other political powers.