Marsiglio of Padua’s Two Bodies: The Heart and the Head in the Defensor pacis

Marsiglio of Padua’s extensive application of a cardiocentric organic analogy for the organization of the political community in Dictio I of his Defensor pacis, derived from Aristotelian biology, has received wide attention from scholars. Seldom noticed is that he also invoked a craniocentric version of the body politic metaphor in the second discourse of the Defensor pacis in the context of his discussion of the papal claim to a plenitude of power, one apparently indebted not to Aristotelianism but Platonism. The present paper explores the role played by Marsiglio’s alternate appeal to organic imagery in the second discourse as well as evaluating its relationship to the overtly Aristotelian figuration found in Dictio I.