THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF JEAN BODIN'S IDEA OF SOVEREIGNTY, FROM THE METHODUS TO THE REPUBLIQUE

This article investigates Jean Bodin's attitude towards the Republic of Venice as it emerges in the Methodus and in the Republique. In these two works, we see an ever-increasing interest in the Serenissima, where a more detailed analysis of the Venetian Republic is accompanied by an evolution of Bodin's concept of sovereignty. As I will demonstrate, this is not incidental, since an attentive analysis of the Venetian political institutions led Bodin to develop a more elaborate idea of sovereignty. Bodin achieved this by focusing on the prerogative of the sovereign power and, in doing so, reflected on his main sources, Gasparo Contarini and Donato Giannotti.