Autore
Rinaldi Ferri, Benedetta

Titolo
Vescovi, poveri e testamenti. Il «pater pauperum» secondo Baldo degli Ubaldi
Periodico
Quaderni storici
Anno: 2024 - Volume: 176 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 361 - Pagina finale: 386

The "pater pauperum" – the «father of the poor» – is a recurring figure in Patristic and ecclesiastical tradition. This role conveys economic stewardship, as the bishop administers Church goods on behalf of the paupers. In fourteenth-century legal thought, however, it takes on a more technical meaning: it denotes a testamentary function in which the bishop acts as the executor of the pious bequests. Early-modern jurists credit Baldus de Ubaldis with formalizing this figure and putting it to legal use. In his writing, the "pater pauperum" emerges at the intersection of two concepts: the "pater", who exercises stewardship over the goods of the poor, and the poor themselves, conceived as a collective, corporate legal subject. As such, it not only holds, manages and situates the goods on behalf of the poor but also represents the corporate body they form, serving as a central agent in the community’s charitable economy. The concept draws on the canon law tradition concerning the dispensation of the "male ablata", which Baldus appears to parallel in order to define and delimit episcopal competence on pious bequests. The "pater pauperum" figures as a deeply economic instrument of governance – dispensatory in nature and later adopted by secular jurisdictions within early-modern charitable systems –.



SICI: 0301-6307(2024)176:2<361:VPETI«>2.0.ZU;2-X
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1408/116980
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1408/116980

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