This volume investigates the methods of political theory in the later Middle Ages. It presents both, case studies of prominent authors like Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham or Baldus de Ubaldis, and the attempt to outline the phenomenon of political consultation and its conditions from late antiquity to the Reformation. Questions of specific textual traditions in political commentaries are treated as well as the particular environment in which the authors struggled for influence. The authors of this volume, international specialists in their field and younger historians, came together in Heidelberg on the occasion of Jürgen Miethke´s 65th birthday. The volume also contains Jürgen Miethke´s farewell address to his colleagues, in which he presents some fundamental reflections on the topic of political theory, to which he devoted the bulk of his academic career.

Contributors include: Francisco Bertelloni, William J. Courtenay , Christoph Flüeler, Martin Kaufhold, Roberto Lambertini , Susanne Lepsius, Robert L. Lerner, Matthias Nuding, Alexander Patschovsky, Kenneth Pennington, Gregorio Piaia, Verena Postel, Gerald Schwedler, Kurt-Victor Selge, Karl Ubl, Helmuth G. Walther, Georg Wieland, and Eva Luise Wittneben.

Publications by Jürgen Miethke:

• Edited by William J. Courtenay and Jürgen Miethke. With the Assistance of David B. Priest, Universities and Schooling in Medieval Society, ISBN: 978 90 04 11351 0
• Studieren an mittelalterlichen Universitäten: Chancen und Risiken. Gesammelte Aufsätze, ISBN: 978 90 04 13833 9
• Herausgegeben von Fritz Peter Knapp, Jürgen Miethke und Manuela Niesner, Schriften im Umkreis mitteleuropäischer Universitäten um 1400, ISBN: 978 90 04 14053 0