THE lectures printed in the present volume were delivered in
the University of Oxford during the Summer term, 1938.
Notwithstanding the obvious defects of lectures appearing in book
form, I have preferred to preserve their original character, both for
sentimental reasons and because it is no part of their purpose to
present a complete narrative of the development of medieval political
thought.

The argument of the first four lectures mainly corresponds to
that of my Italian book, La filosofia politica mediotvale, published
in 1934. The material for lectures V and VI was brought together
in England during the years 1926-9, when I was awarded a travel-
ling fellowship on the Rockefeller Foundation. Part of the argu-
ment I submitted as a doctoral dissertation on Hooker in 1932.
A further account both of the sources I have used and of several
questions which I have been unable fully to develop in the lectures
can be found in my book, Riccardo Hooker ( 1932).

My indebtedness to contemporary thinkers I have tried to record
in the text, but I should like to acknowledge particularly the in-
fluence of my Balliol years, and the encouragement which I received
from teachers and fellow students in England. I owe an immense
debt of gratitude to Dr. A. J. Carlyle, who assisted my work from
the beginning; to Mr. A. D. Lindsay for many stimulating discus-
sions; to Professor R. H. Tawney for his penetrating criticism; to
Mr. B. H. Sumner and to Mr. R. N. Carew Hunt for their appre-
ciation and friendship. I should like to express my grateful thanks
to the University authorities and to the Master and Fellows of
Balliol for arranging these lectures, and to Professor F. M. Powicke
for all that he has done on behalf of their publication. I am
greatly obliged to Miss Margaret Carlyle for revising my English,
and to Mr. R. W. Southern for his invaluable help in making
my argument more consistent with English usage and ways of
thought.

August 1938. A. P. D'E.

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