The Choice of the Program
By virtue of their size, format, and architectural enframement the illustrations for Book VII (Figs. 74 and 75) rank with the frontispieces (Figs. 46–49) as the most important in the cycle. The program itself again shows Oresme's efforts to present visually arresting and contemporary paradigms of central Aristotelian concepts. In Book VII of the Politics Aristotle returns to the definition of the ideal state and its citizens, discussed previously in Book III. According to Ernest Barker, a correct ordering of the Politics would place Book VII immediately after Book III.[1] Such an arrangement would continue the discussion of citizenship within the context of the classification of the six forms of government. As noted above, in Books IV, V, and VI Aristotle is concerned with the morphology, pathology, and organization of actual states. Books VII and VIII then return to "the theme of political ideals" and outline "an ideal state."[2] Again the problem of the overlapping and discontinuous subject matter of the Politics presents problems to the person responsible for choosing from each book a suitable and visually representable theme.[3] Among the topics discussed by Aristotle in Book VII, the important questions of the size, population, and planning of the ideal state may have appeared too difficult to depict visually. The representation of another theme, the system of educating future citizens of the polis, is reserved for Book VIII. The remaining subjects of Book VII, pictured in Figures 74 and 75, are the definition and discussion in Chapters 15 to 20 of the groups who are and who are not citizens of the ideal state.
Oresme had an even more difficult task than usual in translating into contemporary terms Aristotle's concept of citizenship founded on the experience of the polis, the Greek city-state. In his redefinition of the term as cité , Oresme had to adapt it to the very different form of the emerging nation-state and its institutions. He also had to consider the church as another form of cité both in itself and in relationship to secular forms of government. Not surprisingly, Book VII contains some of Oresme's longest commentaries on crucial issues.[4] Although Figures 74 and 75 can communicate only a small part of Oresme's views, the format and verbal underpinnings of the illustrations signal to the reader the importance of the contents of Book VII.
Figure 74
Above, from left : Genz d'armes, Genz de conseil, Gent sacerdotal; below, from left: Cultiveurs
de terres, Genz de mestier, Marcheans. Les politiques d'Aristote, MS B.
Figure 75
Top, from left : Genz d'armes, Genz de conseil; center, from left : Gent sacerdotal, Cultiveurs
de terres; bottom, from left : Genz de mestier, Marcheans. Les politiques d'Aristote, MS D.