CARLOS PAULA DE MORAES

In the work De regno ad regem Cypri, by Thomas Aquinas, we are presented with the definition of human nature as “sociale et politicum” in book I. In fact, in the aforementioned writing, Thomas, in the Prologue, will indicate the intention of dealing with “ regni originem” and “et ea que ad regis officium pertinent”, discussions treated and argued in a “librum De regno”. When carrying out this task, at least as far as he was able to do it, he could not help but reflect on the origin and end of society, as well as on the sociable and political nature of man, in a foundation of politics as natural to the human race. , within a discussion about the origin of royal power. But what is the reason for us to have such divergent interpretations of this little booklet, such as those of Marie-Dominique Chenu who went so far as to present this work as one of the many “mirrors of medieval princes”, not being possible to find anything special in this work, after all because being unfinished would not provide a basis for analysis. As for Paul E. Sigmund; Pierpauli and Schneider, this work is much more than a “simple mirror of princes”; they even identify great importance in this booklet, as a true treatise on “political science”, as it would discuss the issue of the foundation of “power”; something that would not be part of the varied “Specula Principum” genre, nor even of the works of this genre that would have been influenced by Aristotelian thought in the 13th century. After reading book I of De regno, an indisputable part of Thomas, based on the definition of human nature as social and political, we seek to highlight the implications of this definition and its relationship with the government of one, based on the common good, having as the model the king of kings, hence the great dignity of royal power, which deserves a blessed life, which, however, does not exempt the community from taking care in choosing its rulers in order to avoid the risk of tyranny. Without taking sides on the controversial issues surrounding the text in question, our objective was to read and interpret the work based on the definition of human nature and its implications for the government of a single person, as well as the care taken to avoid tyranny, noting that this small booklet constitutes the first testimony of the reception of Aristotelian politics by Tomasian thought.