The Early Modern Law and Morality of the Financial Market. An In-depth Analysis of Robertus Bellarminus’ and Leonardus Lessius’ teachings and writings ‘On Justice and Law’

The rise of capitalism in the early modern period urged scholars to come up with a new normative framework to accommodate new commercial and financial transactions. This PhD project concentrates on the transformation of the Catholic morality and law of the marketplace prompted by these events in the Low Countries. Student notebooks featuring the teachings on law and economics by the Jesuit theologians Robert Bellarmine and Leonardus Lessius will be at the center of this study. This PhD project will provide an in-depth, comparative study of the teachings of Bellarmine and Lessius on the legal framework for economic transactions. Special attention will be paid to the way in which Bellarmine and Lessius facilitated the transmission of the teachings of the School of Salamanca in the Low Countries while adapting them to local realities. At least part of the research will be based on the meticulous, philological analysis of hitherto unexamined and unpublished manuscript sources.