Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 80, a different kind of emperor.

A medieval ruler that has a Muslim fighting force at his back-end call, and who negotiates Jerusalem

out of the hands of the Sultan of Egypt, is not what you expected when you began listening to the History of the Germans podcast. But I'm a out of the hands of the Sultan of Egypt is not what you expected when you

began listening to the history of the Germans podcast.

But I'm afraid you ain't seen nothing yet.

This week we come to what was long believed to be his masterpiece, the constitutions of Melfi.

Even if it isn't a creation of a modern state in the 13th century, as Kantorovits had believed,

there is still something fundamentally different here. The Middle Ages is a world where progress

comes from people moving forward whilst looking back. They ask questions about the world and

seek the answers in the past, in the Bible, the church fathers, Aristotle, Averroys, etc.

Only where the ancients are silent will great minds like Alberto Magnus look at the real world, undertake experiments

and collect observations to derive their answers. Frederick is different. He does turn

around and look at the natural world first and a dusty book second.

Let's see what that means when it comes to organizing his kingdom.

Before we start, just a reminder, the History of the Germans podcast is advertising free thanks to the generous support from patrons,

and you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive

bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month.

All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com slash history of the Germans or on my website

historyof the Germans.com.

You find all the links in the show notes.

And thanks a lot to Ernst and the two Roberts who've already signed

up. Before we go to the part where we stare at Frederick with open mouths, we have to close

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