Vitoria: Political Writings

Francisco Vitoria was the earliest and arguably the most important of the Thomist philosophers of the counter-Reformation. His works are of great importance for an understanding of both the rise of modern absolutism, and the debate about the emergent imperialism of the European powers, and are unusually accessible since they survive in the form of summaries of his lecture courses on law and theology.
Translated here into English for the first time, these texts comprise the core of Vitoria's thought, and are accompanied by a comprehensive introduction, chronology, and bibliography.

• Vitoria was a Spanish monk and scholar, the most important early theorist of the Counter-Reformation, arguing in favour of absolute monarchy but his writings were also anti-imperialistic, defending the rights of new world Indian
• These writings are unusually accessible, left in the form of short summaries of lectures delivered by Vitoria to students at the University of Salamanca
• This is the first time that these works have been translated into English. The volume also contains a glossary, chronology, bibliography and an introduction