The extraordinarily diverse oeuvre of Juan Luis Vives, marked by great erudition and originality, still remains very little known in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays considers his life and the influence of his writings, and examines some of his chief works. These include his books on the education of women and on the relief of the poor, his numerous political writings, and his huge encyclopedic treatise, De disciplinis, a comprehensive critical and systematic review of universal learning and the state of the academic disciplines at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Subsequent chapters discuss Vives's ideas on the soul, especially his analysis of the emotions, his contribution to rhetoric and dialectic and a posthumous defense of the Christian religion in dialogue form.

Contributors are Enrique Gonzalez Gonzalez, Catherine Curtis, Peter Mack, Valerio Del Nero, Edward V. George.