Reading Erasmus in Early Modern Spain

Abstract The aim of this paper is to recount the events surrounding the Conference of Valladolid and their impact on Spanish Erasmianism, as reflected in the writings of one of the period’s lesser-known actors, Juan Maldonado. The paper begins by recovering several of Maldonado’s lost letters (rediscovered as part of this research in a composite manuscript at the Spanish National Library) and contextualizing them in the period in order to expand and enhance our existing knowledge of the relationship between Maldonado, Erasmus, and the core group of Erasmians at the court of Charles V . The study continues with a meticulous examination of the transformation in Maldonado’s stance toward Erasmus in the 1530s and, in particular, his most decisively anti-Erasmian work, Praxis sive de lectione Erasmi . The paper is accompanied by one appendix: a letter sent by Maldonado to his patron, Diego Osorio, detailing the confrontation between the Benedictine monk Alonso Ruiz de Virués and the Dominican Diego de Vitoria just prior to the Conference of Valladolid. The accompanying article includes an annotated edition of Praxis , translated into English for the first time.