SEPULVEDA (Juan Ginés de). - Lot 138

SEPULVEDA (Juan Ginés de). Opera. Paris, Simon de Colines, 1541. In-8, soft speckled vellum, fragments of early manuscripts on vellum used in lining, speckled edges (Modern binding). First collective edition of the theological and philosophical works of Juan Ginés de Sepulveda (d. 1573), a Spanish canon who was historiographer to Charles V and a great critic of Erasmus (Renouard, Colines, pp. 346-347; Sabin, no. 79178). The edition contains 6 treatises, including an essay on free will and an apologetic essay in favor of his protector, Alberto Pio, against the attacks of the Rotterdam humanist. Above all, it contains the Dialogus de honestate rei militaris, an important treatise known as the Democrates primus, originally published in Rome in 1535, in which the author develops his theory of war, warns of the dangers of pacifism and legitimizes the use of force in the service of the Christian religion. The Democrates primus was completed in 1544 by the Democrates secundus: this virulent text, arguing in favor of the Spanish conquest of South America, led the author to confront Las Casas at the famous Valladolid controversy.