Juan de Valdés’s Authorship of Dialogue on Christian Doctrine (1529)

Abstract

This article responds to a proposal made by Francisco Calero and Marco Antonio Coronel, which offers the defence that the Dialogue of Christian Doctrine was not written by Juan de Valdés but by Juan Luis Vives. The article relates the historical evidence, presents arguments from its contents, and then evaluates the proposal of Calero and Coronel. The historical evidence around the Dialogue is both distinguished and numerous, directly involving related witnesses and the declarations of eminent figures of sixteenth-century Christianity. Its contents, particularly since the discovery of Charles Gilly concerning the textual dependence of the Dialogue on Luther, depict an author whom it is impossible to identify with Juan Luis Vives. The arguments presented by Calero and Coronel are built upon inferences, not answering or questioning the historical evidence that points to Valdés’s, authorship. The authorship of Valdés, therefore, is confirmed with the analysis and arguments presented in this article.