Juan Luis Vives 1493 – 1540
Juan Luis Vives was a Spanish Renaissance humanist, philosopher, and educational reformer of Jewish converso descent. After studies in Valencia and Paris and a long residence in Bruges, he became one of the central figures of the northern humanist circle around Erasmus and Thomas More, and for a time tutor and adviser at the English court. His De Anima et Vita pioneered an empirically attentive psychology of the emotions, his De Disciplinis projected a comprehensive reform of education, and his De Subventione Pauperum proposed an early municipal system of poor relief. He defended the education of women in his Education of a Christian Woman.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Spanish
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Renaissance
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to Juan Luis Vives:
“Without the help of letters, people are dwarfs.”
-
Attributed to Juan Luis Vives:
“Knowledge is the food of the soul.”
-
Attributed to Juan Luis Vives:
“Words have a double power: they convey thought and shape it.”
-
Attributed to Juan Luis Vives:
“He who has begun his task has half done it.”
-
Attributed to Juan Luis Vives:
“The relief of the poor is the duty of the whole city, not of charity alone.”