Natural magic in the work of Francisco de Vitoria (ca. 1486-1546)

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to study the development of science in the Iberian Peninsula, thus allowing an opening for the analysis of erudite thought and the development of scientific knowledge in this spatial framework during the course of European modernity. In this sense, it was through the thought of Francisco de Vitoria (ca. 1486-1546) and his scholastic method that we intend to exponse some characteristics of Iberian science, the concepts, materials and authorities that the Dominican theologian used to understand and explain the conceptions of natural magic that were available in your time. In Relectio de arte magica (1539-1540), speech given by Vitoria before the University of Salamanca in 1540, the Spanish Dominican, through scholastic writing, conceptualizes magic, recognizes the partly instrumental character it carries and analyzes the potential of the magical arts. Thus, we seek to understand the aspects of Iberian science produced at the beginning of the Modern Period.