The concept of history and historiography in Vives’ work

the example of the Commentarii on Augustine City of God as philological analysis and reconstruction

Abstract

Our article aims to analyse the historical and historiographic perception of Vives, in a time when the humanist thinking gave history a relevant place. To that purpose, several passages of the following treaties have been cited: Veritas Fucata, De disciplinis or De ratione dicendi. These writings contain the humanist’s theoretical framework about the study of the past. Lastly, a practical approach of this theory can be found in the Commentarii in XXII libros De civitate Dei. Certainly, Vives contemplates a revision of Saint Augustine in his commentary. In this regard, the historical and historiographic references proved useful to him.