The Francisco de Vitoria's manual of sacraments Circumstances of printing, pre -and post-tirdentine editions, epitomisation and echo in new Spain

Abstract

After offering a brief historiographical and methodological assessment of previous studies on Francisco de Vitoria's sacramental theology, this article presents the epitome
of his lessons In IV Sententiarum (1529-31) written by his disciple Tomás de Chaves and
published under the title Summa sacramentorum ecclesiae in 1560. Reconstructing the editorial history of a text in which Chaves introduced some obligatory modifications after the conclusion of the Council of Trent in 1563, the article demonstrates the status of an epochal best-seller that this work enjoyed despite its current oblivion. The article also presents some of the epitomisation techniques used by Chaves in the writing of the work, contrasting the printed volume with the only surviving manuscript of Vitoria's lectures on sacramental theology, preserved in the Biblioteca da Ajuda (Lisbon). Finally, some possible lines of research are presented in order to determine the echo that Vitoria's sacramental theology had in the viceroyalty of New Spain in the 16th century.