Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Juan Luis Vives's Instruction of a, Christen Woman (hereafter ICW), the text Ruth Kelso has described as the most influential conduct book for women of the sixteenth century, was printed and reprinted in English over nine times during the course of the century: in 1529, 1531, 1541, 1547, 1557, and 1567 from the shop of the Erasmian printer Thomas Berthelet, in 1585 by Robert Waldegrave, and in 1592, by John Danter. In addition to the widely recognized significance of the often contradictory views of women expressed in ICW, these English editions are significant as an example of an early modern reconstituting of the historical record. Allusions to Catherine of Aragon within these editions reflect swings in Tudor court politics and trace the privatization of this once seemingly powerful woman as she was removed from court and public life.
This essay stems from a collaborative effort by several members of the Folger Colloquium on Women and the Renaissance to produce a critical edition of Richard Hyrde's translation into English in 1529 of Juan Luis Vives's Instruction of a Christen Woman. Inevitably, the essay reflects some of the collective thinking of the participants; I have tried to indicate specific indebtednesses in the footnotes. I wish particularly to express deep appreciation to Richard Landon, Curator of the Thomas Fisher Library at the University of Toronto, and my rare-books instructor at Columbia's School of Library Service, for allowing me to adapt my work for the Vives project to the requirements for my classes, thereby enabling me to continue active participation in the project; this essay draws deeply on my work while I was his student. In shorter form, an earlier version was presented at a workshop at “Attending to Women in Early Modern England.”