Life and times

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda's long life extended over the first three reigns which followed Spain's dynastic unification. He was born ca. 1490 of respectable but humble parents in the small town of Pozoblanco, near Cárdoba. Very little is known of his early life and it is to be conjectured that he received his elementary education in the nearby city of Cárdoba. We know, however, that in 1510 he was admitted to the recently founded University of Alcalá where for three years he studied philosophy under Sancho de Miranda. At the end of this first academic apprenticeship, Sepúlveda left Alcalá to study theology at the Colegio de San Antonio de Sigüenza where he remained until 1515. On the 14th of February of the same year, the young scholar received from the hands of Cisneros a letter of introduction to the authorities of the Spanish College (Colegio de San Clemente, founded in 1364 by the great Cardinal Gil de Albornoz) at Bologna where he was to spend the next eight years in the ordinary course of theological studies required for the doctorate. We know from Sepúlveda's own testimony that by early 1523 he was doctor of theology and arts.

It is precisely during these years at Bologna that Sepúlveda became not only a competent theologian and an accomplished humanist, but a protégé of some of the great patrons of humanism in Italy as well. Cardinal Giuliano de Medici (the future Clement VII), Alberto Pio (Prince of Carpi), Ercole Gonzaga, the general of the Dominicans Cardinal Cajetan, Aldus Manutius (whom he met at the house of the Prince of Carpi), Pope Adrian VI are among his friends and protectors.