Diego Valadés and the Origins of Humanistic Rhetoric in the Americas

In 1579 the Tuscan printer Jacopo Pretruccio issued the Rhetorica Christiana, written by a Franciscan friar, Diego Valades.1 The publication of this work was a remarkable event in the already long history of rhetoric. Valades was born in the New World, and his Rhetorica Christiana was almost certainly the first book written by a native of Mexico to be published in Europe. More important for its place in the rhetorical tradition, the Rhetorica Christiana is the first rhetoric that is not exclusively European in conception and execution. Not only was Valades bom in Mexico, but the work graphically reflects his Mexican origins and experiences.