Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva

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Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva, 1512-1577.

16th C. Spanish scholar of the Salamanca school.

A student of Navarrus at Salamanca, Covarrubias y Leiva became professor of canon law there at a relatively young age. Covarrubias y Leiva was a reformer of the university of Salamanca. He was appointed titular Archbishop of Santo Domingo (Hispaniola) in 1549, but never ended up actually sailing to the Americas. He resigned in 1560, taking up the local bishopric of Ciudad Rodrigo instead. He participated in the Council of Trent in 1562, and was afterwards made Bishop of Segovia (1564), a post he held until his death.. He served in the Council of State under Philip II of Spain, eventually rising to chancellor of Castile.

Covarrubias y Leiva provided a somewhat explicit statement of a subjective theory of value: "The value of an article does not depend on its essential nature but on the estimation of men, even if that estimation is foolish." (1554). He also authored a work on coinage (1562).

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Major Works of Diego de Covarrubia y Leiva

Variarum ex iure pontifico, regio & caesareo resolutionum, libri III, 1552 [bk] [1566 ed]
Variarum resolutionum ex jure pontificio regio et cæsareo libri IV, 1561 [4th book as appendix, bk] [1723 Op ed]
Practicarum quaestionum, liber unus, 1568 [bk], [1775 ed., v.1, v.2]
Veterum collatio numismatum, cum his, quae modo expenduntur, publica & Regia authoritate percusa, 1562 [bk] [1775 ed]
Opera omnia, 1568 [1583 ed] [1679 ed][1772: v.2]

HET

The Salamanca School

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Resources on Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva

"Vita Didaci Covarrubbias a Leyva" by Andrea Schotto (in 1679 Op. Om, p.1)
Entry in Catholic Encyclopedia
Entry in Catholic hierarchy
Wikipedia

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