SANTIAGO ORREGO THE 16TH CENTURY SCHOOL OF SALAMANCA AS A CONTEXT OF SYNTHESIS BETWEEN THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE IN THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL MATTERS INTRODUCTION In this article, I attempt to be as concrete as possible in showing how certain typical elements of Renaissance humanism and its criticism of Scholasticism were integrated into Scholastic philosophical and theological works, as well as the teaching of the most important representatives of the School of Salamanca, such as Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Luis de León. I shall present new texts that reinforce and illustrate certain theses already well established by scholars such as V. Beltrán de Heredia, J. Barrientos and J. Belda Plans. Their works have been very useful in writing this essay, and I shall also propose some nuanced changes that I believe they would likely accept. THE CONCEPT OF THE «SCHOOL OF SALAMANCA» The term «School of Salamanca» indicates the intellectual movement of renovation of Scholastic philosophy and theology, among other disciplines, such as Law and Economics, which took place in the University of Salamanca during the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th 1 . Scholars agree in identifying the Dominican friar Francisco de Vitoria as its founder, because of the new teaching methods and styles he introduced in theology and other related 1 Cfr. J. BELDA PLANS, La Escuela de Salamanca y la renovación de la teología en el s. XVI, BAC, Madrid 2000, 147-205 (chapter 2: «La Escuela de Salamanca. Hacia una noción crítica (origen, evolución, características)»); M. A. P. GONZÁLEZ, «El concepto “Escuela de Salamanca”, siglos XVI-XX», in L. E. RORIGUEZ-SAN PEDRO, (coord.), Historia de la Universidad de Salamanc, vol. III.1, 251-277.