Juan Luis Vives, De subventione pauperum (1526), read in the Valencia translation of 1781

The Valencian humanist's scheme for public poor relief, written for the magistrates of Bruges in 1526 and read here in the Castilian version printed at Valencia in 1781. It puts every charitable endowment in the town under the inspection of the magistrates, pays for schoolmasters for poor children, and strips the hospital servants who have grown rich on the poor. It also compels the able-bodied to work and sends healthy outsiders home, with a travel allowance so they need not rob.