Lorenzo Valla
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Lorenzo Valla (; also Latinized as Laurentius; 14071 August 1457) was an
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
Renaissance humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...
,
rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
ian,
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,
scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
, and
Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
. He is best known for his historical-critical textual analysis that proved that the ''
Donation of Constantine The ''Donation of Constantine'' ( ) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in ...
'' was a forgery, therefore attacking and undermining the presumption of temporal power claimed by the
papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
. Lorenzo is sometimes seen as a
precursor Precursor or Precursors may refer to: * Precursor (religion), a forerunner, predecessor ** The Precursor, John the Baptist Science and technology * Precursor (bird), a hypothesized genus of fossil birds that was composed of fossilized parts of u ...
of the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
.


Life

Valla was born in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, with a family background of
Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
; his father, Luciave della Valla, was a
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
who worked in the Papal Curia. He was educated in Rome, attending the classes of teachers including
Leonardo Bruni Leonardo Bruni (or Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. H ...
and
Giovanni Aurispa Giovanni Aurispa Piciunerio (or Piciuneri) (June/July 1376–c. 25 May 1459) was an Italian historian and savant of the 15th century. He is remembered in particular as a promoter of the revival of the study of Greek in Italy. It is to Aurispa that ...
, from whom he learned Latin and Greek. He is thought otherwise to have been largely self-taught. Bruni was a papal secretary; Melchior Scrivani, Valla's uncle, was another. But Valla had caused offence, to Antonio Loschi, by championing the rhetorician
Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...
in an early work. In 1431, Valla entered the priesthood and tried in vain to secure a position as apostolic secretary. He was unsuccessful, despite his network of contacts. Valla went to Piacenza, and then to
Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
, where he obtained a professorship of eloquence. His tenure at Pavia was made uncomfortable by his attack on the Latin style of the jurist
Bartolus de Saxoferrato Bartolus de Saxoferrato (Italian: ''Bartolo da Sassoferrato''; 131313 July 1357) was an Italian law professor and one of the most prominent continental jurists of Medieval Roman Law. He belonged to the school known as the commentators or postglos ...
. He became itinerant, moving from one university to another, accepting short engagements and lecturing in many cities. Invited to Rome by
Pope Nicholas V Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV, Po ...
, Pope from 1447 to 1455, and the founder of the
Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
, Valla worked there on his ''Repastinatio''. Valla died in Rome.


Reputation

Older biographies of Valla give details of many literary and theological disputes, the most prominent one with
Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...
, which took place after his settlement in Rome. Extreme language was employed. He appears as quarrelsome, combining humanistic elegance with critical wit and venom, and an opponent of the temporal power of the Catholic Church.
Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (give ...
had a high opinion of Valla and of his writings, and
Robert Bellarmine Robert Bellarmine, SJ ( it, Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 37. ...
called him "Luther's precursor".
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
stated in his ''De ratione studii'' that for Latin grammar, there was "no better guide than Lorenzo Valla."


Works


On the Donation of Constantine

Between 1439 and 1440 Valla wrote the essay, ''De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio'', which analyzed the document usually known as the ''
Donation of Constantine The ''Donation of Constantine'' ( ) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in ...
''. The ''Donation'' suggests that
Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
gave the whole of the
Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
to the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. This was supposedly an act of gratitude for having been miraculously cured of
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...
by
Pope Sylvester I Pope Sylvester I (also Silvester, 285 – 31 December 335) was the bishop of Rome from 31 January 314 until his death. He filled the see of Rome at an important era in the history of the Western Church, yet very little is known of him. The acco ...
. From 1435 to 1445, Valla was employed in the court of Alfonso V of Aragon, who became involved in a territorial conflict with the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
, then under
Pope Eugene IV Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...
. This relationship possibly motivated his work; in any case, he was put on trial before the Catholic Inquisition in 1444, but was protected from imprisonment by the intervention of Alfonso V. Valla demonstrated that the internal evidence in the ''Donation'' told against a 4th-century origin: its vernacular style could be dated to the 8th century. Valla argued this thesis in three ways: # By stating that the Emperor Constantine could not have legally given Pope Sylvester the powers that the ''Donation'' claimed. # From the absence of contemporary evidence, Valla reasoned that it was implausible that a major change in the administration of the Western Roman Empire had taken place. # Valla doubted that Emperor Constantine had gifted Pope Sylvester anything at all, suggesting a mistake involving an earlier Pope. Supplementing these points, Valla argued from
anachronism An anachronism (from the Ancient Greek, Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronology, chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time per ...
: the document contained the word '' satrap'', which he believed Romans such as Constantine I would not have used. In addition, Valla believes that the quality of Latin for such a supposedly important text was undeniably poor, evidencing this by the fact that the text constantly switched tenses from "we have proclaimed" to "we decree", for instance.


Textual criticism

A specialist in Latin translation, Valla made numerous suggestions for improving on
Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
's study of
Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...
. The emendation of Livy was also a topic discussed in book IV of his ''Antidotum in Facium'', an invective against
Bartolomeo Facio Bartolomeo Facio (c. before 1410 – 1457), Latinized as Bartholomaus Facius, was an Italian historian, writer and humanist.ometimes "Fazio'"> ''Dictionary of Art Historians'': "Facio, Bartolomeo [sometimes "Fazio' latinized as, Facius, Bartho ...
. In this part of the treatise, which also circulated independently under the title ''Emendationes in T. Livium'', Valla elucidates numerous corrupt passages and criticises the attempts at emendation made by Panormita and Facio, his rivals at the court of Alfonso V. In his critical study of the official Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church, Jerome's Latin Vulgate, Valla called into question the church's system of penance and
indulgences In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...
. He argued that the practice of penance rested on Jerome's use of the Latin word '' paenitenia'' (penance) for the Greek ''metanoia'', which he believed would have been more accurately translated as "repentance." Valla's work was praised by later critics of the Church's penance and indulgence system, including
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
.


Manuscript works

Valla made a contemporary reputation with two works: his dialogue ''De Voluptate'' and his treatise ''De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae''.
Richard Claverhouse Jebb Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb (27 August 1841 – 9 December 1905) was a British classical scholar. Life Jebb was born in Dundee, Scotland. His father Robert was a well-known Irish barrister; his mother was Emily Harriet Horsley, daughter of t ...
said that his ''De Elegantiis'' "marked the highest level that had yet been reached in the critical study of Latin."


Printed editions

Collected editions of Valla's works, not quite complete, were published at Basel in 1540 and at Venice in 1592, and ''Elegantiae linguae Latinae'' was reprinted nearly sixty times between 1471 and 1536. * ''Opera omnia'', Basel 1540; reprinted with a second volume (Turin: Bottega d'Erasmo, 1962). * ''Repastinatio dialectice et philosophie'', ed. G. Zippel, 2 vols. (First critical edition of the three versions: Padua: Antenore, 1982). * ''Elegantiae linguae Latinae'', Venice 1471, edited by S. López Moreda (Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura, 1999). * ''De vero falsoque bono'', edited by M. de Panizza Lorch, Bari, 1970. * ''Collatio Novi Testamenti'', edited by A. Perosa (Florence: Sansoni, 1970). * ''De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione'', ed. W. Setz (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1976; reprinted Leipzig: Teubner, 1994). * ''Ars Grammatica'', ed. P. Casciano with Italian translation (Milan: Mondadori, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1990). * ''On the Donation of Constantine.'' The I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007). * ''Dialectical Disputations.'' The I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, London, 2012). * ''Correspondence'', ed. Cook, Brendan. The I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013).


English translations

* ''On the donation of Constantine'' translated by G. W. Bowersock, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008. * ''Dialogue on Free Will'', translated by C. Trinkaus. In: 'The Renaissance Philosophy of Man', edited by Ernst Cassirer et al., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948. * ''The profession of the religious and selections from The falsely-believed and forged donation of Constantine'' translated, and with an introduction and notes, by Olga Zorzi Pugliese, Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 1998. * ''De vero falsoque bono'' translated by A. K. Hieatt and M. Lorch, New York: Abaris Books 1977. * ''In Praise of Saint Thomas Aquinas'', translated by M. E. Hanley. In ''Renaissance Philosophy'', ed. L. A. Kennedy, Mouton: The Hague, 1973. * ''Dialectical Disputations,'' Latin text and English translation of the ''Repastinatio'' by B. P. Copenhaver and L. Nauta, Harvard University Press, 2012 (I Tatti Renaissance Library, two volumes).


Notes


Further reading

For detailed accounts of Valla's life and work see: * G. Voigt, ''Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums'' (1880–81); * John Addington Symonds, ''Renaissance in Italy'' (1897–99); * G. Mancini, ''Vita di Lorenzo Valla'' (Florence, 1891); * M. von Wolff, ''Lorenzo Valla'' (Leipzig, 1893); *
Jakob Burckhardt Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfri ...
, ''Kultur der Renaissance'' (1860); * J. Vahlen, ''Laurentius Valla'' (Berlin, 1870); L Pastor, ''Geschichte der Päpste,'' Band ii. English trans. by FI Antrobus (1892); * The article in
Herzog ''Herzog'' (female ''Herzogin'') is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to by the ducal title. ...
-Hauck's ''Realencyklopädie, Band xx.'' (Leipzig, 1908). *
John Edwin Sandys Sir John Edwin Sandys ( "Sands"; 19 May 1844 – 6 July 1922) was an English classical scholar. Life Born in Leicester, England on 19 May 1844, Sandys was the 4th son of Rev. Timothy Sandys (1803–1871) and Rebecca Swain (1800–1853). Livin ...
, ''Hist. of Class. Schol.'' ii. (1908), pp. 66‑70. * Lisa Jardine, "Lorenzo Valla and the Intellectual Origins of Humanist Dialectic," ''Journal of the History of Philosophy'' 15 (1977): 143–64. * Maristella de Panizza Lorch, ''A defense of life: Lorenzo Valla's theory of pleasure.'', Humanistische Bibliothek 1/36, Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1985, * Peter Mack, ''Renaissance Argument: Valla and Agricola in the Traditions of Rhetoric and Dialectic'', Leiden ; New York : E.J. Brill, 1993. * Paul Richard Blum, "Lorenzo Valla - Humanism as Philosophy", ''Philosophers of the Renaissance'', Washington 2010, 33–42. * Matthew DeCoursey, "Continental European Rhetoricians, 1400-1600, and Their Influence in Renaissance England," ''British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500-1660, First Series'', DLB 236, Detroit: Gale, 2001, pp. 309–343. * Melissa Meriam Bullard, "The Renaissance Project of Knowing: Lorenzo Valla and Salvatore Camporeale's Contributions to the Querelle Between Rhetoric and Philosophy," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 66.4 (2005): 477–81. * Brian P. Copenhaver, "Valla Our Contemporary: Philosophy and Philology," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 66.4 (2005): 507–25. * Christopher S. Celenza, "Lorenzo Valla and the Traditions and Transmissions of Philosophy,” ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 66 (2005): 483–506. * Lodi Nauta, ''In Defense of Common Sense: Lorenzo Valla's Humanist Critique of Scholastic Philosophy'', Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2009. * Marsico, Clementina. "Radical reform, inevitable debts: Lorenzo Valla, Alexander de Villa-Dei, and recent grammarians." ''Historiographia Linguistica'' 44, no. 2-3 (2017): 391-411. * Marsico, Clementina. "Su quia nelle Elegantie di Lorenzo Valla e nel latino umanistico." Su quia nelle Elegantie di Lorenzo Valla e nel latino umanistico (2020): 27-42. * Magnani, Nicolò. 2020. "Aristotelismo e metricologia nel De poetica di Giorgio Valla." . Studi e problemi di critica testuale : 100, 1, 173-197. * Blanchard, W. Scott. "The negative dialectic of Lorenzo Valla: a study in the pathology of opposition." ''Renaissance Studies'' 14, no. 2 (2000): 149-189. *


External links


Lorenzo Valla, Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine
* Lorenzo Valla
''Elegantiarum Laurentii Vallae''
Naples (c. 1473). A
Somni


;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Valla, Lorenzo 1400s births 1457 deaths 15th-century Italian writers 15th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 15th-century Latin writers Christian humanists Critics of the Catholic Church Italian Renaissance humanists Italian Renaissance writers Italian rhetoricians Italian Roman Catholic writers Proto-Protestants Writers from Rome Year of birth uncertain