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VALLA, LORENZO, or LAURENTIUS (c. 140...

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 861 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALLA, LORENZO, or See also:LAURENTIUS (c. 1406-1457)  , See also:Italian humanist, was See also:born at See also:Rome, of parents from the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of See also:Piacenza, about 1406, his See also:father, Luca delle Vallea, being an See also:advocate . He was educated at Rome, attending the classes of eminent professors, among them Leonardi See also:Bruni and Giovanni See also:Aurispa (c . 1369-1459), from whom he learned Latin and See also:Greek . In 1431 he became a See also:priest, and after trying vainly to secure a position as apostolic secretary in Rome he went to Piacenza, whence he proceeded to See also:Pavia, where he obtained a professorship of eloquence . See also:Valla wandered from one university to another, accepting See also:short engagements and lecturing in many cities . During this See also:period he made the acquaintance of See also:Alphonso V. of See also:Aragon, whose service he entered about 1435 . Alphonso made Valla his private secretary, defended him against the attacks of his numerous enemies, and at a later date encouraged him to open a school in See also:Naples . By this See also:time Valla had won a high reputation by his See also:dialogue De Voluptate, and by his See also:treatise De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae . In the former See also:work he contrasted the principles of the See also:Stoics with the tenets of See also:Epicurus, openly proclaiming his sympathy with those who claimed the right of See also:free See also:indulgence for See also:man's natural appetites . It was a remarkable utterance . Here for the first time the paganism of the See also:Renaissance found deliberate expression in a work of scholarly and philosophical value . De Elegantiis was no less See also:original, although in a different See also:sphere of thought .

This work subjected the forms of Latin See also:

grammar and the rules of Latin See also:style and See also:rhetoric to a See also:critical examination, and placed the practice of See also:composition upon a See also:foundation of See also:analysis and inductive reasoning . The same originality and critical acumen were displayed in his treatise on the Donation of See also:Constantine (De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio), written in 1439 during the pontificate of See also:Eugenius IV., in which the nature of the forged document known as the Constitutum Constantini was for the first time exposed (see DONATION OF CONSTANTINE) . From Naples Valla continued his See also:war against the See also:Church . He showed that the supposed See also:letter of See also:Christ to Abgarus was a See also:forgery, and by throwing doubt upon the authenticity of other See also:spurious documents, and by questioning the utility of monastic See also:life, he aroused the anger of the faithful . He was compelled to appear before an inquisitory tribunal composed of his enemies, and he only escaped by the See also:special intervention of Alphonso . He was not, however, silenced; he ridiculed the Latin of the See also:Vulgate and accused St See also:Augustine of See also:heresy . In 1444 he visited Rome, but in this See also:city also his enemies were numerous and powerful, and he only saved his life by flying in disguise to See also:Barcelona, whence he returned to Naples . But a better See also:fortune attended him after the See also:death of Eugenius IV. in See also:February 1447 . Again he journeyed to Rome, where he was welcomed by the new See also:pope, See also:Nicholas V., who made him an apostolic secretary, and this entrance of Valla into the See also:Roman See also:Curia has been justly called " the See also:triumph of See also:humanism over orthodoxy and tradition." Valla also enjoyed the favour of Pope See also:Calixtus III . He died in Rome on the 1st of See also:August 1457 . All the older See also:biographical notices of Valla are loaded with See also:long accounts of his many See also:literary and theological disputes, the most famous of which was the one with See also:Poggio (q.v.), which took See also:place after his See also:settlement in Rome . It is almost impossible to See also:form a just estimate of Valla's private life and See also:character owing to the clouds of dust which were stirred up by this and other controversies, in which the most virulent and obscene See also:language was employed .

He appears, however, as a vain, jealous and quarrelsome man, but he combined the qualities of an elegant humanist, an acute critic and a venomous writer, who had committed himself to a violent polemic against the temporal See also:

power of Rome . In him posterity honours not somuch the See also:scholar and the stylist as the man who initiated a bold method of See also:criticism, which he applied alike to language, to See also:historical documents and to ethical opinions . See also:Luther had a very high See also:opinion of Valla and of his writings, and See also:Cardinal See also:Bellarmine calls him praecursor Lutheri, while See also:Sir See also:Richard See also:Jebb says that his De Elegantiis " marked the highest level that had yet been reached in the critical study of Latin." Collected, but not quite See also:complete, See also:editions of Valla's See also:works were published at See also:Basel in 1540 and at See also:Venice in 1592 fol., and De Elegantiis was reprinted nearly sixty times between 1471 and 1536 . For detailed accounts of Valla's life and work see G . Voigt, See also:Die Wiederbelebung See also:des classischen Alterthums (1880-81); J . A . See also:Symonds, Renaissance in See also:Italy (1897-99) ; G . See also:Mancini, Vita di Lorenzo Valla (See also:Florence, 1891); M. von See also:Wolff, Lorenzo Valla (See also:Leipzig, 1893) ; J . See also:Burckhardt, Kultur der Renaissance (186o) ; J . Vahlen, See also:Laurentius Valla (See also:Berlin, 187o) ; L . Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, See also:Band ii . See also:English trans. by F .

I . Antrobus (1892) ; the See also:

article in See also:Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie, Band xx . (Leipzig, 1908) ; and J . E . See also:Sandys, Hist. of Class . Schol. ii . (1908), pp . 66-7o .

End of Article: VALLA, LORENZO, or LAURENTIUS (c. 1406-1457)
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