Lorenzo Valla facts for kids
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Lorenzo Valla (born around 1407 – died August 1, 1457) was an important Italian scholar during the Renaissance. He was a humanist, which means he studied and taught about ancient Greek and Roman culture, language, and literature. He was also a Catholic priest.
Valla is most famous for his careful study of old documents. He proved that a very important document called the Donation of Constantine was actually a fake. This document had been used by the papacy (the Pope and the Church leaders) to claim they had political power over lands and rulers. By showing it was a forgery, Valla challenged the Pope's claims to worldly power. Some people even see him as someone who helped prepare the way for the Reformation, a big change in the Christian church.
Contents
Life
Lorenzo Valla was born in Rome. His father was a lawyer who worked for the Pope's court. Lorenzo went to school in Rome and learned Latin and Greek from famous teachers. He also taught himself a lot.
Valla wanted to become a secretary for the Pope, but he didn't get the job. He had upset some powerful people by strongly supporting an ancient writer named Quintilian.
In 1431, Valla became a priest. He then moved to Pavia, where he became a professor of public speaking. However, he made his time there difficult by criticizing the Latin writing style of a well-known lawyer. Because of this, he traveled a lot, teaching in many different cities for short periods.
Later, Pope Nicholas V invited Valla back to Rome. This Pope, who was in charge from 1447 to 1455, also started the Vatican Library. Valla worked on some of his writings while in Rome.
Lorenzo Valla died in Rome. He was buried in a church called Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran. However, his tomb was later destroyed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1576. This Pope strongly believed in the Donation of Constantine, the document Valla had proven to be fake.
Reputation
Lorenzo Valla was known for being very smart but also for getting into many arguments with other scholars. He used his elegant writing style and sharp wit to criticize others. He was also a strong opponent of the Catholic Church's claim to worldly power.
Important figures like Martin Luther, who started the Reformation, greatly admired Valla and his writings. Desiderius Erasmus, another famous scholar, said that Valla was the best guide for learning Latin grammar.
Works
On the Donation of Constantine
Between 1439 and 1440, Valla wrote an essay called De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio. This long title means "A speech on the falsely believed and forged Donation of Constantine." In this essay, he carefully studied the document known as the Donation of Constantine.
The Donation was a document that claimed the Roman Emperor Constantine I had given the entire Western Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church. It said this was a thank-you gift because Pope Sylvester I had supposedly cured Constantine of leprosy.
Valla was working for Alfonso V of Aragon at the time. Alfonso V was in a fight with the Pope over land. This situation might have encouraged Valla to write his essay. Because of his work, Valla was put on trial by the Inquisition (a Church court) in 1444. But Alfonso V protected him from being put in prison.
Valla showed that the Donation could not have been written in the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine lived. He proved that the language and style of the document were from the 8th century. Valla used three main arguments:
- He argued that Emperor Constantine could not have legally given the Pope the kind of power the Donation claimed.
- He pointed out that there was no other evidence from that time that such a huge change in the Roman Empire's government had happened.
- Valla doubted that Emperor Constantine had given Pope Sylvester anything at all. He thought there might have been a mistake involving an earlier Pope.
Valla also found words in the document that didn't fit the time period. For example, the document used the word satrap, which was a Persian word, not a common Roman word in Constantine's time. He also noted that the Latin in the document was very poor for such an important text, with tenses constantly switching.
Textual Criticism
Valla was an expert in Latin translation. He suggested many ways to improve the study of the Roman historian Livy. He also wrote about this in one of his books, where he criticized other scholars for their mistakes in editing Livy's work.
Valla also critically studied the official Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church, called Jerome's Latin Vulgate. He questioned some of the Church's practices, like penance and indulgences. He argued that the practice of penance was based on Jerome's translation of a Greek word. Valla believed the Greek word metanoia should have been translated as "repentance" instead of "penance." His work was praised by later critics of the Church, including Erasmus.
Important Writings
Valla became famous for two main works: his dialogue De Voluptate (On Pleasure) and his book De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae (On the Elegance of the Latin Language). Scholars said that De Elegantiis was the best work yet on the careful study of Latin.
Here are some of his important works:
- De Voluptate (On Pleasure): Written in 1431, this work compared the ideas of the Stoics (who believed in self-control) with those of Epicurus (who believed in seeking pleasure). Valla showed some sympathy for natural desires.
- Repastinatio dialectice et philosophie (Revisiting Logic and Philosophy): Started around 1439, this was a book about logic. Valla brought back a type of argument that had not been used much in the Latin-speaking world for a long time.
- De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio (On the Falsely Believed and Forged Donation of Constantine): Written in 1440, this is the famous essay proving the Donation of Constantine was a fake. The Church completely rejected it at the time. It wasn't officially published until 1517, but it became very popular among Protestants.
- De libero arbitrio (On Free Will): Written around 1440, this book discussed the idea of free will.
- De Elegantiis (On Elegance): Written in 1449, this book looked closely at Latin grammar and the rules of Latin style. It was controversial at first, but its ideas won out, and it helped Latin writing become purer and more like ancient Latin.
- Antidotum in Pogium (Antidote against Poggio): Written in 1452, this was part of a big argument Valla had with another scholar named Poggio Bracciolini.
- Adnotationes in Novum Testamentum (Notes on the New Testament): This was an early work where Valla made notes on the New Testament. It was found and published by Erasmus in 1505.
Many of Valla's works were collected and published after his death, and his Elegantiae linguae Latinae was reprinted almost sixty times between 1471 and 1536, showing how influential it was.
See also
In Spanish: Lorenzo Valla para niños
