Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) was the leading theorist of the Renaissance humanist movement and the author of major works on Latin style, scholastic logic, and other topics. In "On the Donation of Constantine" he uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy's claims to temporal rule, in a brilliant analysis that is often seen as marking the beginning of modern textual criticism. Widely translated throughout Europe during the Reformation, the work was placed on the Church's Index of Prohibited Books. This volume provides a new translation with introduction and notes by G. W. Bowersock, commissioned for the I Tatti Renaissance Library, along with a translation of the Donation of Constantine document itself.

Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) was the most important theorist of the humanist movement. He wrote a major work on Latin style, "On Elegance in the Latin Language," which became a battle-standard in the struggle for the reform of Latin across Europe, and "Dialectical Disputations," a wide-ranging attack on scholastic logic. His most famous work is "On the Donation of Constantine," an oration in which Valla uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy's claims to temporal rule. It appears here in a new translation with introduction and notes by G. W. Bowersock, based on the critical text of Wolfram Setz (1976). This volume also includes a text and translation of the "Constitutum Constantini," commonly known as the "Donation of Constantine."

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This Book Is In Latin. Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text and other issues beyond our control.

This Book Is In Latin. Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text and other issues beyond our control.

This Book Is In Latin. Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text and other issues beyond our control.

This Book Is In Latin. Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text and other issues beyond our control.