Thomas Aquinas the studium generale of the Dominican Order at Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, invited Valla to deliver the annual encomium of the “angelic doctor,” pressing him not only to praise but also to voice humanist criticism of scholastic thomism. This entrance of Valla into the Roman Curia has been called “the triumph of humanism over orthodoxy and tradition.” Again he journeyed to Rome, where he was welcomed by the new pope, Nicholas V, who made him an apostolic secretary. But a better fortune attended him after the death of Eugene IV in February 1447. In 1444 he visited Rome, but in this city also his enemies were numerous and powerful, and he only saved his life by fleeing in disguise to Barcelona, whence he returned to Naples. He was not, however, silenced he ridiculed the Latin of the Vulgate and accused St Augustine of heresy. He was compelled to appear before a tribunal composed of his enemies, and he only escaped by the special intervention of Alfonso. He showed that the supposed letter of Christ to Abgarus was a forgery, and by throwing doubt upon the authenticity of other spurious documents, and by questioning the utility of monastic life, he aroused the anger of some of the faithful. Subsequent careerįrom Naples, Valla continued his philological work. This was thought to be a major improvement in style and elegance in Latin usage.
As a result, humanistic Latin sought to purge itself of post-Classical words and features, and became stylistically very different from the Christian Latin of the European Middle Ages. Valla’s work was controversial when it appeared, but its arguments carried the day. It was a basis for the movement of the Humanists to reform Latin prose style to a more classical and Ciceronian direction on a scientific basis. This work subjected the forms of Latin grammar and the rules of Latin style and rhetoric to a critical examination, and placed the practice of composition upon a foundation of analysis and inductive reasoning.
Here for the first time in the Renaissance the ideas of Epicurus found deliberate and positive expression in a work of scholarly and philosophical value.ĭe Elegantiis was no less original, although in a different sphere of thought.
In De Voluptate ( On Pleasure), he contrasted the principles of the Stoics with the tenets of Epicurus, openly proclaiming his sympathy with those who claimed the right of free indulgence for man’s natural appetites. Latin stylisticsīy this time Valla had won a high reputation for two works: his dialogue De Voluptate, and his treatise De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae. Valla wandered from one university to another, accepting short engagements and lecturing in many cities. His tenure at Pavia was made unpleasant by his attack on the Latin style of the great jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato.
In 1431, he entered the priesthood, and after trying in vain to secure a position as apostolic secretary, he went to Piacenza, whence he proceeded to Pavia, where he obtained a professorship of eloquence. His family was from Piacenza his father, Luciave della Valla, was a lawyer who worked at the papal court. He is best known for his textual analysis that proved that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery. Lorenzo (or Laurentius) Valla ( c.1407 – 1 August 1457) was an Italian humanist, rhetorician, educator and Catholic priest.