VALLA, vdl'ld, LAURENTIUS (LORENZO): Italian humanist and critic; b. at Rome 1405; d. there Aug. 1, 1457. His father was a conaistorial advocate in Rome, and an uncle provided Lorenzo with a humanistic training before he turned to theology. He was consecrated as priest in 1431. , His first writing, De voluptate ac de vero botw, was not printed until 1483. Meanwhile there appeared Quteetiones dinlecticte; De libero arbitrio; and De elegantiis Latini sermonis, a declaration of war against the usual didactics and Latinity of his time. In 1435 or 1436, Valla entered the service of King Alfonso V. of Aragon; and while under his patronage he composed, about 1440, the celebrated Declamatio de fslso creditca et ementita Corcstantini donations, which showed the so-called "Donation of Constantine" (q.v.) to be a forgery. By 1442, when he accompanied Alfonso to Naples, rumors were already abroad that his views were in opposition to the Church. But the king still protected him against the Inquisition, so that the judicial proceedings against him were suspended (of. Valla's Opera, pp. 195, 356). At Naples Valla composed Collatio Novi Testsmereti, though this was not published until sixty years later (ed. Erasmus, Anreotationes in N. T., Paris, 1505), being " the first fruit of the newly awakened philological studies in behalf of exegesis" (cf. Mancini, Vita, pp. 238 sqq.).

An attempt of Valla's to return to Rome in 1444 miscarried through the fanaticism of the priests, and his Apologia, addressed to Eugehius IV., failed to secure favor. It was not until 1447, under Nicho-

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las V., a friend to humanists, to whom Valla dedi cated the first part of a Latin translation of the Iliad, that he obtained an appointment at Rome. But at once strife broke out between him and the resident humanists, which, so far as Poggio was con cerned, did not cease even with the death of Valla. But the tatter's didactic industry and literary pro ductiveness, his perspicacious philological and his torical criticism (cf. his Decldmatio), his efforts to free science from the fetters of scholastic tradition, are great and lasting merits. Certainly Valla ranks as a precursor of modern intellectual freedom, even though the ascription, prlecxcrsor Lutheri, rather malignly applied to him by Bellarmine, fits him only in limited measure. His writings, besides those al ready named, are abundant; and several of them, such as the Elxgayttite and the Declamatio, have un dergone repeated editions. Luther's opinion of him was "The like of whom neither Italy nor the whole Church produced in many centuries" (ResPonsio ad Lovan. theol., Briefwechsel, iv. 189). Mancini, a recent biographer, thus measures him: "It was his misfortune to clash with Poggio who perse cuted him without rest or surcease even beyond his grave. He thus had against him Poggio's followers, and all who wrote in sympathy with the Curia. What availed it that be cultivated Christian principles and served the truth? A father of modern criticism, he exercised the thorny office, not for the sake of bending it to his personal interests, but to elevate humanity. In the process he did not always ob serve the right measure in his own defense; he answered with insult where he might have silenced the adversary by compelling force and sharpness of demonstration. Hence, brilliant embodiment of the Italian intellect though be was, he did not find the recognition that was his due, in his own time; though now there is justly conceded him a place among the great ones whose achievements have richly furthered human culture."

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: Two incomplete editions of the writings of Valla were published, Basel, 1540 (1543) and Venice, 1592; Ulrich von Hutten issued the Donatio Constantini in 1519; J. Vahlen edited the Tria Opuscula, Vienna, 1889. Accounts of the life have been given by J. Vahlen, Vienna, 1864, Berlin, 1870; J. Clausen, Copenhagen, 1861; C. G. Zampt, in ZeitschriJE far Geschichtsu!issenschaft, iv. 397 sqq.; G. Mancini, Florence. 1891; M. von Wolff, Leipsic, 1893; L. V. Schwalm, Berlin, 1896. Consult further: G. Tiraboaehi, Storia dells LetEeratura iEaliana, vi. 3, 11 vols., Modena, 1772-95; D. G. Monrad, Die stele Controverse laber das Glaubenabekenntnis, Gotha, 1881; A. Gal Geschichte der italienischen Litteratur, vol. ii., Strasburg, 1888; L. Amabile. Inquiaiz6one di Napoli, i. 73 sqq., Castello, 1892; G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebuug des klasaisches AZEerEuma, i. 460 sqq., 3d ed., Berlin, 1893; Pastor, Popes, vols. iv. v. passim; Creighton, Papacy, iii. 170-173.