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biography
pronunciation:
[vahla]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1407–57)
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| biography:
| Humanist and critic, born in Rome, Italy. A rhetoric lecturer in various Italian cities, in 1435 he was in Naples at the court of Alfonso of Aragón. In his De vero falsoque bono (1434–41) he debated that ancient Epicureanism is not in opposition with Christian morality. In Dialecticae disputationes (1440) he argued the impossibility of giving a rational explanation to dogmas. In De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione (1440) he demonstrated through a philological analysis that the document that gave legitimacy to the temporal power of the Church was false. For this he was expelled from Rome, and prosecuted by the Inquisition in Naples, but in 1448 was again in Rome as apostolic secretary to Pope Nicholas V (reigned 1447–55). Valla's Elegantiarum linguae latinae (1435–44) is in praise of the Latin language. His Latin versions of Xenophon, Herodotos, and Thucydides were much admired, and he greatly advanced New Testament criticism by his comparison of the Vulgate with the Greek original. |
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