The Illustrious Lorenzo Valla (C. 1407-1457)
15th - century Renaissance humanism hit its peak in the life and
work of Lorenzo Valla.
Valla
- the most brilliant humanist.
- a native of Rome
his father-an ecclesiastical advocate.
-studied under Vitorino da Feltre
|__ the foremost schoolmaster of the Italian Renaissance.
-Excelling in Latin and Greek.
a professor of eloquence(수사법) at the U of Pavia in 1429.
1433
flee Pavia after a controversy over his spirited attacks on the legal
theories of the popular Bartolus of Sassoferato.
a wandering scholar with stops in Milan, Genoa, and Mantua, etcs.
|_"The acquaintance of most of the leading humanists
in Italy, Bruni, Bacciolini
1437
-took a position as secretary to king Alfonso the Magnanimous of Naples,
whom he advised on cultural matters.
-parted company with other humanists in preferring the Latin style of
Quintillian to Cicero and Epicureanism to stoicism.
On Pleasure
He argued that while the ethical doctrines of Christianity were superior
to those of Epicureans, it was better to pursue happiness than pain.
1444, Pope Felix V summoned him to Rome.
Valla stayed in Naples under the protection of the pope's enemy, King Alfonso.
On the Elegance of the Latine Language(1444)
-the standard textbook for all those interested in philological precision
and a graceful writing style
-Valla's own scholarship did a great deal to preserve the linguistic
legacy of ancient Rome.
Annotations on the New Testament
- demonstrated many errors in the Vulgate translation of the Bible,
the official Bible of the medieval Roman Catholic church.
1505, Erasmus used Valla's work in producing his own remarkable translation
of the New Testament in 1516.
In turn, influenced the German translation by the reformer Martin Luther.
On Free will
-He argued faith and reason can be reconciled.
Valla - rendered a great service to history by his translation Herodotus
and Thucydides, as well as writing his own history of the reign of
king Fernante I of Naples.
1448, He became secretary to Pope Nicholas V(1447-1455)
and a professor at the U of Rome.
In Rome, He helped the humanist pope collect rare Greek editions and
establishing the papal library.
