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The treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine

Chapter 1: THE TREATISE OF LORENZO VALLA ON THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE
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Lorenzo Valla subjects the Donation of Constantine to close linguistic, legal, and historical analysis, arguing that the purported imperial grant is a medieval forgery. He marshals evidence from anachronistic vocabulary, stylistic and formulaic irregularities, and contradictions with administrative and chronological facts to undermine the document's authenticity. The treatise assesses the document's role in justifying papal temporal claims and outlines the political consequences of its exposure. It also demonstrates early internal-critical methods, using word usage and contextual inconsistency as tools for evaluating historical texts.

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Title: The treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine

Author: Lorenzo Valla

Translator: Christopher Bush Coleman

Release date: February 20, 2023 [eBook #70092]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Yale University Press, 1922

Credits: deaurider and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREATISE OF LORENZO VALLA ON THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE ***

THE TREATISE OF
LORENZO VALLA ON THE
DONATION OF CONSTANTINE

The First Page of Valla’s Treatise,
Codex Vaticanus Latinus 5314.

THE TREATISE OF
LORENZO VALLA ON THE

DONATION OF CONSTANTINE

TEXT AND TRANSLATION
INTO ENGLISH

CHRISTOPHER B. COLEMAN, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN ALLEGHENY COLLEGE

NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON · HUMPHREY MILFORD · OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
M.D.CCCC.XXII

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS