Valla
LORENZO DELLA, Italian humanist; born presumably in Rome in 1407; studied Greek and Latin under the leading masters; and having failed to succeed to an uncle's post of apostolic secretary, took orders (1431), and accepted the chair of Latin eloquence at Pavia. About this time his "Elegance of the Latin Language" (Rome, 1444) established him as the supreme authority VALLANDIGHAM on Latin style; and having lectured successively at Milan, Genoa, and Florence, he received from Alfonso V. of Naples a private secretaryship along with the poet's crown (1437). The feud between Rome and Aragon made Alfonso glad to secure so fierce an opponent of the papal see as Valla, who in "The Forgery of the Donations of Constantine" (1440) assailed Pope and cardinals, and demolished a lie imposed upon Christendom for centuries. The storm excited by this treatise drove Valla awhile to Barcelona, but returning to Naples he continued his assaults, impeaching the Vulgate's Latinity, the authenticity of the Apostles' Creed, and of Christ's letter to Abgarus; and when cited before the Inquisition, declaring the Church knew nothing yet he believed with her. Pope Nicholas V., however, succeeding Eugenius in 1447, summoned Valla to Rome, and made him secretary; and he passed his remaining years in translating from the Greek, and in furious literary feuds with Poggio, Trapezuntios, and others among his compeers. He died in Naples, Aug. 1, 1457, leaving behind him Latin translations of Herodotus, Thucydides, and the "Iliad," "Notes on the New Testament," etc. a