On the Donation of Constantine by Lorenzo Valla (PDF)

Description

This is a reprint of the classic book by Lorenzo Valla, “On the Donation of Constantine”. Lorenzo (or Laurentius) Valla (c.1407 – 1 August 1457) was an Italian humanist, rhetorician, educator and Catholic priest. He is best known for his textual analysis that proved that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery. The Donation of Constantine (Latin: Donatio Constantini) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440, although the document’s authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001. In many of the existing manuscripts (handwritten copies of the document), including the oldest one, the document bears the title Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris. The, Donation of Constantine was included in the 9th century Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals collection.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐For all those who may have wondered, ‘when did religions or churches start to get so cocky about running things in THIS life?’, this book is your answer. In this book you will learn that the so called temporal authority of all churches started with the first church, and that attempt was a fake, a forgery, a fraud. Read Valla’s “The Donation of Constantine”, it is an easy read for a book written hundreds of years ago.

⭐Valla refutation of the Donation of Constantine is an outstanding short book to read. It uncovers the forgery of the so called Donation of Constantine to the pope Sylvester I. Valla uses his outstanding philological and historical skills to uncover one of the most historical lies of the Catholic Church.

⭐This negative review relates solely to the shoddy physical quality of the paperback. I find it hard to believe that Harvard University Press would produce so cheap a product. The paper is mass market quality with pages that separate from the glue binding on reading. I assume the hardback book is better since other I Tatti Renaissance Library books I have purchased have been quality products.

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