La falsa donazione di Costantino

by Lorenzo Valla, Olga Pugliese (Editor)

Testo latino a fronte.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Religion, Nonfiction, European History, Medieval, Politics

245 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1440

About the author

Father Lorenzo Valla (c. 1406 - 1457)

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lorenzo Valla was unapologetic in his attack on the papacy and their forged claims to temporal rule. His use of philology and rejection of scholastic logic helped him prove the illegitimacy of the donation. Valla undoubtedly broke ankles and dunked on the papacy with this one.

[Alison (Marie) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book I had to read for school, this wasn't too bad. Valla had no shame in standing up to the papacy back in his day. It was actually quite comical to read because he would be intelligently analyzing the donation and then all of a sudden say something like "so this is why you would have to be an idiot to believe this is true". Honestly, a lot of what he says about people in power lying to get what they want and people believing it because they don't know better is something relatable through the ages. We have our on "Donation of Constantine"s even now. I probably took a star off because it was a school read so I wasn't as engaged as I would've been had I picked it up on my own (though I probably wouldn't have picked it up then).

[Ike Sharpless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valla's book captures the essence of the critical humanism that was beginning to bloom again in the Italian renaissance. He uses deft historiographic and philological footwork to determine that 'il dono di costantino' was a forgery. The magnitude of this discovery -- that the 5th/6th century Church's claim that Constantine had given over control of his empire's jurisdiction to the papacy -- is hard to overstate.

[Christopher G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lorenzo Valla, a catholic priest and open critic of any and everything he opposed, wrote the treatise in 1439 and 1440. Valla used great sleuthing skills and textual criticism to determine that the document handing over power of the West to the Papacy in the Donation of Constantine was a forgery. Much like Bonnie Smith in her book on the Gender of History, Valla doesn’t relent when it comes to holding those guilty parties accountable. It just so happens that scholars agreed with Lorenzo Valla and he is often seen as a precursor of the reformation. Although a bit hard to follow without a lot of context and prior knowledge of the issue, I found Lorenzo Valla’s work fascinating. I love a good mystery and it was enlightening to read his detailed analysis.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought what I heard about this book was interesting, in that the author more of less tried to tear apart the logic of a document used by the Pope to justify taking certain territories and governing over them. The doc the Pope used being a forgery. I wanted to see how an author from the 16th century would break down such a thing, and I think this text is useful as something to point to. Something I could see myself coming back to one day if my studies called for it. Anyone reading this review knows that this book is fairly obscure and certainly my review is more something for me to look back on, as whoever is thinking about reading this already down their own rabbit hole. But for what it’s worth, it’s a quick read, if you’re thinking about it, just do it.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this whole book was pretty funny because it's just Valla debunking this claim of donating a huge portion of western territory to the pope. I think he was just making fun of people, when he's talking about how that doesn't even make sense, and how there is no evidence of the donation and no one knows who even wrote the donation document. There were words that Constantine would even know, and he isn't the type to even do that. He was a greedy person who would've just done what he wanted, also the pope wasn't put on the coin either that everyone cares about blah blah blah. It's just Valla being like y'all are dumb and stupid.

[Temo Sikharulidze · Rating 5 out of 5]

,,ნამდვილ ორატორად ის უნდა ჩაითვალოს, ვინც არამხოლოდ კარგად საუბრობს, არამედ ბედავს კიდეც საუბარს”

ეს კაცი მოვლენაა ისტორიოგრაფაში, ისტორიული ანალიტიკური აზროვნების, კრიტიკის გაჩენა სწორედ მისით იწყება. შუა საუკუნეების გონებრივი სიბნელიდან და პროვიდენციალიზმიდან თავის დაღწევა.

იდეალური წასაკითხია, ყველას რო წმინდადნ აგრძნობინებს შუა საუკუნეების სულს.

[Alessandro Nicolai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inizialmente interessante ma finisce un po pesante nella parte che riguarda la donazione dal 600 in avanti...piacevole bel complesso

[Jazmín · Rating 4 out of 5]

10/10 for entertainment value.

[Matteo Teodorani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Documento storico importantissimo sulla natura della reale nascita del potere politico ed economico del cattolicesimo. Un must imperdibile per gli studiosi di storia delle religioni

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very important work of early history. Lorenzo Valla uses logic, philosophical argument, a thorough knowledge of Roman history, and a classical education steeped in Latin literature to prove that the Donation of Constantine, a centuries-old document in which Emperor Constantine cedes his power to Pope Sylvester, was a forgery. The text of the Coleman translation (or really any translation of Valla) is difficult not because of the prose, but because of the assumed knowledge of Roman history and the classics on the part of the reader. There is much that cannot be appreciated without doing a deep-dive into the Latin literature of the Dark and Middle Ages. Still, Valla unleashes some hilarious criticisms and shows his frustration about the longstanding hoax, as well as his annoyance that multiple popes would cite the Donation of Constantine as support for their Earthly power.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly brilliant analysis of the medieval papal forgery of "The Donation of Constantine", credited with really popularizing philology at the beginning of the Renaissance. Despite the erudition of the work, Valla's sarcastic phrasing often leaves much to be desired. Recommended for its historical significance.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant exposure of medieval papal forgery by means historical, philological, legal, and logical. Ironically Valla would go on to work for the Vatican.

[Caroline Dugan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting!