Valla's Translation of Thucydides in Vat. Lat. 1801. With the Reproduction of the Codex.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - leicht berieben und besto�n, ansonsten tadelloser Zustand, unbeschnitten / slightly rubbed and scuffed, otherwise perfect condition, uncut - INTRODUCTION -- THE HISTORY OF VALLA�S TRANSLATION OF THUCYDIDES -- Lorenzo Valla (Laurentius della Valle), one of the most notable humanists of the Renaissance in Italy, was born in Rome in 1407 and died there in 1457. He gained his education in classical languages in Rome and then embarked on his career as lecturer, translator, scholar, and controversialist. He was ordained in 1431 and, failing in his ambition to become a papal secretary, obtained a post as Lector of classical rhetoric in the University of Pavia (1431-1433). He moved from one academic center to another (Milan, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua), and about 1435 entered the service of King Alfonso V of Aragon (ruled 1416-1458), at whose court in Naples several scholars gathered from 1442 onward. Valla became the king�s private secretary. He was already well known through such essays as De voluptate dialogus, �Dialogue on Pleasure� (1431). He later titled this work De vero bono, �On the true good�. He called this essay a defense of Christianity against the misguided philosophers of paganism, but he found much to approve in the Epicurean doctrine that one should cultivate the search for (mainly intellectual, but also erotic) pleasure. Imitating Plato, for example in the Symposium, Valla constructed this work using three set speeches, each one praising the Stoic, Epicurean, and Christian philosophies, but with a clear preference for the Epicurean position over the Stoic. -- In 1440 Valla issued the work for which he is most respected by historians, his De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione, �On the falsely believed and counterfeit Donation of Constantine�, which was an attack on the supposed �donation� by which the emperor Constantine had, in gratitude for his conversion, given Pope Silvester I (314-335) and all his successors temporal power over Rome, Italy, and western Europe in general.1 Belief in this "donation� was based on an inauthentic document, the � Constitutum Constantini �, forged probably in the eighth century and copied and edited over the years.