Lorenzo Valla

Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407–1457) was a Roman humanist, priest and rhetorician who taught at Pavia and, from 1435 to 1445, served Alfonso V of Aragon in Naples.

In 1440 he exposed the Donation of Constantine as a forgery, showing through its anachronisms and crude eighth-century Latin that the charter could not date from Constantine's time. Tried by the Inquisition in 1444, he was saved by Alfonso's protection.

His Elegantiae linguae Latinae became the standard guide to classical Latin. Recalled to Rome by Pope Nicholas V in 1447, he died as papal secretary in 1457.