Lorenzo Valla Exposes Donation of Constantine

1442

The Italian humanist philologist proved, through close analysis of Latin vocabulary, historical anachronisms, and impossible legal terms, that the Donation of Constantine, the document purportedly granting the papacy temporal authority over all of western Europe, was an eighth-century forgery. The method was as revolutionary as the conclusion: linguistic evidence alone had overturned a political foundation of medieval Christendom. Textual criticism had become a weapon capable of toppling centuries of authority.