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Lorenzo (or Laurentius) Valla (1406 – August 1, 1457) was an Italian humanist, rhetorician, and...

Lorenzo (or Laurentius) Valla (1406 – August 1, 1457) was an Italian humanist, rhetorician, and educator. His family was from Piacenza; his father, Luca della Valla, was a lawyer. In 1431 he entered the priesthood, and after trying in vain to secure a position as apostolic secretary, he went to Piacenza, whence he proceeded to Pavia, where he obtained a professorship of eloquence. His tenure at Pavia was made unpleasant by his attack on the Latin style of the great jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato. Valla wandered from one university to another, accepting short engagements and lecturing in many cities. In 1433 Valla made his way to Naples, and the court of Alfonso V of Aragon Alfonso made Valla his private Latin secretary and defended him against the attacks on account of his public statements about theology, including one in which he denied that the Apostles' Creed was composed in succession by each of the twelve Apostles. These charges were eventually dropped. By this time Valla had won a high reputation for two works: his dialogue De Voluptate, and his treatise De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae. In De Voluptate (On Pleasure), he contrasted the principles of the Stoics with the tenets