“ It is almost impossible to form a just estimate of Valla’s private life and character owing to the clouds of dust which were stirred up by this and other controversies, in which the most virulent and obscene language was employed. He appears, however, as a vain, jealous and quarrelsome man, but he combined the qualities of an elegant humanist, an acute critic and a venomous writer, who bad committed himself to a violent polemic against the temporal power of Rome. ”

“ Here for the first time the paganism of the Renaissance found deliberate expression in a work of scholarly and philosophical value. De Elegantiis was no less original, although in a different sphere of thought. This work subjected the forms of Latin grammar and the rules of Latin style and rhetoric to a critical examination, and placed the practice of composition upon a foundation of analysis and inductive reasoning. ”

“ VALLA, LORENZO, or Laurentius (c. 1406–1457) , Italian humanist, was born at Rome, of parents from the neighbourhood of Piacenza, about 1406, his father, Luca delle Vallea, being an advocate. He was educated at Rome, attending the classes of eminent professors, among them Leonardi Bruni and Giovanni Aurispa (c. 1369–1459) , from whom he learned Latin and Greek. In 1431 he became a priest, and after trying vainly to secure a position as apostolic secretary in Rome he went to Piacenza, whence he proceeded to Pavia, where he obtained a professorship of eloquence. ”