Prof. Salvatore I. Camporeale

POGGIO BRACCIOLINI VS LORENZO VALLA.
THE "ORATIONES IN L. VALLAM"

The Poggio-Valla controversy (Rome: 1452-1453) was a dispute between two "schools" of Humanism. The controversy was centered on the "quaestio disputata" of how the Classical and Christian traditions were to be authentically recovered and renewed. For Poggio this recovery-renewal was based upon "imitatio" - upon the unquestioned, revealed authority and authenticity of ancient texts. For Valla, it was to be based upon "eruditio" - a philological-critical analysis of these same texts in order to re-establish their historical authenticity. Valla' s Emendations (circa 1432-57) of Jerome's Vulgate were "rediscovered" and published by Erasmus in 1504 -- Erasmus' subsequent debate (1515-17) and Thomas More's with van Dorp and the Louvanists, on the eve of the Reformation, was in effect a revival (by now on European cultural and academic dimensions) of the Poggio vs Valla controversy.