Lorenzo Valla’s Radical Philology: The “Preface” To the <i>Annotations to the New Testament</i> in Context
Christopher S. Celenza
The last fifty years of scholarly research have revealed the fifteenth-century thinker Lorenzo Valla as a powerfully original intellect, difficult to shoehorn into contemporary disciplinary divisions. One most interesting areas his work concerns intersection philology, theology, and philosophy, which himself did not, in practice, separate discretely. His Annotations New Testament presents case point. As collection critical notes on standard Latin translation (the Vulgate), annotations themselves range from lexicographical theoretical. Yet “Preface” that wrote for has not been studied great detail; two versions this represent Valla’s views importance studying scripture with philological tools, respect Greek language, strong sense rather revolutionary interpreter. This article brings these relief offers first English “Preface.”
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies