In the 15th century, an early philologist proved that a certain important document was a forgery. What was the document, who was the philologist, and how did he make his case?

Stew54

How about Lorenzo Valla who challenged the authenticity of the work 'The Donation of Constantine' by showing that it used a word for "serf" which was unknown before the 8th Century. The story is here: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/donation/donation_of_constantine.htm Apr 20 05, 12:14 PM

lanfranco

Gee, Stew, are you getting any work done in that busy office of yours? The "Donation of Constantine" is correct. This was supposedly a 4th-century document in which The Emperor Constantine granted the Papacy temporal, not just spiritual, authority over the West. Along about 1440, Valla analyzed the document and discovered several words and references that would not have appeared in any piece of 4th-century writing. Yay! Apr 20 05, 12:26 PM

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