On the Elegance of the Latin Language: Lorenzo Valla’s guide to speaking with eloquence

Colophon and printer's mark by Joannis Schoeffer

Introduction

Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) was a famous Italian humanist and literary critic known for his belief that the correct usage of language demonstrates elegance and civility. Like many other humanists, Valla considered classical Latin the only acceptable form of Latin language and went to great lengths to criticize other types of Latin that he believed to be crude. Valla wrote many textbooks to perpetuate Classical Latin grammar and style. Along with his other works, Laurentij Value Elegantiarum Libri Sex (Book six of On the Elegance of the Latin Language) presents the linguistic patterns of Classical Latin including grammar and semantics as well as reintroduces classical ancient Greek texts.¹ His grammar books became widely popular across Europe during the period in which Renaissance Humanism thrived.²  More importantly, one of the greatest Renaissance scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam mentioned in his De ratione studii (1511) that there was “no better guide than Lorenzo Valla” for learning about the grammar and style of Classical Latin.³

This edition of Laurentij Value Elegantiarum Libri Sex was published in Mainz by Joannis Schoeffer in the year 1529, 72 years after Lorenzo Valla died. The frequent underlining and copious written marginal summaries of the text throughout the book reflect the readers’ close engagement with the content. The fact that Valla’s work was still relevant in 16^th-century Germany presents a print culture in which humanist ideals such as the pursuit of eloquence, reviving classical works and simple aesthetic had spread all over Europe and remained significant for a long period of time.

Short excerpt of book II of Homer's Iliad

Historical Context

The humanist movement emerged in 14^th-century Europe in response to the loss of classical literature in the medieval scholastic system. Humanists believed that classical Greek and Roman works set the ideal precedent for moral and intelletual values. This belief inspired many great scholars to reintroduce these ancient ideals in their works for readers to imitate. Hence, the goal of education shifted from delivering specialized certificates according to scholastic standards to reviving the study of classical antiquity.⁴ Lorenzo Valla demonstrates this effort by inserting a short excerpt of book II of Homer’s Iliad in its original Greek text on page 227, from which we experience his desire to bring back the intellectual legacies from the Golden Age of Greece during which art and literature flourished. Here, Valla compares it with a passage from Virgil's first Eclogue to show that classical authors in both Lain and Greek constantly shifted between the first person singular ("I") and the first person plural ("we") when the speaker is solely referring to himself. Therefore, Valla deems this linguistic feature acceptable in good Latin.

The wooden book cover with engravings of decorative patterns and Lorenzo Valla's abbreviation 

Ever since the father of humanism Francesco Petrarca rediscovered Cicero’s letters along with other Greek and Roman manuscripts that sparked the humanist movement, authors and printers began to pursue a less elaborate aesthetic that mimics the simplicity and elegance of French manuscripts from the 8^th and 9^th centuries, which they thought originated from the classical period.⁵ This book was bound with wood panels engraved with the abbreviation of Lorenzo Valla’s name and beautiful decorative patterns. The broken metal clasps attached to the covers were once used to protect the leaves by holding them together tightly. These features were created to make the book resemble a minimalist and tasteful manuscript. Beyond its elegance, it is evident that the book was designed for usage and less about displaying wealth, hence its simple use was intended to make learning easier. The wide margins surrounding the printed text on each page allowed the reader to make generous annotations throughout the book. Aside from the intricately historiated capitals, there are no illustrations between the chapters, making it free of distraction and naturally guiding the reader to focus on the text. In addition, other user-friendly features such as the book’s small size and the index increase its portability as well as the level of functionality. As opposed to the monastic approach to reading that aimed for the contemplation of text, reading in the age of humanism centered on learning and imitating behaviors that reflect virtue. ⁶

Title page Laurentij Value Elegantiarum Libri Sex with beautiful rubrication

The style of italic type used for this book was first created by Aldus Manutius in the late 15^th Century,⁷ which was inspired by the Carolingian miniscule and developed into a slanted version of roman type. Italic type can fit more words on a page and was favored by Renaissance humanists for its minimalistic, unembellished style, making it a better choice than Gothic script for Valla’s book. Compared to italics, Gothic script was unfit for books that present humanist values because it is decorative, dense, and difficult to read. ⁸

The marginal handwriting in the first quarter and the rest of the book differ in colors and style. While the former was written with dark brown, the latter was written with red similar to the one used to rubricate the illustration on the title page. This contrast suggests that two different readers had engaged with the book’s content and designs, once again demonstrating its function as a guidebook and that it was likely shared between scholars during the Renaissance period.