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The Medieval Church · 1440
On the Donation of Constantine
De Falso Credita et Ementita Constantini Donatione
Lorenzo Valla · c. 1407–1457
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What it is
A demonstration that the document by which Constantine supposedly gave the West to the papacy is a forgery — proved from its Latin, its anachronisms, and its silences.
Why it lasted
The birth of historical criticism as a method. Printed by Protestants in 1517, it showed that a text's own language could convict it.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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