For centuries popes claimed that the Emperor Constantine had handed them rule over Rome and the West. In 1440 Lorenzo Valla took the document apart, showing through its anachronistic Latin, historical absurdities and the silence of the sources that it could not be genuine. This edition sets his Latin beside the English, with the text of the Donation itself.
A landmark of historical criticism and Renaissance humanism, in Christopher Coleman’s 1922 translation. Download the free EPUB.