The Invention of Personality in Valla’s De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione

The philological segment of Valla’s De falso that is the basis for most claims about the text’s innovative and distinctly modern character is only one part of the larger oration, which includes three invented speeches – mere fiction by modern historiographical standards. But by reading these speeches in light of the text’s other anthropocentric inventions – including “Palea” the forger and the author’s own first person ethos – we can better understand Valla’s reliance on the non-logical or indirect means of persuasion and in doing so, see both the formal coherence of Valla’s decision to link fabricated speeches with applied philology and the personality-informed model of textual interpretation that results.