In his critique of the language and thought of the Scholastics, Lorenzo Valla contrasts classical Latin as a natural, common language to the so-called artificial, technical, and unnatural language of his opponents. He famously champions Quintilian’s view that one should follow common linguistic usage. Scholars, however, have disagreed about the precise interpretation of these qualifications of Latin. This article argues that, depending on the historical, rhetorical, and argumentative contexts, Valla uses notions such as common and natural in different ways to suit different purposes. Such a contextualized reading has repercussions for an evaluation of the coherence of Valla’s humanist program.

中文翻译：

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拉丁语作为一种通用语言：洛伦佐·瓦拉的人文主义计划的连贯性

在对经院哲学的语言和思想的批判中，洛伦佐·瓦拉将古典拉丁语作为一种自然的、通用的语言与他的对手所谓的人工、技术和非自然语言进行了对比。他著名地支持昆蒂利安的观点，即人们应该遵循常见的语言用法。然而，学者们对这些拉丁语限定的准确解释意见不一。本文认为，根据历史、修辞和争论的背景，瓦拉以不同的方式使用常见和自然等概念来适应不同的目的。这种情境化的阅读对评估瓦拉的人文主义计划的连贯性产生了影响。