The name is absent

140 The Rice Institute Pamphlet

sought a friend from whom he borrowed a copy of the trea-
tise of Bartolus which he read with a growing sense of indig-
nation and amazement that anyone could have made such
a comparison. He then sat down and directed a letter to
his friend Sacco who, although in the Law Faculty, shared
Valla’s views on the value of humanist learning. In this letter
VaIla used the most extravagant language in condemning Bar-
tolus’s treatise. He began by bewailing the times in which a
judgment could have been made preferring a work of medi-
eval jurisprudence to the golden tongue of Cicero. He pointed
out that even in the title of the treatise of Bartolus there was
an egregious error: “Insignii” should have been “Insignibus.”
He made the indictment as sharp as he possibly could and
did not limit himself to a scoffing examination of the ideas of
Bartolus. The least of the epithets applied to the medieval
jurist are those of “ass,” “idiot,” and “madman.” This letter to
Sacco was subsequently redirected by Valla to the Milanese
humanist, Piero Candido Decembrio. It was widely circu-
lated in Pavia and a tremendous controversy developed
around Valla and soon reached such an intensity that he was
required to flee from the city and resign the Chair of Rhe-
toric.

Valla’s attack on the medieval jurists marked perhaps the
high point of humanist criticism of the Bartolist tradition.
This criticism, however, continued in a whole series of trea-
tises for the remainder of the fifteenth century and the repe-
tition of satiric judgments directed against BartoIus and his
followers became a commonplace of humanist discourse. In
spite of this criticism, however, the prestige of the profes-
sional teachers of law in the legal faculties of universities
continued to grow. In fact the courses given by the great pro-
fessors of law became more popular than ever. Students

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