The subject of this dissertation is the influence of the fifteenth-century Italian humanist, Lorenzo Valla, upon the sixteenth-century English humanist, Sir Thomas More. Specifically, it explores how a single work of Valla's, the dialogue on ethics, On pleasure, influenced More's classic satire Utopia. Through a close reading of the relevant texts, it is established for the first time that More read On pleasure and that he made it one of the chief models for Utopia. The likelihood that More studied and imitated Valla's book is demonstrated through an examination of crucial Latin terms such as prudentia, delectatio, and voluptas, as well as the critique of Aristotelian ethics common to both authors. Utopia and On pleasure are each studied carefully, as are other relevant works: More's Latin poetry and his History of Richard III, Valla's New foundation of dialectic and philosophy and his correspondence, translated in English for the first 'time. The dissertation places the original argument for the relationship between Utopia and On pleasure within the familiar context of English intellectual culture in the age of the first Tudors. Valla's influence upon More's writing is an illustrative example of a time and place in which Italian literature and scholarship were exercising unprecedented influence both in England and across Europe generally. The fate of Valla's books in Tudor England is also explored in broader terms, notably in a presentation of the legacy of Valla's classical scholarship. Valla and More are also contrasted with other Italian and English authors of the period, notably John Colet and Marsilio Ficino. The use of On pleasure in the pages of Utopia demonstrates how material developed in Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries became an essential part of the literary culture of England in the first decades of the sixteenth century. Read more...
