There was every reason why the king of Naples should be interested in a man of Valla’s stamp. He wished to attract scholars of the highest ability to his capital, and he was always on bad terms with the papacy. Valla combined the qualities of an elegant humanist, an acute critic, a freethinker, and a venomous pamphleteer who had committed himself to a destructive polemic against the temporalities of Rome. Accordingly the king made him his private secretary, encouraged him to open a school of rhetoric in Naples, and defended him against the attacks of friars and inquisitors. From Naples Valla continued his war of pamphlets against the church. He proved that the letter of Christ to Abgarus was a forgery, ridiculed the Latinity of the Vulgate, questioned the authenticity of the Apostles’ Creed, and accused St Augustine of heresy. It is a singular note of that period in Italy that, on the death of Eugenius IV., his successor, Nicholas V., invited Valla to Rome, not to arraign him before the bar of the Inquisition, not to punish him for his insolent criticism, but in order to confer upon him the post of apostolic secretary, with substantial pecuniary appointments. This entrance of Valla into the Roman curia has been justly called “the triumph of humanism over orthodoxy and tradition.” Nicholas had no other object than that of fixing one of the chief scholars of the age near his own person. He allowed Valla to open a school of eloquence in Rome, and he paid him munificently for translating Thucydides into Latin. Thus, for the sake of his erudition and stylistic talents, the supreme pontiff rewarded a man whose chief titles to fame are the stringent criticism with which he assailed the temporalities of the church, and the frank candour with which he defended a pagan theory of human conduct.

All the biographical notices of Valla are loaded with long accounts of his literary quarrels. Intolerant of rivalry, inordinately vain, and greedily self-seeking as the scholars of that epoch were, they indulged in the fiercest internecine warfare among themselves. The bulky folios of their works contain hundreds of invectives which may be ranked among the most obscene, the most wearisome, and the most disgraceful products of the human intellect. Valla won a regrettable celebrity by the number and the virulence of his enmities. Bartolomeo Fazio, Georgios Trapezuntios, and Poggio felt the stabbing sharpness of his pen. It must, however, be admitted that these antagonists gave back quite as good as they got. It is almost impossible to form a just estimate of Valla’s private life and character through the dust-clouds of abuse and dirt which these controversies stirred up around his memory. He died at Naples in the year 1457. Posterity honours in him not so much the stylist and the scholar as the initiator of a bold critical method, applied to language, historical documents, and ethical opinions.

The collected edition of Valla’s Works is that of Basel, 1465. For detailed accounts of his life and work, consult Tiraboschi; Voigt’s Wiederbelebung des Alterthums ; and Symonds’s Renaissance in Italy (vols. ii. and v.).

VALLADOLID, capital of the above province, on the left bank of the Pisuerga, at its confluence with the Esgueva, which traverses the town by two channels, is situated (about 2250 feet above sea-level) 150 miles by rail to the north-west of Madrid. The site is in a small valley enclosed by steep and broken, though not very high, ground. The town, which was formerly surrounded by walls and entered by four principal gates, contains some fine streets and squares, especially the so-called Plaza Mayor, but on the whole it has a dull and deserted aspect, though of late years its industrial and commercial activity has somewhat revived. The granite cathedral, begun in 1585, would, if carried out according to the original design of Herrera, be a magnificent specimen of the Graeco-Roman style of that architect; only the nave, however, was ever completed, and the tower (one of four in the plan) fell in 1841. The interior is well proportioned, but bare. The tower and nave of the church of Sta Maria la Antigua date from about 1200. The church of San Pablo is later (1286); its chief feature of interest is a beautiful flamboyant portal, and formerly it had exquisite cloisters. Adjoining is San Gregorio (15th century) with a fine Plateresque façade. San Benito, dating from the end of the 14th century, is an elegant Gothic building with a lofty roof finely groined. The college of Santa Cruz, a Classical building founded in 1479, now houses a collection of pictures and sculptures of little value, except for some examples of Rubens and of the work of Berruguete. The university was founded in 1346; but the present Rococo building dates from the decadence of architecture in Spain. Among other public buildings of Valladolid may be mentioned the royal palace, built in the beginning of the 17th century, and the court-house and town-hall; several ex-convents are now used as barracks. Along the banks of the rivers are several public walks adorned with trees and fountains. The principal industries are the manufacture of linen, silk, and woollen fabrics, pottery, gold and silver work, leather, and paper. There is a considerable trade in the abundant agricultural produce of the vicinity. The population in 1877 was 52,206.

Valladolid is usually identified with the ancient Pintia of Ptolemy, described in the Itinerary as a town of the Vaccaei on the road from Asturica to Caesaraugusta. The present name is usually, but rather obscurely, explained as equivalent to Beled Walid, “the land of Walid.” The town was recovered from the Moors in the 10th century, but is first named in a public document by Sancho II. of Leon in 1072. The cortes of Castile frequently met here in the following centuries, and in the beginning of the 15th century John II. made it his principal residence. After the removal of the capital to Madrid by Philip II. in 1560 it began rapidly to decay. In December 1808 it was taken and sacked by the French, and in the January following Bonaparte resided here for some days, and caused the destruction of many fine buildings and works of art. Columbus died (1506) and Philip II. was born (1527) at Valladolid.

VALLADOLID, a city of the state of Michoacan de Ocampo, in Mexico. See Morelia.

VALLADOLID, a town in the state of Yucatan, Mexico, lying towards the centre of the northern plateau, on the river Bolina, about 90 miles south-east of Merida, with which it is about to be connected by a railway. Valladolid, which with the suburban district has a population (1885) of 18,470, mostly Indians and half-castes, is situated in the healthiest and best cultivated part of Yucatan, and is accordingly much frequented by invalids. The town is well built, with regular streets, and low but substantial houses, generally fronted by a garden plot and shady trees. Amongst its buildings are seven fine churches, a large Jesuit college, a town-hall, a hospital, and a well-constructed aqueduct. But like everything else in Yucatan the place presents a general appearance of decay, although there is a considerable local cotton industry. Some miles to the east lie the remarkable ruins of Chichen-Itza, covering a space of nearly two miles in circumference. Amongst these remains are several sonatos, or tanks, from 65 to 200 feet in diameter and 50 to 110 feet deep, with steep rocky sides, in which water is still stored.

Valladolid is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in Yucatan, having been originally founded by Francesco de Montejo at a place called Chauachaa in 1543. But it was removed the next year to Zaqui, about 15 miles from the sea, with easy access to the port of El Cuyo, and soon after to its present position.