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LEFT VALETTE 154 VALLANDIGHAM and various other industries are carried on, and the trade includes grain, wine, fruits, cotton, and other manufactures, coals, etc. The mail steamers for Alex- andria, Constantinople, etc., call here, and it is the chief station of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. Pop. about 25,000. See Malta. VALETTE, JEAN PARISOT DE LA, a French military officer; born in 1494. He came of a noble family of Toulouse, entered the order of the Knights of St. John, and was elected grand-master of that order in 1557. His life thence- forward is a series of exploits in war- fare with the Turks, culminating in his famous defense of Malta, lasting from May 18, 1565, till Sept. 8. The Turks had 159 war ships and 30,000 men; the defenders were 8,500 men, with 700 knights, and unsupported held the forti- fications heroically in spite of awful loss and privations, till the approach of a Neapolitan fleet caused the Turks to raise the siege. The veteran commander died Aug. 28, 1568. He built Valetta. VALHAL, VALHALLA, or WAL- HALLA, in Northern mythology, the chief hall in Asgard, the banqueting house of the -i^sir, there entertained by Odin along with the Valr or Einherjar chosen by the Valkyr jur. Valhal has 540 doors, through each of which 800 Einherjar may pass abreast. In front is the grove Glasir, whose leaves are golden. W. of the door is a great wolf, and overhead a crouching eagle. Gleam- ing swords light up the hall. The roof trees are spears, the roof itself is formed of shields, and the seats are covered with shirts of mail. The Einherjar eat the flesh of the boar S«hrimnir, which is cooked every day, and at night is re- stored whole as before; and drink mead, which flows from the udder of the goat Heidrun. Every day the Einherjar, as soon as dressed, array themselves in ar- mor, and go forth into the fields to fight and fell one another. This is their pas- time; as it draws to breakfast time they ride back to Valhal, where they sit down to feast. After Odin's Valhal is named the Walhalla or Temple of Fame built by King Ludwig I. of Bayern at Donau- stauf, near Regensburg. VALLA, LORENZO BELLA, an Italian humanist; born presumably in Rome in 1407; studied Greek and Latin under the leading masters; and having failed to succeed to an uncle's post of apostolic secretary, took orders (1431), and accepted the chair of Latin eloquence at Pavia. About this time his "Elegance of the Latin Language" (Rome, 1444) established him as the supreme authority on Latin style; and having lectured suc- cessively at Milan, Genoa, and Florence, he received from Alfonso V. of Naples a private secretaryship along with the poet's crown (1437). The feud between Rome and Aragon made Alfonso glad to secure so fierce an opponent of the papa] see as Valla, who in "The Forgery of the Donations of Constantine" (1440) assailed Pope and cardinals, and demol- ished a lie imposed upon Christendom for centuries. The storm excited by this treatise drove Valla awhile to Barcelona, but returning to Naples he continued his assaults, impeaching the Vulgate's Lat- inity, the authenticity of the Apostles' Creed, and of Christ's letter to Abgarus; and when cited before the Inquisition, declaring the Church knew nothing yet he believed with her. Pope Nicholas V., however, succeeding Eugenius in 1447, summoned Valla to Rome, and made him secretary; and he passed his remaining years in translating from the Greek, and in furious literary feuds with Poggio, Trapezuntios, and others among his com- peers. He died in Naples, Aug. 1, 1457, leaving behind him Latin translations of Herodotus, Thucydides, and the "Iliad," "Notes on the New Testament," etc. VALLADOLID, a city of Spain, in Old Castile, capital of the province of the same name (area, 2,922 square miles; pop. about 285,000) ; on the left bank of the Pisuerga, and on the Irun-Madrid railway, 102 miles N. W. of Madrid. It is a fortress of the first rank and the seat of an archbishop; has a cathedral founded in 1585 by Philip II.; many monasteries; a celebrated university founded in 1346, an institute, an Acad- emy of Fine Arts, a museum containing many beautiful pictures and sculptures, a library, various seminaries and indus- trial schools, a theater, hospitals, poor- house, etc. Of its "plazas" the most beautiful are the quadrangular Plaza Mayor, the octagonal El Ochavo, and above all the triangular Campo Grande, where bull fights, autos-da-fe, and other public spectacles used to be held, and where Napoleon is said to have reviewed not fewer than 35,000 men. The manu- factures of Valladolid, which have much revived, are chiefly of cloth, iron, and leather. The old Roman town of Pintia is said to have been rebuilt in 625 by the Goths, but the name Valladolid was first applied to it after its recovery from the Moors about 1072. From this time till Charles V. ti'ansferred the court to Ma- drid, Valladolid was a favorite residence of the kings of Leon. It was the birth- place of Philip II. Pop. about 70.000. VALLANDIGHAM, CLEMENT LAIBD, an American politician; born in