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Director(s):
VAN WAEREBEKE (DENIS)
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Producer(s):
LES FILMS D'ICI- DOUBLON, ARTE FRANCE
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Territories:
Worldwide.
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Production year:
2020
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Language(s):
German, French
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Rights:
TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD
In the middle of the 8th century, the chancellery of the bishops of Rome was on the verge of becoming a spiritual heir to the Western emperors. That was when it committed the most important forgery in the history of the West.
Until the 16th century, the donation of Constantine was called upon and brandished relentlessly as the foundation for the universal destiny of St. Peter's successors. It was supposed to justify the Catholic Church's temporal power as well as its seat in the city of Rome. The humanist Lorenzo Valla exposed the forgery in 1440, but it was not made public until 1506. This very first instance of diplomatics was one of the founding acts of modern textual criticism.