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Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini

Type Figure Region Republic of Siena Time 1405–1464 Also known as Pius II (later name)

Italian Renaissance humanist, diplomat, poet, and historian (1405–1464), later Pope Pius II, famed for his Latin letters and histories.

Timeline

  1. 1431–1442Basel; Vienna · Upper RhineIn 1431 Piccolomini attended the Council of Basel as secretary to several senior churchmen, initially supporting the conciliarist position and taking an active part in debate. His fluent Latin letters and speeches brought him to notice, and he began writing humanist verse and prose in quantity, including the pastoral love story Historia de duobus amantibus (1444). In 1442 Emperor Frederick III crowned him poet laureate at the Diet of Frankfurt, confirming his standing in European intellectual circles.
  2. 1447–1451Siena; Trieste · Republic of SienaOrdained priest in 1447, Piccolomini formally renounced secular life for the church and became Bishop of Trieste the same year. His humanist writing did not stop, and he continued to produce history, geography, and literature. In this period he completed parts of the draft Historia rerum in Oriente gestarum and kept up a close correspondence with humanists across Europe, spreading Italian Renaissance ideas north of the Alps.
  3. 1451–1458Siena; Rome · Republic of SienaIn 1450 Piccolomini became bishop of his native Siena, while also traveling to courts across Europe as a diplomat. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 he wrote works including a letter to Nicholas V calling for Christian unity against the Ottomans. In December 1456 Callixtus III elevated him cardinal-priest of Santa Sabina, a key point where his scholarly and ecclesiastical careers met. In 1457 he published the Historia rerum ubique gestarum, displaying his wide knowledge of Eurasian geography and peoples. By now one of Europe's best-known Latin prose writers, he was elected Pope Pius II in August 1458.

Sources