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Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (later Pius II)

Type Figure Region Italy Time 1405–1464 Also known as Pius II

Renaissance humanist, diplomat, and pope (1405–1464); as Pius II from 1458 he promoted a crusade and curial reform.

Timeline

  1. 1405–1431Corsignano · SienaBorn into a family on the margins of the rural Sienese nobility, he received a humanist education at Siena, Florence, and elsewhere, made his name writing in Latin, and produced early works such as Austria.
  2. 1431–1455Rome · RomeHe served Eugene IV and then Nicholas V, took part in the diplomacy of the Council of Basel–Ferrara–Florence, and went on missions to the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia, gaining broad experience of European politics.
  3. 1456–1458Siena · SienaCreated cardinal in 1456, he continued his humanist writing and planned the rebuilding of his native Corsignano as the ideal city of Pienza, expressing a humanist vision of urban planning.
  4. 1458–1464Vatican · VaticanElected pope in 1458, he wrote the autobiographical Commentaries, denounced Sigismondo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, and called for a crusade against the Ottomans; he died in 1464 at the camp at Ancona.

Sources