The Renaissance popes were among the most enlightened and generous patrons of arts and letters in the Europe of their day. The diaries of Pius II give us an intimate glimpse of the life and thought of one of the greatest of the Renaissance popes. Pius II (1405–1464) began life as Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini in a small town near Siena and became a famous Latin poet and diplomat. Originally an opponent of the papacy as well as something of a libertine, Aeneas eventually reconciled himself with the Roman church and became a priest, then a cardinal. Finally he was elected Pope Pius II (1458) and dedicated his pontificate to organizing a pan-European crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Pius's Commentaries, the only autobiography ever written by a pope, was composed in elegant humanistic Latin modeled on Caesar and Cicero. This edition contains a fresh Latin text based on the last manuscript written in Pius's lifetime and an updated and corrected version of the 1937 translation by Florence Alden Gragg.
By:
Pius II Edited by:
Margaret Meserve Imprint: Harvard Uni.Press Academi Country of Publication: United States Volume: 83 Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 133mm,
Spine: 31mm
Weight: 658g ISBN:9780674058385 ISBN 10: 0674058380 Series:The I Tatti Renaissance Library Pages: 444 Publication Date:03 September 2018 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active