Pope Nicholas V

Born Tommaso Parentucelli in Sarzana, Nicholas V was the first great Renaissance humanist pope. A renowned scholar and book collector, he founded the Vatican Library, commissioning translations of Greek classics and gathering manuscripts that became Europe's premier collection. He brought peace with the Council of Basel, securing the final end of the conciliar schism, and proclaimed the well-attended 1450 Jubilee. He launched ambitious rebuilding of Rome and Saint Peter's. His later years were darkened by the suppression of Stefano Porcari's conspiracy and by the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, a catastrophe whose refugee scholars further enriched the Italian Renaissance he so championed.