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Pope Pius II

Pope Pius II

1405 CE–1464 CE · Corsignano (Pienza)

Born Enea Silvio Piccolomini in Corsignano—later rebuilt as the model Renaissance town of Pienza and renamed for him—Pius II was the most accomplished humanist to wear the tiara. Before ordination he was a celebrated poet, diplomat, and author, even of secular and erotic works, whose autobiography, the Commentaries, is uniquely candid for a pope. As pontiff he repudiated his earlier conciliarist views in the bull Execrabilis, asserting papal supremacy over councils. He devoted his reign chiefly to organizing a crusade against the Ottomans following Constantinople's fall; he died at Ancona awaiting a fleet that never sailed, the expedition collapsing with him.

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Did you know?

  • Before he was pope, he wrote a bestselling erotic novel

    In 1444, years before he was elected Pope Pius II, the humanist Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini wrote The Tale of Two Lovers (Historia de duobus amantibus) — an erotic tale of the affair between a married woman and a courtier, told largely through their exchanged love letters. It became one of the runaway bestsellers of the 15th century and is often cited as one of the earliest novels-in-letters in European literature. Later, as pope, he tried to disown the racy writings of his youth.

    How we know

    Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini 1405–1464; Historia de duobus amantibus written 1444 in Vienna, before he took holy orders; a 15th-century bestseller. Elected Pope Pius II in 1458; in a 1463 retraction bull he distanced himself from his youthful writings.

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Stop 0 of 41405Born

Corsignano (Pienza)Italy

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In the same place & time

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Pope Pius II’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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