This book contains eleven essays on Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405-1464), humanist, author, courtier, inveterate traveller, conciliarist and then papalist, priest, bishop and finally pope under the name Pius II (1458-1464), urban architect of Pienza, grand patron of the arts, and would-be Crusader. Contributors include: Giuseppe Chironi, Thomas M. Izbicki, Zweder von Martels, Claudia Märtl, Margaret Meserve, Rolando Montecalvo, Keith Sidwell, Marcello Simonetta, and Benedikt Konrad Vollmann.

This book contains eleven essays on Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405-1464), humanist, author, courtier, inveterate traveller, conciliarist and then papalist, priest, bishop and finally pope under the name Pius II (1458-1464), urban architect of Pienza, grand patron of the arts, and would-be Crusader. Contributors include: Giuseppe Chironi, Thomas M. Izbicki, Zweder von Martels, Claudia Martl, Margaret Meserve, Rolando Montecalvo, Keith Sidwell, Marcello Simonetta, and Benedikt Konrad Vollmann.

"Written in the mid-fifteenth century, Pope Pius II's Commentaries are the only known autobiography of a reigning pontiff and a fundamental text in the history of Renaissance humanism. In this book, Emily O'Brien positions Pius' expansive autobiographical text within that century's contentious debate over ecclesiastical sovereignty. Presenting the Commentaries as Pius' response to the crisis of authority, legitimacy, and relevance that was engulfing the Renaissance papacy, she shows how the Commentaries function as both an aggressive assault on the papal monarchy's chief opponents and a systematic defense of Pius's own troubled pontificate and his pre-papal career. Illustrating how the language, imagery, and ideals of secular power inform Pius' apologetic self-portrait, The Commentaries of Pope Pius II (1458 1464) and the Crisis of the Fifteenth-Century Papacy demonstrates the role that Pius and his writings played in the evolution of the Renaissance papacy."--Provided by publisher.

Since 1971, the International Congress for Neo-Latin Studies has been organised every three years in various cities in Europe and North America. In August 2009, Uppsala in Sweden was the venue of the fourteenth Neo-Latin conference, held by the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies. The proceedings of the Uppsala conference have been collected in this volume under the motto “Litteras et artes nobis traditas excolere – Reception and Innovation”. Ninety-nine individual and five plenary papers spanning the period from the Renaissance to the present offer a variety of themes covering a range of genres such as history, literature, philology, art history, and religion. The contributions will be of relevance not only for scholarly readers, but also for an interested non-professional audience.

Since 1971, the International Congress for Neo-Latin Studies has been organised every three years in various cities in Europe and North America. In August 2009, Uppsala in Sweden was the venue of the fourteenth Neo-Latin conference, held by the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies. The proceedings of the Uppsala conference have been collected in this volume under the motto Litteras et artes nobis traditas excolere Reception and Innovation. Ninety-nine individual and five plenary papers spanning the period from the Renaissance to the present offer a variety of themes covering a range of genres such as history, literature, philology, art history, and religion. The contributions will be of relevance not only for scholarly readers, but also for an interested non-professional audience.

This popular text circulated widely in manuscript form and was printed in several editions between the late 15th and the early 18th centuries, in Latin, German, and Italian. The present volume represents the first time this work has been translated into English, bringing its colorful narrative to the attention of a wider audience. This edition also provides extensive footnotes, an appendix of rulers, and a lengthy introduction to Aeneas?s life and the context and relevance of this work.

Plague and Pleasure is a lively popular history that introduces a new hypothesis about the impetus behind the cultural change in Renaissance Italy. The Renaissance coincided with a period of chronic, constantly recurring plague, unremitting warfare and pervasive insecurity. Consequently, people felt a need for mental escape to alternative, idealized realities, distant in time or space from the unendurable present but made vivid to the imagination through literature, art, and spectacle.