PIUS II

born Oct. 18, 1405, Corsignano [now Pienza], Republic of Siena died Aug. 14/15, 1464, Ancona, Papal States original name Enea Silvio Piccolomini outstanding Italian humanist and astute politician who as pope (reigned 145864) tried to unite Europe in a crusade against the Turks at a time when they threatened to overrun all of Europe. He wrote voluminously about the events of his day. Additional reading Writings Pius II's complete works, Opera omnia, ed. by M. Hopperus, were printed in 1551. Other collections are Orationes politicae, ed. by J.D. Mansi (175559); and Opera inedita, ed. by J. Cugnoni (1883). English translations His novel De duobus amantibus was much translated (first Eng. trans., The Goodly History of the . . . Ladye Lucres of Scene in Tuskan, 1560; later Eng. trans., The Tale of Two Lovers, by F. Grierson, 1929). The Commentaries of Pius II, 5 vol., trans. by F.A. Gragg and ed. by L.C. Gabel (193757), were abbreviated into the autobiographical account Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope (1959). The De gestis Concilii Basiliensis commentariorum libri II, ed. and trans. by D. Hay and W.K. Smith (1967), was written in 1440 supporting conciliarism. Lives B. Platyna, Vita Pii II in RIS (Rerum italicarum scriptores), vol. 3, pp. 246263, by a contemporary curial official; R.J. Mitchell, The Laurels and the Tiara: Pope Pius II, 14581464 (1962); G. Paparelli, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pio II (1950).