Pius II ranks among my top 10 people in
history. He left an autobiography, published under the title:
Pius II [
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini]. Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope, The Commentaries of Pius II, An Abridgment. Trans. Florence A. Gragg. Ed. Leona C. Gabel. G. P. Putnam’s Sons,
New York, 1959, 381 pp.
Gragg and Gabel, both Smith College, used the original
Vatican manuscript, partly in Pius’ own handwriting, as the source. Pius also wrote the first ever
History of
Germany, which is the
part of "The Commentaries" that G&G cut. Before he was a cardinal,
Aeneas held the job, Poet Laureate of the Holy
Roman Empire. He is the only pope known to have written and self-published a pornographic novel. The Holy
Roman Emperor loved the book. It was last published in English about 1600.
Pius knew everybody that was anybody.
Of
Cosimo de’Medici, he wrote: "He was more cultured than merchants usually are."
Of Sigismondo Malatesta, he wrote: "Of all
men…the worst scoundrel, the discrase of
Italy and the infamy of our times."
Of Louis XI,
King of
France: "Avarice is
his law."
Of
Guillaume d’Estouerville, Cardinal of Rouen, who almost beat
Aeneas out in the papal election of 1458: "A slippery fellow who would sell
his own soul"
Of himself, he wrote: "After
his death…true report will rise again and number Pius among the illustrious popes."
Robert Graves robbed this book big time for "I
Claudius."
Cheers,
Follibus Fanaticus