A finely preserved edition of this fascinating and important collection of humanist letters by a future pope and the third to be printed by Koberger.
Edited by the German scholar Nicolaus von Wyle (c. 1413-79) it holds the correspondence of Aenas Sylvius (later Pope Pius II from 1458-64) one of the most prominent humanists of his time, first as “poeta laureatus”, then as cardinal and archbishop. The recipients and writers of the 400 plus letters include the Emperors Sigismund and Frederick III, Ladislaus of Hungary, Wenceslaus of Bohemia and many others, and the subjects include politics, Church policy, the crusade against the Turks, and love and family problems as well as other topics which the author encountered in his varied and notable activities.
Found here is one of the earliest novels written in 1444, De duobus amantibus Euryalo et Lucretia (Ep CXIIII, f. L3r) first published around 1470. It tells the story of Lucretia and Euralius, and is supposedly based on a love affair between a young married noblewoman from Siena and a visiting German, probably Caspar Slich, in the service of Emperor Sigismund; the story ends tragically with the death of the unhappy woman, abandoned by her lover who must follow the emperor to another town.
As well as the inclusion of Pius’ famous Epistola ad Mahumetem (Ep 410; here with annotations by an early hand) aimed at the conversion of the Ottomans composed in 1461, also included is a letter (Ep 155) sent soon after the Fall of Constantinople which illustrates both his preoccupation with the threat of the Ottomans and his love of learning. “In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks led by Mehmed II, the Conqueror. Aeneas related this news to Nicholas of Cusa, once a fellow member at the Council of Basel but now a cardinal and one of the most talented churchmen of the age. Pope Nicholas V would attempt, in vain, to rally Christendom against this threat from the East. Little did Aeneas know that five years later he would become Pope Pius II and his pontificate be dominated by this issue, but the attempt to organise a crusade to recover lost Christian lands and defeat the Turkish threat would be frustrated by princes more interested in their own policies than in larger objectives. Pius would perish in the cause. Meanwhile, one of his motivations can be discerned in this letter, which laments lost treasures of learning, not just a lost city.” (Izbicki).
Other items include the Descriptio urbis Viennensis and De curialium miseria by Piccolomini, Epistola de balnei and Epistola de morte Hieronymi Pragensis by Poggius Florentinus, and De duobus amantibus Guiscardo et Sigismunda (a Latin version of Boccaccio, Decameron IV.1) by Leonardus Brunus Aretinus.
Provenance: an early inscription on title-page with unidentified six-line verse. At foot of title inscription dated 1579 of ‘Balthasaris Mauritius?’, ‘Dominus mihi adjutor’ Ps 117,6. At head of title an inscription dated 1664.
ISTC ip00720000. BMC II 442. HC *156. Goff P-720. Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (2006). Thomas M. Izbicki, Gerald Christianson, and Philip Krey .
