Enea Silvio Piccolomini cosmographer

Abstract

The work of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) constitutes a significant example of humanistic literature from central Italy in the Quattrocento. Poet, cosmographer, eminent orator, political theorist of State, diplomat, Piccolomini followed the religious career and was designated Pope Pius II in 1458. Protagonist in the center of the literary and political events of his time, Pius II was ahead of a pontificate marked by Turks march toward the West. The meeting point between responsibilities as cosmographer, the historian and the narrator traveler, his books that arise here concern us closely: Germania and Historia rerum ubique gestarum, the latter divided into two works idealized as pendant: Europe and Description of Asia. In the first case, it is the exposure of the beauties of the cities in Germania, a narrative that ranges from topographical and geographical descriptions, to the appreciation of the appearance of cities. In the second case, focusing on the description of Asia, we will look for to realize as a most important example of the cosmographical humanistic description in the Renaissance, which one of its main objective is to understand the historical limits between two worlds: the Middle East and Latin Christianity.