Image: Top half, Katie Fellows on the right, Barry Torch on the left; Bottom Half: The manuscript of the Commentaries, Reg. Lat. 1995. Image from the Vatican Library Digital Library, https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Reg.lat.1995
Barry Torch:
Well, Katie and I finally met! On a Zoom call last Friday, we chatted, discussed our self-isolation views from our respective locations, and had a brief discussion over what we were doing before we turned our attention to the preface, and first chapter, of Pius II's Commentaries.
As noted in a prior post, we are mostly using the I Tatti volumes of Pius II (until we get to the not-yet-translated bit, when we'll change up editions on y'all), so we both read the very short reading over the past week. In the Preface and Book I (Chapter 1) Pius is doing two very different things in two different voices. So, in quick (and rambling) sum, here are our thoughts, divided by the chapters.
PRAEFATIO/PREFACE
B: Prefaces are my thing. A few chapters of my dissertation (in progress) are on prefaces and their mechanics, so I find them utterly fascinating, as the author tends to address the reader directly, something they don't do throughout the text - or they tend not to! This preface is no different. Pius here is addressing the reader directly (a singular reader, as the Latin consistently refers to the second person singular, the 'tu'), and there's a major expectation placed on the reader: the reader is already supposed to be mostly sympathetic to Pius and his reign. In her excellent book (and articles) on Pius, Emily O'Brien very convincingly argues that the entire Commentaries need to be read as an apology for Pius' reign - not in our sense of apologizing for something wrong, but in the old sense of trying to justify ones self. This is pretty standard for historical-writing at the time; the desire wasn't so much historical objectivity (an invention of the 1700s and 1800s) as it was that history should explain why things were the way they were. So Pius, who had written a few of his own histories by the time he started writing the Commentaries, used the preface of this work to let the reader really know what to expect. You can really see this where Pius full out writes, "You who may someday read these pages, show them as much respect as you would deny to one who tells a lie". Pius is very concerned with the image of himself in the mind of his reader, and how he is meant to be remembered. While this desire is seen throughout the Commentaries, it becomes pointedly obvious in the preface - a venue that Pius deliberately uses to talk to his reader, and to sway their thinking and reception of this apology.
K: My fascination with memorialisation and legacy comes from my own doctoral project. I’ve been working on Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492-1503) as papal vice-chancellor, a position he occupied from 1457-92. Whilst his contemporaries praised his abilities, particularly his administrative ones during this period, his pontificate has produced a much different and much darker history- in essence a Black Legend. However, how far this is true is still a contentious matter in scholarship, for what it’s worth- Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere has a lot to answer for, his own hatred of Borgia has had a chronically detrimental effect on Borgia’s legacy. So while Pius definitely had a history of historical writing, The Commentaries are much more pointed than just as a statement justifying himself and his reign. I mentioned in an earlier post the importance of the Great Schism for Pope Pius II. From reading the preface, the theme that resonated for me was the notion of memorialisation and notions of legacy. Pius’s pontificate (ooft what a tongue twister that could be) is situated between that of two very different pontiffs: Callixtus III (Alonso Borgia) and Paul II (Pietro Barbo). In his writing of this preface, and The Commentaries more generally, Pius is not just emphasising himself - he's emphasising the role of the papacy, and Pope, as well in this preface. He writes, "We ourselves have seen Martin V, Eugenius IV, Nicholas V and Callixtus III condemned by the populace while they lived and extolled to the skies when they were dead ... After his death, Envy will be still and when those passions which warp the judgment are no more, true report will rise again and number Pius among the illustrious popes." His concern in this preface isn't simply in an apology for his life and his reign, but also a major political promotion of the papacy, and the Pope, as a whole. And seeing how he says this directly to the reader was a fascinating discovery!
BOOK I, CHAPTER 1
K: Pius couldn’t even get past the first sentence before a wonderful and unashamed piece of self-aggrandisement for the Piccolomini family. "The Piccolomini who came from Siena from Rome… were counted among the oldest and noblest families of the state, were illustrious in arms and letters and possessed many castles and fortresses so long as the aristocrats were in power." As my research has usually focused on papal Rome, my interactions with the rest of the Italian peninsula tends to be shaped by papal interactions or the cardinals from respective city-states and kingdoms. I thoroughly enjoyed researching both Siena and the Piccolomini’s background as I knew relatively little about the family that witnessed two of its members become pope within the space of fifty years. By the time of Pius’s birth, the Piccolomini were not the noble family Pius first alludes to, but due to the changing vicissitudes in Siena’s status and its relationship with the surrounding territories of first Florence and then Milan, had become impoverished, with little of their original holdings still retained by the family. Siena was part of the alliance between Florence and the papacy against Milan until 1375, at which time Siena joined a Florence-led league in opposition to the papacy during the “War of the Eight Saints” until 1378. After the revolt of Montepulciano in 1387, at Florentine instigation, the Sienese accepted the overlordship of the Milanese ruler Giangaleazzo Visconti, until resuming peace with Florence in 1404. "... the Piccolomini family was humbled with the rest." Can we therefore see the Commentaries as an attempt to regain lost ground? Is the pen mightier than the sword?
B: As part and parcel of your comment, Katie, one of the things that I find so fascinating about this source is how Pius consistently buttresses himself, and he takes every opportunity to do so. I explored this exact section in a paper for one of my courses in the first year of my doctorate, following up on Pius' conception of the Romans throughout the Commentaries - both the Ancient Romans, who he loved and worshipped (see, his background in humanism, the fifteenth-century obsession with the classics, particularly the Roman literary works, and their repercussions in fifteenth century life), but also, the Rome that he... ruled, at this point - a very different Rome than the Rome he imagined, and the Rome he wanted it to be. For the Popes, as I'm sure you know, fifteenth-century Rome wasn't fun! So there's this imagined "Roman-ness" (or Romanitas) that Pius pulls on, and he does it twice in this short chapter! The first sentence, you pointed out - the Sienese "Piccolomini" family had no relation to Roman nobility, or any discrete, findable Roman heritage (and people have looked!) But later, when describing the history of his father, he full out references the Aeneid, the famous propaganda piece written by Vergil to glorify the Roman Empire. He describes the journeys of his father Silvio as "various adventures", subtly referring to the same various adventures of Aeneas (his namesake) in Vergil's famous poem. Pius II was a fantastic wordsmith, in many senses, and it was a method of humanist writing to rely on quotations and references to classical sources. So he's just trying to shore up his connection to Rome - an imagined, mythic, non-real Rome in the 1460s, but "Rome" nonetheless.
Next time, we delve into more of Pius' history, which tend to be "short" until he starts engaging in church and imperial politics (which are so, so delicious). Join us in a few weeks, and until then, stay well!