Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:22:57.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Arms and Letters: Julius Caesar, the Commentaries of Pope Pius II, and the Politicization of Papal Imagery*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Emily O'Brien
Emily O'Brien*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In their title, the Commentaries of Pope Pius II recall the works of Julius Caesar by the same name. The connections between these ancient and humanist histories, however, run much deeper. This article explores this relationship in detail and in the broader historical and historiographical contexts of fifteenth-century Italy. It argues that in both Caesar's histories and in his career more generally, Pius found much that resonated with his own experiences, challenges, and goals. More importantly, he found in these ancient Commentaries valuable apologetic strategies for constructing his own textual self-portrait as both pope and prince. In choosing Caesar's histories as his models, Pius was following a recent historiographical precedent. Several Italian Renaissance humanists had also turned to Caesar's works as guides for writing histories about leaders of contemporary temporal politics. This article argues that by adopting the same models when shaping his own image, Pius was effectively politicizing his self-portrait in his Commentaries.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , Winter 2009 , pp. 1057 - 1097
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

A shorter version of this paper was delivered in Siena, Italy, at the conference “Pio Secondo Pontefice: Il Papa del Rinascimento a Siena,” Convegno Internazionale di Studi, 5–7 May 2005. For their constructive criticism on the ideas presented here and on early drafts of this article, I would like to thank Anthony Molho, Riccardo Fubini, Kurt Raaflaub, Anthony F. D'Elia, Christopher Celenza, Michael C. J. Putnam, Joanna Drell, and Paul Garfinkel. I am especially grateful to Thomas M. Izbicki and to a second, anonymous reader who reviewed the manuscript for Renaissance Quarterly. Their thoughtful suggestions offered me excellent guidance through the process of revision. I would also like to thank the journal's copyeditor Erika Suffern. Except when otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

References

Adcock, F. E.. Caesar as Man of Letters. Hamden, 1969.Google Scholar
Ady, Cecilia. Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini): The Humanist Pope. London, 1913.Google Scholar
Albanese, Gabriella. “Lo spazio della gloria: Il condottiere nel De Viris Illustribus di Facio e nella trattatistica dell'Umanesimo.” In Condottieri e uomini d'arme (2002), 93–123.Google Scholar
Albanese, Gabriella, , Pietragalla, Daniela, , Bulleri, Monia, and , Tangheroni, Marco. “Storiografia come ufficialità alla corte di Alfonso il Magnanimo: I Rerum gestarum Alfonsi regis libri X di Bartolomeo Facio.” In Studi su Bartolomeo Facio, ed. , Albanese, Gabriella, 45–95. Pisa, 2000.Google Scholar
Albrecht, Michael von. Storia della Letteratura Latina: Da Livio Andronico a Boezio. Trans. , Setaioli, Aldo. 3 vols. Turin, 1995.Google Scholar
Avesani, Rino. “Epaeneticorum ad Pium II Pont. Max. Libri V.” In Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II (1968), 15–97.Google Scholar
Baldi, Barbara. Pio II e le trasformazioni dell'Europa cristiana (1457–1464). Milan, 2006.Google Scholar
Barlow, Jonathan. “Noble Gauls and Their Other in Caesar's Propaganda.” In Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter (1998), 139–70.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny. Rev. ed., Princeton, 1966.Google Scholar
Bianca, Concetta. “La terza edizione moderna dei Commentarii di Pio II.” Roma nel Rinascimento: RR (1995): 5–16.Google Scholar
Biondo, Flavio. Scritti inediti e rari di Biondi Flavio. Ed. , Nogara, Bartolomeo. Rome, 1927.Google Scholar
Brown, Virginia. “Caesar.” In Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries, ed. , Cranz, F. E. and , Kristeller, P. O., 3:87–139. Washington, DC, 1976.Google Scholar
Brown, Virginia. “Latin Manuscripts of Caesar's Gallic Wars.” In Palaeographica, Diplomatica et Archivistica: Studi in Onore di Giulio Battelli, 1:105–57. Rome, 1979.Google Scholar
Brown, Virginia. “Portraits of Julius Caesar in Latin Manuscripts of the Commentaries.” Viator 12 (1981): 319–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruni, Leonardo. De studiis et litteris liber ad Baptistam de Malatestis . In Humanist Educational Treatises, ed. and trans. , Kallendorf, Craig W., 92–125. Cambridge, MA, 2002.Google Scholar
Burckhardt, Jakob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Trans. , Middlemore, S. G. C.. New York, 1960.Google Scholar
Caesar, Julius. Opera Omnia. Ms. London, British Library, Harley 2683.Google Scholar
Caesar, Julius. Opera Omnia. Ms. Vatican Library, Chig. Lat. H. VII. 214.Google Scholar
Caesar, Julius. The Civil Wars. Trans. , Peskett, A. G.. Cambridge, MA, 1914.Google Scholar
Caesar, Julius. The Gallic War. Trans. , Edwards, H. J.. Cambridge, MA, 1917.Google Scholar
Calzona, Arturo, , Fiore, Francesco Paolo, , Tenenti, Alberto, and , Vasoli, Cesare, eds. Il Sogno di Pio II e il Viaggio da Roma a Mantova: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Mantova, 13–15 aprile 2000. Florence, 2003.Google Scholar
Canfora, Davide. La Controversia di Poggio Bracciolini e Guarino Veronese su Cesare e Scipione. Florence, 2001.Google Scholar
Canfora, Davide. Prima di Machiavelli: politica e cultura in età umanistica. Rome, 2005.Google Scholar
Ceserani, Remo. “Rassegna Bibliografica.” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 141(1964): 265–82.Google Scholar
Ceserani, Remo. “Note sull'attività di scrittore di Pio II.” In Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II (1968), 99–115.Google Scholar
Chambers, D. S.. Popes, Cardinals and War: The Military Church in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. London, 2006.Google Scholar
Cicero. The Speeches: Pro Lege Manilia, Pro Caecina, Pro Cluentio, Pro Rabirio Perduellionis. Trans. Grose Hodge, H.. Cambridge, MA, 1927.Google Scholar
Cicero. Brutus. Trans. Hendrickson, G. L.. Cambridge, MA, 1962.Google Scholar
Condottieri e uomini d'arme nell'Italia del Rinascimento. Ed. Mario del Treppo. Naples, 2002.Google Scholar
Crevatin, Giuliana. “La politica e la retorica: Poggio e la controversia su Cesare e Scipione. Con una nuova edizione della lettera a Scipione Mainenti.” In Poggio Bracciolini 1380–1980, Nel VI centenario della nascita, ed. , Fubini, Riccardo etal., 281–342. Florence, 1992.Google Scholar
Crevatin, Giuliana. “Vite vendute: biografie di capitani di ventura.” In Condottieri e uomini d'arme (2002), 227–41.Google Scholar
Dall'Oco, Sondra. “La ‘laudatio regis’ nel ‘De rebus gestis ab Alphonso primo’ di Bartolomeo Facio.” Rinascimento, 2nd ser., 35 (1995): 243–51.Google Scholar
Dall'Oco, Sondra. “Bartolomeo Facio e la tecnica dell' ‘excursus’ nella biografia di Alfonso d'Aragona.” Archivio Storico Italiano 154, no. 2 (1996): 207–51.Google Scholar
De’, Pandoni, Giannantonio. Commentaria comitis Jacobi Picinini vocati Scipionis Aemiliani edita per P. Porcelium et missa Alphonso Regi Aragonum. Vol. 20, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Ed. , Muratori, Ludovico. Milan, 1731.Google Scholar
De’, Pandoni. Commentaria secundi anni de gestis Scipionis Picinini in Annibalem Sfortiam ad Serenissimum Principem Franciscum Foscari Venetorum Ducem per Porcellium . Vol. 25, no. 1, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Milan, 1751.Google Scholar
Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. Rome, 1960–.Google Scholar
Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II. Atti del Convegno per il Quinto Centenario della Morte e Altri Scritti Raccolti da Domenico Maffei. Ed. Domenico Maffei. Siena, 1968.Google Scholar
Fabbri, Renata, ed. Per la memorialistica veneziana in latino del Quattrocento: Filippo da Rimini, Francesco Contarini, Coriolano Cippico. Padua, 1988.Google Scholar
Fabbri, Renata. “Storiografia veneziana del Quattrocento.” In La Storiografia Umanistica, ed. , di Stefano, Anita et al., 1:347–98. Messina, 1992.Google Scholar
Facio, Bartolomeo. Rerum Gestarum Alfonsi regis libri. Ed. and trans. , Pietragalla, Daniela. Alessandria, 2004.Google Scholar
Ferente, Serena. La sfortuna di Jacopo Piccinino: Storia dei bracceschi in Italia, 1423–1465. Florence, 2005.Google Scholar
Ferraù, Giacomo. “Il ‘De Rebus ab Alphonso Primo Gestis’ de Bartolomeo Facio.” Studi Umanistici 1 (1990): 60–113.Google Scholar
Frittelli, Ugo. Giannantonio de' Pandoni detto “il Porcellio”: Studio critico. Florence, 1900.Google Scholar
Gelzer, Matthias. Caesar: Politician and Statesman. Trans. , Needham, Peter. Cambridge, MA, 1968.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Felix. Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence. Princeton, 1965.Google Scholar
Gilli, Patrick. “Eléments pour une histoire de la gallophobie italienne à la Renaissance: Pie II et la nation française.” Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome 106, no. 1 (1994): 275–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilli, Patrick. Au miroir de l'humanisme: Les représentations de la France dans la culture savante italienne à la fin du Moyen Âge (c. 1360–1490). Rome, 1997.Google Scholar
Grendler, Paul. Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300–1600. Baltimore, 1979.Google Scholar
Guglielminetti, Marziano. Memoria e scrittura: l'autobiografia da Dante a Cellini. Turin, 1975.Google Scholar
Hall, Lindsay G. H.. “Ratio and Romanitas in the Bellum Gallicum.” In Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter (1998), 11–44.Google Scholar
Ianziti, Gary. “Storiografia come propaganda: Il caso dei ‘Commentarii’ Rinascimentali.” Società e Storia 22 (1983): 909–18.Google Scholar
Ianziti, Gary. Humanistic Historiography under the Sforzas: Politics and Propaganda in Fifteenth-Century Milan. Oxford, 1988.Google Scholar
Ianziti, Gary. “I Commentarii: Appunti per la storia di un genere storiografico quattrocentesco.” Archivio Storico Italiano 150, no. 4 (1992): 1029–63.Google Scholar
Ilardi, Vincent. “The Italian League, Francesco Sforza, and Charles VII (1454–1461).” Studies in the Renaissance 6 (1959): 129–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter: The War Commentaries as Political Instruments. Ed. Kathryn Welch and Anton Powell. London, 1998.Google Scholar
Kagan, Kimberley. The Eye of Command. Ann Arbor, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Hans. “Untersuchungen über die Commentarii des Papstes Pius II.” Mitteilungen des Instituts Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 48 (1934): 58–92.Google Scholar
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters II. Rome, 1985.Google Scholar
Mallett, M. E.., and , Hale, J. R.. The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice, c. 1400 to 1617. Cambridge, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martels, Zweder R. W. M. von. “Pope Pius II and the Idea of the Appropriate Thematisation of the Self.” In Princes and Princely Culture, 1450–1650, ed. , Gosman, M., , Macdonald, A., , Vanderjagt, A., 2:1–21. Leiden, 2005.Google Scholar
Meserve, Margaret. “From Samarkand to Scythia: Reinventions of Asia in Renaissance Geography and Political Thought.” In Pius II — “El Più Expeditivo Pontifice”: Selected Studies on Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1458–1464), ed. , von Martels, Zweder R. W. M. and , Vanderjagt, Arjo J., 13–39. Leiden, 2003.Google Scholar
Meserve, Margaret. Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought. Cambridge, MA, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pade, Marianne. “Guarino and Caesar at the Court of the Este.” In La corte di Ferrara e il suo mecenatismo, 1441–1598/The Court of Ferrara and its Patronage. Atti del convegno internazionale, Copenhagen, maggio 1987, ed. , Pade, Marianne, , Petersen, Lene Waage, and , Quarta, Daniela, 71–91. Modena, 1990.Google Scholar
Panormita, Antonio. Antonii Panormitae De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum libri quatuor. Commentarium in eosdem Aeneae Sylvii quo capitatim cum Alphonsinis contendit. Basel, 1538.Google Scholar
Pastor, Ludwig von. The History of the Popes. Ed. and trans. , Antrobus, Frederick Ignatius. 40 vols. 5th ed., London, 1949.Google Scholar
Pellegrini, Marco. “Pio II, il Collegio cardinalizio e la dieta di Mantova.” In Il Sogno di Pio II e il Viaggio da Roma a Mantova: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Mantova, 13–15 aprile 2000, ed. , Calzona, Arturo, , Fiore, Francesco Paolo, , Tenenti, Alberto, and , Vasoli, Cesare, 15–76. Florence, 2003.Google Scholar
Pertusi, Agostino. “Gli inizi della storiografia umanistica del Quattrocento.” In La storiografia veneziana fino al secolo XVI. Aspetti e problemi, ed. , Pertusi, Agostino, 269–332. Florence, 1970.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. Aeneae Sylvii Piccolominei Senensis, qui post adeptum pontificatum Pius eius nominis secundus appellatus est, opera quae extant omnia. Basel, 1551.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. Libellus Dialogorum de Generalis Concilii Auctoritate et Gestis Basileensium , in Analecta monumentorum omnis aevi Vindobonensia, vol. 2, ed. , Kollar, Adam F.. Vienna, 1743.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. Der Briefwechsel des Eneas Silivus Piccolomini . Ed. , Wolkan, Rudolf. Fontes Rerum Austriacarum: Diplomataria et Acta, 2nd ser., vols. 61, 67, 68. Vienna, 1909–18.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. De Gestis Concilii Basiliensis Commentariorum Libri II. Ed. , Hay, Denys and , Smith, W.K.. Oxford, 1978.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. I Commentarii. Ed. and trans. , Totaro, Luigi. 2 vols. Milan, 1984.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. Enee Silvii Piccolominei postea PII PP. II Carmina. Ed. , Van Heck, Adrian. Vatican City, 1994.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius II). Intro. and trans. , Izbicki, Thomas M., , Christianson, Gerald, and , Krey, Philip. Washington, DC, 2006.Google Scholar
Picotti, Giovanni Battista. Ricerche Umanistiche. Florence, 1955.Google Scholar
Picotti, Giovanni Battista. La Dieta di Mantova e la Politica de' Veneziani. 1912. Reprint, Trent, 1996.Google Scholar
Prodi, Paolo. Il sovrano pontefice. Un corpo e due anime: la monarchia papale nella prima età moderna. Bologna, 1982.Google Scholar
Rambaud, Michel. L'Art de la déformation historique dans les “Commentaires” du César. 2nd ed., Paris, 1966.Google Scholar
Rawlings, Louis. “Caesar's Portrayal of Gauls as Warriors.” Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter (1998), 171–92.Google Scholar
Ryder, A. F. C.. Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, 1396–1458. Oxford, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Christine. Julius II, The Warrior Pope. Oxford, 1993.Google Scholar
Stacey, Peter. Roman Monarchy and the Renaissance Prince. Cambridge, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stieber, Joachim W.. Pope Eugenius IV, the Council of Basel, and the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authorities in the Empire: The Conflict over Supreme Authority and Power in the Church. Leiden, 1978.Google Scholar
Stinger, Charles L.. The Renaissance in Rome. Bloomington, 1985.Google Scholar
Tateo, Francesco. I miti della storiografia umanistica. Rome, 1990.Google Scholar
Thomas, Richard. Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition. Cambridge, 1982.Google Scholar
Torigian, Catherine. “The Aoyos of Caesar's Bellum Gallicum, Especially as Revealed in its First Five Chapters.” In Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter (1998), 45–60.Google Scholar
Totaro, Luigi. Pio II nei suoi “Commentarii”: un contributo alla lettura della autobiografia di Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Bologna, 1978.Google Scholar
Van Heck, Adrian. “Amator vetusti ritus et observator diligens: stile e modelli stilistici di Pio II.” In Pio II nella cultura del suo tempo: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, 1989, ed. , Secchi Tarugi, Luisa Rotondi, 119–132. Milan, 1991.Google Scholar
Viti, Paolo. “Bonus miles et fortis ac civium suorum amator: la figura del condottiero nell'opera di Leonardo Bruni.” In Condottieri e uomini d'arme (2002), 75–91.Google Scholar
Welch, Kathryn. “Caesar and his Officers in the Gallic War Commentaries.” In Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter (1998), 85–110.Google Scholar