Lecture Series - Travels with a Renaissance Pope: The Life & Times of Pius II Piccolomini
October 28, 2020
If you are unable to attend the live session, do not worry - all those who register will automatically be sent copies of the lecture to view in your own time (from around four hours after it takes place).
Pope Pius II
Born near Siena, a not always well behaved churchman, but influential and well connected – Pius II Piccolomini (born 1405) was pope between 1458 and 1464 and he is the only pope to write an autobiography, the celebrated Commentaries, one of the great texts of the Renaissance. He travelled widely not only in Italy but all over Europe, even to Scotland. Using his ‘commentaries’ on his contemporaries Tom Duncan will lead us on a journey through early renaissance Italy accompanying this remarkable man on his travels, enlivened with witty quotations and illustrated with some of the finest works of art created by Piero della Francesca, Mantegna and above all the famous frescoes in Siena Cathedral Library by Pinturicchio, vividly capturing the pope’s life and times.
Pius II appraises the life of Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini:
‘Such was Sigismondo, a man with no tolerance for peace, a devotee of pleasure, patient of any hardship, eager for war, the worst of all men who have ever lived or ever will live, the shame of Italy, the disgrace of our age.’
Format for Lecture
Tom gave a one-hour illustrated lecture.
You will not need to download any software and the lecture will work in any browser. For the best experience use a desktop or laptop - but it will also work on an iPad or similar tablet.
