Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Pius II: An Abridgment [VINTAGE 1959] [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Near fine condition red linen boards with gold spine lettering contained in a good condition color illustrated dust jacket. Includes Foreword by Leona C. Gabel, Smith College, June 1958; Notes on the Illustrations; Introduction; Preface to the COmmentaries and Index. Translation by Dr. Florence A. Gragg, Professor Emeritus of Latin of Smith College, following the Vatican manuscript. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates, black-and-white maps and map illustrated front and rear endpapers. Some small internal dust jacket closed tear repairs. "About the Book: In 1464, a German cleric in ROme was commissioned to make a copy of a manuscript. The copy made, he signed his name, John Gobellinus, and thereby unwittingly furnished the basis for a long-lived misunderstanding concerning the authoriship of the work. The error was perpetuated by Francesco Bandinin de Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena, who had a printed edition of the manuscript. The Commentiries of Pius II, printed in 1584, and asserted Bobellinus was the author and that his own manuscript ws uniquely authentic. Thus the Commentaries appeared in printed for in a vesion incomplete and differing from the original. A second printing in Rome in 1589 and in Frankfurt in 1614 gave that version a practically difinitive character. But as early as 1630 the assumed authorship of the COmmentaries was questioned and belief was expressed that the author was indeed Pope Pius II. In the late 19th century, Pastory, the eminent historian, discovered the Vatican Codex Reginensis 1995, which he recognized as the true original Commentaries written partly in the hand of Pius himself, the rest dictated by him to his secretary." - excerpt from the rear outer jacket. "The only autobiography ever left by a pope, The Commentaries of Pius II constitute one of the revealing documents of the Renaissance. Its author was statesman, poet, humanist, incorrigible traveler and nature-lover, and, like its author, the work fits into no category, combining autobiography, memoir, diary and history. This abridgment preserves unimpaired the qualities which make the Commentiaries a vital human document setting forth the history of an era and portrait of one of its most eloquent spokesmen. FOur major themes wind their way through the Commentaries. There is first of all the kaleidoscopic Italian scene dominated by two conflicts, the Pope's protracted struggle with the vicious Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini to recover lands wrested from the Church, and the exhausting war, astoundingly mercenary in character, waged with the aid of Francesco Sforza to support Ferrante of Naples against a French rival. The second major theme moves into the wider European arena and the diplomatic contest with that wiliest of fifteenth-century monarchs, Louis XI, over the crown of Naples and the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. A third theme concerns the amorphous Holy Roman Empire whose disintegration poses problems serous to Eperor and Pope alike. The fourth theme is the one which Pius regars as pivotal for his whole pontificate - a crusade against the Turk in defense of Christendom. Struggling against European indifference to Pope and Turk alike, in the end only one course remained - to lead a crusade singlehanded, which, sick and disillusioned, he prepared to do. The volume is a vital human document, setting forth the history of an era and the portrait of one of its most eloquent spokesmen." - from the inner front jacket flap. …