Oration “Fatemur insignes” of Pope Pius II (24 September 1459, Mantua). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version. (Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius II; 44)

Michael Cotta-Schønberg (1)

1 RSLIS - Royal School of Library and Information Science

After the Fall of Constantinople, in May 1453, the major preoccupation of Venice was to protect its merchant empire by establishing friendly relations and even a formal peace with the Turkish Sultan, Mehmed II. The Venetians were therefore not very keen to participate in a military expedition against the Turks in the form a crusade under the pope’s aegis. However, when all the other Italian powers had sent their representatives to the Congress of Mantua, which was to discuss such a crusade, the Venetians sent their ambassadors too. In their address to the pope, the ambassadors acknowledged the necessity of a military response to Turkish expansion into Europe and pledged Venetian support to a crusade – on the important condition that all the other European powers would participate. In his reply, the pope rebuked Venice for the late arrival of the ambassadors, but thanked them for their promise of support.

Mots clés: Congress of Mantua; Crusades against the Turks; Renaissance oratory; Crusade against the Turks; Venice; 15th century; Enea Silvio Piccolomini; Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini; Æneas Silvius Piccolomini; Pope Pius II; Renaissance orations; Responses to ambassadors; 1459; Renaissance rhetorics; Papa Pio II

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Michael Cotta-Schønberg. Oration “Fatemur insignes” of Pope Pius II (24 September 1459, Mantua). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version. (Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius II; 44). 2019. ⟨hal-01182735⟩