Oration “Septimo jam exacto mense” of Pope Pius II (14 January 1460, Mantova). Edited and translated translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version.

Michael Cotta-Schønberg (1)

1 RSLIS - Royal School of Library and Information Science

Pope Pius II summoned the European powers to the Congress of Mantua in 1459 in order to mobilize a joint military reaction to the Turkish invasion of Europe, in the form of a crusade. The response of princes and cities was disinterested and sluggish, and only the pope’s hard skills of negotiation and armtwisting made it possible to obtain concrete promises of contributions to the war from the Italians and the Germans. On 14 January 1460, the pope closed the congress with an oration, the “Septimo jam exacto mense”, in which he gave a summary of the promised and expected contributions, admitting that the congress had achieved less than he had hoped, but claiming – with some justice – that it had actually achieved more than many skeptics had believed possible.

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

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Michael Cotta-Schønberg. Oration “Septimo jam exacto mense” of Pope Pius II (14 January 1460, Mantova). Edited and translated translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version.. 2019. ⟨hal-01187186⟩