I have already had the opportunity in the past to describe to you the Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle, a gem of the Counter-Reformation in Rome. A particular church, with an asymmetric facade and an dome truly unique. But, as a good local tour guide in the Eternal City, today I want to focus on another element that makes this place of worship special. In fact, there are funerary monuments of past popes here, and one of them is linked to a pope who, especially in the field of arts, left a mark. A true humanist, if we may define him as such. Pope Pius II Piccolomini.

He was a pontiff of the first half of the XVI century, the moment when Rome was fully emerging from the Middle Ages to embrace the new ideas that would lead, later on, to the Renaissance. An interesting personality was that of the pontiff, formerly known as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. A great scholar and literary figure, he left works to posterity such as the Commentaries, written in Latin and in the third person, where he wrote about various topics, from the customs of the time to law. Also to be added is a little story with two lovers as protagonists, perhaps with autobiographical references. But what is interesting is how Pius II, even before he was pontiff, managed to navigate the great diplomacy of the time, coming into contact with the most powerful men of that century in Europe. He first became the secretary and trusted advisor of Felice V, an antipope. It was Felice, a figure in complete antithesis to the official Roman Curia, who sent Aeneas Sylvius to the court of Frederick III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The emperor saw many qualities in the future pope, so much so that he made him his own close and faithful advisor. And when the destruction of part of the German army led the emperor to mend relations with the Church of Rome, presided over by the true and legitimate pope Eugene IV, it was Aeneas Sylvius who was tasked with being the messenger to the pope, conveying the imperial requests. And the pope in Rome, in turn, laid down his conditions to the future Pope Pius II, who was then tasked to return to Germany and try to mend the rift between the Church of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire. In short, in a short span of time, this man found himself working for an antipope, an emperor, and a pope all at the same time, carrying diametrically opposed messages compared to what his previous role would suggest. In Rome and in the Europe of the XVI century, even this could happen. Finally, in 1458, after embracing the ecclesiastical career, Aeneas Sylvius was elected pope with the name Pius II. He did not leave a great mark of his presence in Rome, certainly compared to other popes. After all, he had already done a lot before his election to the throne of Peter.

The figure of this pope, remembered in that beautiful funerary monument in the Basilica of Sant'Andrea della Valle (we are at the height of the transept), reminds us, better than others, what the role of the pontiff was in the intricate political and social fabric of Europe at the time. The pope was not only the religious leader but much, much more. Even through wars, if not with diplomacy, in the Rome of that era, there was a true royal court, as in other parts of Europe. Later it transformed into a sort of lordship, a bit like the Florence of the Medici. Pius II Piccolomini, however, perfectly embodies how sometimes, before the ecclesiastical career, there was a political one. And that only by pursuing the second path well, success could sometimes be paved in the ecclesiastical field.