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The Site is back -- for Aeneas Sylvius!

23/2/2012

2 Comments

 
Renaissance In Tuscany is back, in its improved ‘beta’ version -- and back to stay.  

Comments and suggestions are most welcome!

Today, February 22, is the anniversary of the return to his native town, Corsignano in southern Tuscany, of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, after many years as a diplomat, chancellery official and advisor to popes, an anti-pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, latterly as bishop and cardinal.  He returned in triumph as Pope Pius II.

As he wrote in his unique memoirs: ‘A high mountain rises from the valley of the Orcia  River, crowned by a plateau...There is a town of little repute but possessed of a healthful climate, excellent wine, and everything else that goes to sustain life...Here Pius was born and passed his childhood...He hoped to feel delight in seeing again his native soil; but he was disappointed, for most of those of his own generation had died and those who were left were feeble and crippled and like harbingers of death...(But) the people were delighted and in holiday mood over the presence of the Pope...Pius decided to build there a new church and a palace...that he might leave as lasting as possible a memorial of his birth.’ *

He succeeded, as we see in Pienza, the former Corsignano, over five centuries later. By his death in 1464, Pius had rebuilt the town’s medieval centre into a crown jewel of the Renaissance, and renamed the town after himself.

Andrew Johnson

Quotations from Pope Piccolomini are from Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, "Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini Pope Pius II: An Abridgement", translated by Florence A. Gragg, ed. Leona C. Gabel (Folio Society, 1988), Book IX (July to September 1462), pp. 274-281.]


2 Comments
PETER HICKS
20/6/2012 14:34:22

Andrew

I purchased your book,' Pienza’s Missing Statues', and enjoyed it enormously. I greatly admired your skill in so elegantly and succinctly weaving together the various historical, architectural, cultural, touristic and puzzle themes. It is a tour de force.

And the book itself is beautiful. I greatly enjoyed the illustrations, and the layout generally. I was especially taken by the contrast between the Paradigm font and the Pannartz Book accent type; they are complementary with the former reflecting (in my untrained eyes) today’s aesthetic and the latter the renaissance aesthetic – mirroring the themes of the book. Very nice.

No negative comments. I like detective fiction and, after first reading, I found myself wanting more on the process by which the puzzle was (possibly) resolved – who discovered the (possibly) missing statues and how did that happen? Was it you who first made the link or someone else? Was the discovery serendipity or the result of an active search for the missing statues? However, on second reading, I thought it was simply restraint and good taste on your part to downplay this angle – leaving readers such as myself with another parting puzzle. (But I still would like to know!)

Looking forward to what comes next!

Peter Hicks

Reply
Andrew Johnson
21/6/2012 10:37:56

Thank you very much indeed for that, Peter, I am delighted. And you are exactly right that my hope was to weave themes together and to put it into as beautiful a form as we could, including the fonts: if it was worth (self-)publishing, then it was important to do as good a job as possible!

As to the link with the (possible) statues, that was all me -- whether crazy of not! I am very interested in anyone's further thoughts...

Cheers,
Andrew J

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