Oration “Quamvis grandes materias” by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (10 December 1450, Naples). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. (Orations of Pope Pius II; 14)

Michael Cotta-Schønberg (1)

1 UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet

In October 1450, Bishop Enea Silvio Piccolomini, high-ranking imperial diplomat and Bishop of Trieste, was sent by Emperor Friederich III to the Court of Naples. His mission was to negotiate the contract of marriage between the emperor and Princess Leonora of Portugal, sister of the King of Portugal, and niece of King Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily. His oration, in the genre of the classical epithalamium, i.e. wedding oration, revived by the Italian Renaissance humanists, praised the two royal personages and their respective houses. Piccolomini also presented a view of women remarkable for its opposition to traditional misogynist views. And, finally, he praised marriage for its dignity as a God-given institution, for its utility for society and for the spouses themselves, and for its joys, including the comfort and love of one’s wife, the delights of women, and – remarkably - the pleasures of sex.

Mots clés: Enea Silvio Piccolomini; Renaissance oratory; Pope Pius II; Empress Eleonora of Portugal; Renaissance orations; Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini; Æneas Silvius Piccolomini; Kaiser Friedrich III Habsburg; Misogyny; History of women; Marriage; Princely marriages; History of sexuality; Emperor Frederick III Habsburg; King Alfonso V the Magnanimous Aragon; Empress Leonora of Portugal; Marriage alliances; Renaissance rhetorics; 1450; Fifteenth century; Epithalamium; Epithalamia; Papa Pio II; 15th century; Wedding orations

Domaines: Histoire

Michael Cotta-Schønberg. Oration “Quamvis grandes materias” by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (10 December 1450, Naples). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. (Orations of Pope Pius II; 14). 2019. ⟨halshs-00983925⟩