Pope Pius II
pope of the Catholic Church from 1458 to 1464 (1405–1464)
Pope Pius II (Latin: Pius PP. II, Italian: Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini (Latin: Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August 1458 to his death in 1464.
Aeneas Silvius was an author, diplomat, and orator, and private secretary of Antipope Felix V and then the Emperor Frederick III, and then Pope Eugenius IV. He participated in the Council of Basel, but left it in 1443 to follow Frederick, whom he reconciled to the Roman obedience. He became Bishop of Trieste in 1447, Bishop of Siena in 1450, and a cardinal in 1456.
He was a Renaissance humanist with an international reputation. Aeneas Silvius' longest and most enduring work is the story of his life, the Commentaries, which was the first autobiography of a pope to have been published. It appeared posthumously, in 1584, 120 years after his death.
Early life
Aeneas was born in Corsignano in Sienese territory of a noble but impoverished family. His father Silvio was a soldier and member of the House of Piccolomini, and his mother was Vittoria Forteguerri, who had eighteen children including several twins, though no more than ten were alive at one time. The plague (iniqua lues) finally left him with only two sisters, Laudamia and Catherina. He worked with his father in the fields for some years.
The public source identifies “Pope Pius II” as pope of the Catholic Church from 1458 to 1464 (1405–1464). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pope, Pius and pope.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q101437. VIAF identifies the subject as 100571068. The Library of Congress control number is n50081908. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1405, 1464, 1458 and 1443.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pope Pius II” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.