Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit)
Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1582-1651)

Francesco Piccolomini (22 October 1582 – 17 June 1651) was an Italian Jesuit, elected the eighth Superior-General of the Society of Jesus.
Biography
After Vincenzo Carafa, the 7th Superior General of the Order, died on 8 February 1649, a General Congregation made of representatives of the various Jesuit provinces, met on 21 December of the same year and chose Piccolomini as his successor. He died after eighteen months in office.
Before his election as General he had been professor of philosophy at the Roman College; he died at age 68.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Pius III". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit)” is superior General of the Society of Jesus (1582-1651). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Francesco, Piccolomini and Jesuit, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “superior General of the Society of Jesus (1582-1651)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q660137. VIAF identifies the subject as 28016424. The Library of Congress control number is nr96045042. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1582, 1651, 1649 and 1913.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit) primary sources, Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit) archive and Francesco research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit)”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Francesco Piccolomini (Jesuit)” 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.