Books

First edition in Italian vernacular of Pius's Historia, the first modern cosmography and the first modern account of Asia. The translator, Sebastiano Fausto, completes Piccolomini's text, left unfinished after his death and first published posthumously in 1477, with a section on Africa and the Holy Land. A prominent humanist, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was elected Pope Pius II in 1458. His geography is a careful scholarly description of the Earth and its inhabitants, largely drawing from Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, Curtius, and Pomponius Mela. The information on Asia is supplemented with material from Marco Polo, and two other major, then unpublished, sources. The first is Oderic of Pordenone, a Franciscan friar, who started on his wanderings between 1316 and 1318, sojourned in Western India in 1321, and went via southeast Asia to China, where he arrived in 1322 and stayed for at least three years. The second is Nicolò de' Conti, a Venetian, who wandered over South Asia for a quarter of a century or more, returned to Italy in the company of Near Eastern delegates to the Council of Florence in the summer of 1441, and told his story to interested humanists. One of them was the papal lay secretary Poggio Bracciolini, who kept a written record of Conti's narrative. Pius borrows from this for his account of India's land and waterways, sometimes quoting verbatim. Oderic and Conti's accounts were later included in Ramusio's Navigationi. "Pius II lent the support of his learning First edition in Italian vernacular of Pius's Historia, the first modern cosmography and the first modern account of Asia. The translator, Sebastiano Fausto, completes Piccolomini's text, left unfinished after his death and first published posthumously in 1477, with a section on Africa and the Holy Land. A prominent humanist, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was elected Pope Pius II in 1458. His geography is a careful scholarly description of the Earth and its inhabitants, largely drawing from Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, Curtius, and Pomponius Mela. The information on Asia is supplemented with material from Marco Polo, and two other major, then unpublished, sources. The first is Oderic of Pordenone, a Franciscan friar, who started on his wanderings between 1316 and 1318, sojourned in Western India in 1321, and went via southeast Asia to China, where he arrived in 1322 and stayed for at least three years. The second is Nicolò de' Conti, a Venetian, who wandered over South Asia for a quarter of a century or more, returned to Italy in the company of Near Eastern delegates to the Council of Florence in the summer of 1441, and told his story to interested humanists. One of them was the papal lay secretary Poggio Bracciolini, who kept a written record of Conti's narrative. Pius borrows from this for his account of India's land and waterways, sometimes quoting verbatim. Oderic and Conti's accounts were later included in Ramusio's Navigationi. "Pius II lent the support of his learning and the prestige of his office to the idea that India might be reached by sailing around Africa. His geographical theories, like those of Marco Polo and Pierre d' Ailly, apparently influenced Columbus and his contemporaries" (Lach, p. 71). Columbus's own copy of Pius's 1477 edition, held in the Biblioteca Capitular y Colombina in Seville, contains his own annotations about Toscanelli's idea of a western sea-route to India. Sebastiano Fausto da Longiano (c.1502-1565) was a skilled translator and the author of the first Italian treatise on translation. In the dedicatory letter prefaced to his new section, he explains that he felt obliged to complete Piccolomini's description. His geography of Africa features a long chapter on Arabia, which follows the division into three zones reported by the Greek and Roman classical authors: Arabia Deserta (desert), Felix (happy), and Petraea (stony). Fausto also appended a note on the location of the Garden of Eden to his description of the Holy Land. READ MORE Octavo (153 x 105 mm): A-3D⁸; 400 leaves, ff. 380, [20]. Contemporary limp vellum, smooth spine, contemporary manuscript lettering on spine and edges, traces of ties, stubs from a contemporary manuscript on vellum used in binding. Woodcut printer's device on title page and verso of last leaf, woodcut initials. Early ownership inscription on an initial blank, cancelled, and later manuscript shelf marks on opposite page. Binding toned and marked with some natural creasing, but well-preserved and firm, traces of removed library labels on spine and front cover, lower margin of title page trimmed and subsequently neatly repaired with paper, small paper repair to corner of rear free endpaper, intermittent and mainly marginal light damp stains, tiny worm holes to upper corner of a few initial gatherings, occasional small mark. A very good copy in appealing unrestored condition. EDIT16 CNCE36093. David F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol I, book 1, 1965.

De Europa, written by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, offers insightful observations on the geography and political landscapes of Europe during the Renaissance.