Pius III (Pius III), born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini on 9 May 1439 in Siena, governed the Church of Rome from 22 September to 18 October 1503 — twenty-six days. His pontificate is one of the briefest in the whole history of the papacy, and it opened at a decisive moment: Pius III succeeded the most contested pope of the Renaissance, Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, and preceded the formidable Julius II. Between decadence and recovery, he was the flash of a man whose reputation stood apart from his age.[1][2]
The cardinal of Siena was not an unknown figure. Nephew of the humanist pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), he had received from his uncle the Piccolomini name and arms, the cardinal's hat at twenty, and the administration of the archdiocese of Siena. A leading diplomat, legate in the Marches, Germany, and Umbria, cardinal protodeacon (the dean of the cardinal-deacons) of the Sacred College, he had passed through nearly half a century of curial life with a reputation as a man of integrity — the praise bestowed on him by his contemporary Sigismondo de' Conti, taken up by the Catholic Encyclopedia —, keeping away from Rome under the most corrupt pontificates.[3][4][5][6]
His election was a compromise choice. After the death of Alexander VI, the conclave of September 1503 was blocked between the Frenchman Georges d'Amboise, the Italian Giuliano della Rovere, and the influence of the Sforza and Borgia factions. Unable to agree, the thirty-seven electors turned to a pious and sick old man: at sixty-four, crippled by gout, Cardinal Piccolomini seemed to everyone a harmless transition.[7][8] Once elected, he immediately announced his intention to reform the Church and the Curia — then death carried him off before he could accomplish anything.
His most durable trace is therefore neither a bull nor a decree, but a work of art: the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral, which he had decorated by Pinturicchio to house his uncle's books, and the Piccolomini altar, for which the very young Michelangelo carved four saints. The pope of twenty-six days left less of a mark on the Church than on Renaissance art.[9][10]
Why a twenty-six-day pontificate deserves an article
One might think that a reign of less than a month, with no encyclical and no council, leaves nothing to tell. The opposite is true. Pius III stands at the turning point of the Renaissance papacy: he closes the scandalous Borgia era and, by his death, opens the way to the warrior and builder pope Julius II. His election reveals the real mechanics of a blocked conclave, where the most consensual candidate is often the oldest and weakest. And his very short program of government says what the best minds in the Church were already awaiting, fourteen years before Luther: a reform of morals and ecclesiastical finances.
The figure also matters by contrast. Where his predecessor Alexander VI had embodied nepotism and worldliness, Pius III was regarded — in the words of his contemporary Sigismondo de' Conti, quoted by the Catholic Encyclopedia — as a man of pure life, study, and prayer, accessible to the humblest.[11][12] His premature death deprived the Church of an upright pastor at the very moment when she most needed one. Pius III is thus the portrait of an interrupted promise: not the story of what a pope did, but of what the Church almost had.
For Ignispedia, the subject belongs both to the history of the Renaissance papacy and to a meditation on the brevity of power: few figures show so clearly that the summit of ecclesiastical glory can be granted just long enough to reveal its vanity.
The main sources
| Source | Nature | Contribution for Pius III |
|---|---|---|
| J. N. D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes | Standard pontifical dictionary, Oxford, 1986 | Dates, career, conclave, coronation, death |
| Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, "Pio III" (M. Sanfilippo) | Scholarly biography, Treccani, 2015 | Piccolomini family, curial career, legations, conclave |
| Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. VI | Standard scholarly history, late nineteenth century | Election, character, reform program, death |
| Johann Burchard, Liber Notarum | Diary of the papal master of ceremonies | Coronation, Mass said seated, court details |
| The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Pius III", 1911 | Standard Catholic synthesis | Overview, personal integrity, legations |
| Sienese art contracts (Pinturicchio 1502, Michelangelo 1501), published by Gaetano Milanesi in 1856 | Archival documents | Patronage: Piccolomini Library, Piccolomini altar |
Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini: the nephew of Pius II
A Sienese family in the shadow of Enea Silvio Piccolomini
Francesco was born in Siena on 9 May 1439, son of the jurist Nanni di Piero Todeschini and Laodomia Piccolomini, sister of the future Pope Pius II.[13][14] His birth date is almost unanimously given as 9 May 1439, although one older source gives 29 May.[15] The Piccolomini house belonged to the Sienese nobility that combined law, banking, and ecclesiastical careers and dominated the Tuscan city at the end of the Middle Ages.
Everything in Francesco's destiny depended on one man: his maternal uncle Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the most brilliant humanist of his century, crowned poet, diplomat, writer, and pope under the name Pius II in 1458.[16] In the wake of this learned pontiff, the young Francesco received his education — law and humanist culture, at Perugia and, according to some sources, at Ferrara and Vienna — before being propelled to the summit of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.[17][18]
The Piccolomini name and arms
The founding gesture of this ascent was a symbolic adoption. As soon as he ascended the papal throne, Pius II took his nephew under his protection and gave him the Piccolomini name and arms — the famous silver cross charged with five blue crescents — while overseeing his training himself.[19][20] The young Todeschini thus became a full Piccolomini, heir to a name his uncle wanted to make illustrious for centuries.
"His uncle bestowed upon him his family name and arms, and superintended his training and education." — The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Pius III", 1911[21]
This bond also explains the papal name Francesco would choose forty-three years later: he took the name Pius III, "in honour of his uncle", sealing in his very pontifical title his fidelity to the memory of Pius II.[22][23]
A cardinal at twenty, archbishop of Siena
The elevation was dazzling. On 5 March 1460, Pius II created his nephew cardinal-deacon, assigning him the title of Sant'Eustachio.[24][25] Francesco was barely twenty years old. That same year, he received the administration of the archdiocese of Siena, an office he would retain until his death in 1503.[26]
One canonical feature deserves emphasis, because it illuminates the rest of his career: Francesco remained a cardinal-deacon for forty-three years, and archbishop of Siena in title only, without ever receiving priestly ordination or episcopal consecration — until the few days following his election as pope.[27][28] The practice of the time did not regard this as irregular: major curial offices were often held by deacons, and higher ordinations were postponed, sometimes indefinitely.
Half a century in the service of the Holy See
The legate: March of Ancona, Germany, Umbria
Far from being a salon cardinal, Piccolomini was one of the most frequently employed diplomats of the Curia. Under his uncle, he served as legate in the March of Ancona.[29] Under Paul II, he was sent to Germany, especially to the Diet of Regensburg, where tradition says he "acquitted himself with eminent success".[30][31] He also intervened in Umbria and in several international affairs, earning a reputation as a specialist in German questions and relations between the powers.[32]
"He acquitted himself with eminent success." — The Catholic Encyclopedia, on Piccolomini's legation in Germany[33]
The cardinal protodeacon of the Sacred College
Over the decades, the cardinal of Siena became one of the pillars of the Sacred College. From 1471, he was the cardinal protodeacon, that is, the senior cardinal-deacon — the dignity traditionally responsible for announcing the name of the new pope and crowning him.[34][35] When Piccolomini himself was elected in 1503, he had nearly half a century at the heart of the Church behind him, having served under five pontificates: Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, and Alexander VI.[36]
Under Sixtus IV and Alexander VI: distance and integrity
Here Piccolomini's singular reputation was forged. In a Curia corroded by nepotism and money, he chose distance. Under Sixtus IV as under Alexander VI, tradition says, "he kept away from Rome as much as possible".[37] He openly opposed the flagrant nepotism of Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, whose scandals troubled Christendom.[38]
The Catholic Encyclopedia, drawing on the great historian of the popes Ludwig von Pastor, portrays him as a man of order and prayer, whose schedule contrasted with curial softness:
"He left no moment unoccupied; his time for study was before daybreak; he spent his mornings in prayer and his midday hours in giving audiences, to which the humblest had easy access." — Sigismondo de' Conti, a contemporary of the pope, quoted by The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Pius III", 1911, after Pastor[39][40][41]
This personal integrity, in the context of Borgia Rome, is precisely what made him, in 1503, a candidate acceptable to all — and the hope of those who wanted reform.
The conclave of September 1503
The death of Alexander VI and Roman chaos
On 18 August 1503, Alexander VI died in Rome, probably of malaria, in circumstances that immediately fed rumors of poison.[42] His disappearance opened a crisis. His son, Cesare Borgia, himself gravely ill, tried to hold the Vatican with his troops; the French and Spanish armies, engaged in the Italian Wars, maneuvered around Rome; the great families disputed the future of the See of Peter.[43][44]
D'Amboise, della Rovere, Sforza: stalemate
The conclave opened on 16 September in this atmosphere of war. Thirty-seven cardinal electors took part — more than at any earlier conclave: thirty-one entered in procession on 16 September, and six more joined them after lunch — including twenty-two Italians, eleven Spaniards, two Frenchmen, one Portuguese, and one Cypriot.[45][46] Three candidacies dominated: the Frenchman Georges d'Amboise, supported by King Louis XII; the formidable Giuliano della Rovere, the future Julius II; and the interests of the Sforza of Milan.
The deadlock was immediate. Della Rovere refused to vote for d'Amboise and kept repeating to the cardinals that a French pope would likely bring the papacy back to France; Ascanio Sforza, who had promised his vote to the Frenchman, gave it to him but worked only for himself.[47][48] Cesare Borgia, too ill, no longer controlled the Spanish cardinals, who followed Spain's instructions and blocked the Frenchman. None of the major candidates could gather a majority.[49]
The election of a compromise candidate (22 September 1503)
Unable to agree, the college turned to the classic solution of blocked conclaves: a harmless old man. On 22 September 1503, after only a few days, the cardinals elected Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, who took the name Pius III.[50][51][52] The choice was lucid to the point of cynicism: as the historian Matteo Sanfilippo sums it up, the Sienese cardinal was "old and in poor shape, therefore an excellent transitional candidate", who would soon leave room for another conclave.[53]
"The Sienese cardinal was indeed old and in poor shape, therefore an excellent transitional candidate." — Matteo Sanfilippo, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 83, 2015, "Pio III, papa"[54]
Pius III was in fact too ill to take his seat at the scrutiny that elected him — Cardinal Raffaele Riario took his place —, and he was still only a deacon.[55] No one in Rome expected the pontificate to last. No one was wrong.
The twenty-six-day pontificate
A deacon made priest, bishop, and pope in ten days
The canonical case of Pius III is striking. Elected pope while still only a cardinal-deacon after forty-three years in that order, he had, in the days following his election, to receive in succession the orders he lacked. He was ordained priest on 30 September 1503, consecrated bishop on 1 October — by the hands of Giuliano della Rovere, the future Julius II — then crowned on 8 October 1503.[56][57] In about ten days, the man passed from the diaconate to the fullness of priesthood and episcopacy, and then to the tiara.
Weakened, he celebrated in suffering. Crippled by gout, he could no longer walk: the master of ceremonies Johann Burchard, a direct witness, notes that at the coronation the pope was carried on a seat which he did not leave throughout the service, and that he had to say Mass seated there.[58][59] The contrast is cruel: at the very moment he reached the summit, his body failed.
The reform program
Despite illness, Pius III did not think of himself as a decorative pope. From the first days, he showed his intention to reform the Church — a program all the more awaited because the excesses of the Borgias had scandalized Christendom. The sources ascribe to him a clear project: to assemble as soon as possible the reform council which the conclave capitulation — the written pact the cardinals make the elected pope swear before the scrutiny — obliged him to convoke within two years, to put in order the finances of an Apostolic Chamber — the financial and domanial administration of the Holy See — found riddled with debts, to govern well the lands of the Holy See, and to restore peace among the Christian princes.[60][61]
Before the cardinals assembled on 25 September, he declared that reform had to begin immediately after the coronation and reach the pope himself, the cardinals, the whole court, and the pontifical officers; from the outset he showed himself very sparing in his expenses.[62][63] On 11 October 1503, he held a consistory — the solemn assembly in which the pope gathers the cardinals — where, anxious to conciliate the French, he considered creating the nephew of Georges d'Amboise a cardinal, which the majority of the cardinals refused.[64][65] But these gestures remained beginnings: he lacked the time to turn intention into decree.
Illness and death (18 October 1503)
The illness that had long consumed him had the last word. Pius III suffered from an ulcer on his left leg, aggravated by gout; on the morning of 27 September, eleven days before his coronation, his leg was lanced in two places, "with great pain".[66][67][68] On 12 October, he took a remedy which Burchard deemed bad; the next day, in the middle of an audience, an icy fever seized him, followed by long vomiting, then by a fever that never left him again.[69] He died in Rome on 18 October 1503, twenty-six days after his election, only ten days after his coronation, at the age of sixty-four.[70][71]
- 18 August 1503Death of Alexander VIthe Borgia pope
The death of Rodrigo Borgia opened a succession crisis in a Rome surrounded by the armies of the Italian Wars.[72]
- 16-22 September 1503The blocked conclavethirty-seven electors
- 30 September — 8 October 1503Ordinations and coronationfrom diaconate to tiara
- 11 October 1503The 11 October consistorya barely sketched program
- 18 October 1503Death of Pius IIIafter twenty-six days
Two weeks later, on 1 November 1503, the conclave elected Giuliano della Rovere, who took the name Julius II: the warrior and patron pope would dominate the following decade. The transition desired by the cardinals had fulfilled its role perfectly.[83]
The rumor of poisoning
Like almost all sudden papal deaths of the Renaissance, that of Pius III immediately stirred rumors of poisoning. Malavolti, the historian of Siena, reports that the pope was said to have been poisoned by Pandolfo Petrucci, the de facto ruler of Siena; a contemporary chronicle also speaks of poison, without naming any culprit.[84]
Ludwig von Pastor rejects this hypothesis: none of the ambassadors then present in Rome mentions it.[85] The cause of death is moreover documented: his contemporary Sigismondo de' Conti attributes it to the ulcer on his left leg, which an inexperienced surgeon, Ludovico da San Miniato, made mortal by cutting into the healthy flesh, and Burchard describes the continuous fever that carried him off in five days. Poison belongs here to the reflex of an age that saw intrigue everywhere — not to an established fact.[86][87] Encyclopedic prudence is required: Pius III died of illness, and nothing serious authorizes a conclusion of murder.
The patron: a legacy that outlived the pontiff
If Pius III's pontificate was almost nonexistent, his patronage as a cardinal left a durable mark on art history. Before he was pope, Piccolomini was one of the great patrons of the Sienese Renaissance — and it is there, far more than in his twenty-six days of reign, that one must look for what he truly left.
The Piccolomini Library and Pinturicchio's frescoes
The cardinal wanted to give his city a setting for his uncle's library, the humanist Pius II: a sumptuous room attached to Siena Cathedral, intended to preserve the Greek and Latin manuscripts inherited from Enea Silvio Piccolomini.[88][89] To decorate it, he turned to the painter Pinturicchio, who, beginning in 1502, created a cycle of ten large frescoes recounting the life of Pius II — from the itinerant humanist to the pope canonizing Saint Catherine of Siena.[90]
The ensemble, completed after the patron's death (around 1507-1508), is one of the masterpieces of the High Renaissance, to the point that Giorgio Vasari attributed to the young Raphael "the sketches and cartoons of all the stories"; as early as 1856, the art historian Gaetano Milanesi reduced this share to a few drawings, since the contract obliged Pinturicchio to draw everything with his own hand.[91][92] The irony of history is that the library survived in splendor, but the collection of manuscripts it was meant to house was partly dispersed.[93]
The Piccolomini altar and the young Michelangelo
The cardinal's other great Sienese project was the Piccolomini altar, in the left nave of Siena Cathedral — a marble retable that Piccolomini had raised by the sculptor Andrea Bregno (1481-1485).[94] Once he became pope, he was buried in Rome, and the altar remained unfinished.[95][96]
Its fame rests on a considerable detail. By a contract dated at Rome 5 June 1501, which the artist signed on 19 June and which the banker Jacopo Galli guaranteed, Piccolomini commissioned fifteen marble statues from a young twenty-six-year-old sculptor still little known: Michelangelo Buonarroti. The artist completed only four of them for the altar niches — Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Pius, and Saint Gregory, named in a letter of 1511 — and had also undertaken to finish a Saint Francis begun by Pietro Torrigiani.[97] The cardinal of Siena thus gave one of his first public commissions to the genius who would soon sculpt the David and paint the Sistine ceiling.
Assessment: the interrupted promise of a reform
A good man at the wrong moment
The destiny of Pius III rests on a contrast. On one side, nearly half a century of exemplary service: nephew of Pius II, cardinal for forty-three years, skilled legate, man of study and prayer whose integrity stood apart from the surrounding corruption. On the other side, an aborted pontificate: twenty-six days, one consistory, a reform program barely announced. The man who had the greatest dignity to raise up the Church after the Borgias was the one who governed her the least long.
His real legacy is therefore not magisterial but artistic: the Piccolomini Library and Michelangelo's statues in Siena, which have survived him for more than five centuries. As for his intention of reform, it announces, fourteen years before Luther's revolt and forty years before the Council of Trent, what the best Catholics of the Renaissance already knew was necessary — and what a premature death prevented this honest pope from undertaking.[98]
Why Pius III matters today
Pius III is not merely a curiosity in a catalogue. He matters for the history of the Renaissance papacy, where he marks the hinge between Borgia decadence and recovery under Julius II. He matters for the history of conclaves, perfectly illustrating the mechanism of the compromise candidate. And he matters finally as a moral figure: in a Rome devoured by ambition, this old pious cardinal, elected almost despite himself and dead almost immediately, reminds us that the greatness of a pastor is measured not by the length of his reign, but by the uprightness of a life.
"He left no moment unoccupied; his time for study was before daybreak." — Sigismondo de' Conti, quoted by The Catholic Encyclopedia[99][100]
In a Christendom where so many Renaissance pontiffs fought for years for glory and family, Pius III offers the opposite lesson: that of a man to whom God left the summit only long enough to reveal its fragility — and to bequeath, for want of reform, beauty.
Further reading
- Pope Pius II (1458-1464), the humanist uncle from whom Pius III received the name, arms, and library
- Pope Alexander VI, the Borgia pope whom Pius III succeeded, and whose nepotism he had opposed
- Pope Julius II (1503-1513), who consecrated Pius III bishop and succeeded him two weeks after his death
- The decadence of the Borgia popes, the context of corruption that made reform so urgent
- Pope Adrian V (1276), another ultra-brief pontificate of a cardinal elected but not consecrated at the moment of his election
Notes and References
J. N. D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986, s.v. "Pius III", pp. 253-254: pontificate from 22 September to 18 October 1503; birth in Siena in 1439; Piccolomini name and arms granted by Pius II; archbishop of Siena at twenty-one, still a deacon, then cardinal-deacon of Sant'Eustachio on 5 March 1460; legations in the March of Ancona and Germany (Diet of Regensburg, 1471); distance kept from Alexander VI; foundation of the Libreria Piccolomini, whose decoration was entrusted to Pinturicchio in 1502; election at the conclave of 16 to 22 September 1503 as a neutral candidate, aided by his gout and premature old age; coronation of 8 October 1503, shortened of several ceremonies, and death ten days later. Original text: "His fragile health (he was racked with gout) and premature old age also stood in his favour".
1 14 24 27 52 56 70 75 80"Pope Pius III", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1911 (New Advent, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12128a.htm). On the adoption of the name and arms, the legations in the March of Ancona and Germany, the distance kept under Sixtus IV and Alexander VI, and personal integrity. Original text: "his uncle bestowed upon him his family name and arms, and superintended his training and education"; "he left no moment unoccupied; his time for study was before daybreak; he spent his mornings in prayer and his midday hours in giving audiences, to which the humblest had easy access"; "acquitted himself with eminent success". (This older source gives 29 May 1439 as the birth date, whereas modern criticism retains 9 May.)
2 5 11 15 18 19 21 22 29 30 33 37 39 99Matteo Sanfilippo, "Pio III, papa", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 83, Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2015, online notice: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/papa-pio-iii_(Dizionario-Biografico)/. For the Todeschini Piccolomini family, birth in Siena on 9 May 1439 according to tradition (some scholars lean toward Sarteano), studies, cardinalate of 1460, archdiocese of Siena and manuscripts inherited from Pius II, legations, service under Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, and Alexander VI, announcement of the election of Innocent VIII and his coronation in 1484; for the 1503 conclave (Ascanio Sforza, Giovanni de' Medici, and Giovanni Colonna rallying to him, agreements concluded on the evening of 21 September, "plebiscite" election on the morning of the 22nd) and for the consistory of 11 October, where the cardinals blocked the hat proposed for François-Guillaume de Castelnau de Clermont-Lodève, Archbishop of Narbonne and nephew of Georges d'Amboise. Original text: "il cardinale senese era infatti vecchio e malandato, quindi un ottimo candidato di transizione".
3 8 13 16 17 25 26 28 32 34 36 48 53 54 65 78 89"Pius III", Encyclopædia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pius-III), for the birth in Siena around 1439, the permission given by Pius II to assume the Piccolomini name and arms, the diplomatic missions (Diet of Regensburg, Umbria), opposition to Alexander VI's nepotism, and the foundation of the Piccolomini Library.
4 20 31 38 43Sigismondo dei Conti da Foligno, Le storie de' suoi tempi dal 1475 al 1510, Latin text with facing Italian translation, vol. II, Rome, 1883 (Florence, G. Barbèra press), book XV, p. 292: "antelucanas horas lectioni, matutinas orationi, meridianas auditioni (erant enim ad eum etiam infimis quibusque facillimi aditus) dabat"; on his death: "e vita migravit ex ulcere tibiae sinistrae, quod Ludovicus Minatensis […] imperitus chirurgus, sincera etiam parte secata, laethale effecit".
6 12 41 67 81 86 100Ludwig von Pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, ed. Frederick Ignatius Antrobus, vol. VI, 2nd ed., London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1901 (English translation of the Geschichte der Päpste): pp. 131-136 (death of Alexander VI on 18 August 1503, carried off by "Roman fever"; Pastor rules out poison); pp. 185-192 (Cesare Borgia, ill then withdrawn from Rome, losing control of the eleven Spanish cardinals; on 5 September, della Rovere declaring he would not vote for d'Amboise; twenty-two Italians out of thirty-seven electors); pp. 193-198 (thirty-seven electors, more than at any earlier conclave; capitulation imposing a reform council within two years; Ascanio Sforza giving d'Amboise only his own vote; on 21 September, d'Amboise proposing "the old and ailing Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini"; election on the morning of the 22nd, name taken in honour of his uncle); p. 199 (gout, premature old age, ordered life, remoteness from Rome under Sixtus IV and Alexander VI); pp. 201-202 (congregation of 25 September: reform extending to the pope himself, the cardinals, the court, and the pontifical officers, council to be assembled as soon as possible; good government of the lands of the Holy See, economies, debt-ridden treasury, desire for peace); pp. 203-204 (coronation of 8 October: recent operation on the leg, Mass said seated); pp. 205-207 (continuous fever, death on 18 October); p. 206, note † (poisoning by Pandolfo Petrucci reported by Malavolti and, without naming any culprit, by a contemporary chronicle; Pastor rules it out, none of the ambassadors then present in Rome mentioning it); p. 210 (election of Julius II in the night of 31 October to 1 November 1503); appendix no. 16, p. 621 (dispatch of Beltrando Costabili of 19 October 1503: on Friday, after a long audience, the pope "volse magnare pesse", then the fever "mai non lo ha lasciato insino a la morte").
7 23 40 42 44 45 47 49 50 58 60 63 72 73 82 83 84 85 95 98Gaetano Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dell'arte senese, vol. III, Siena, Onorato Porri, 1856, doc. 3, pp. 9-12: contract of 29 June 1502 between the cardinal of Siena and Pinturicchio (vault "a grottesche", "diece istorie" of the life of Pope Pius II, obligation to "fare tutti li disegni delle istorie di sua mano in cartoni et in muro"); pp. 12-16: Milanesi's note (frescoes completed between the end of 1506 and the receipt of 14 January 1509; Raphael's share reduced to a few drawings, two of them known, at the Uffizi in Florence and in the Baldeschi collection at Perugia).
9 90 92Gaetano Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dell'arte senese, vol. III, Siena, Onorato Porri, 1856, doc. 6, pp. 19-25: ratification of 15 September 1504 by Andrea and Giacomo Piccolomini, brothers and heirs of the pope, reproducing the contract of the cardinal of Siena dated at Rome "die quinta Junij MCCCCCI" (fifteen Carrara marble statues in three years, for five hundred ducats, and completion of a Saint Francis by Pietro Torrigiani), signed by Michelangelo "questo dì 19 di Giugno 1501" and guaranteed by Jacopo Galli on 25 June 1501; pp. 25-27: Milanesi's note and letter of 1511 ("Credo lui ne abbia finite quattro, cioè S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. Pio, e S. Gregorio").
10 96 97Salvador Miranda, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Florida International University, notice "Todeschini-Piccolomini, Francesco (1439-1503)", https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1460.htm: "Cardinal protodeacon in August 1471"; in this capacity he announced to the people the election of Innocent VIII and crowned him in 1484. (This notice gives 29 May 1439 as the birth date.)
35Johann Burchard, Diarium sive rerum urbanarum commentarii (1483-1506), ed. Louis Thuasne, vol. III, Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1885 — diary of the papal master of ceremonies, direct witness: pp. 267-268 (16 September 1503: thirty-one cardinals entering the conclave in procession, then six more, including the cardinal of Siena, making thirty-seven); p. 276 (22 September, at the scrutiny: "Cardinalis s. Georgii sedit in loco Senensis infirmi"); p. 277 (the elected pope, ill in the leg, unable to walk; taking the name Pius III); p. 279 (25 September: he shall be ordained and consecrated by Giuliano della Rovere; Wednesday 27 September: "fuit incisum crus sinistrum Pape in duobus locis cum magno dolore suo"); pp. 280-281 (29 September: seat prepared "in qua sedens cruribus extensis ordinaretur ac celebraret"; priesthood on 30 September and episcopal consecration on 1 October, at the hands of della Rovere); p. 282 (coronation of 8 October: "portatus in sede ad hoc ordinata, de qua per totum officium non descendit […] deinde in ea celebravit"); p. 284 (secret consistory of 11 October, the majority refusing the hat for the Archbishop of Narbonne, nephew of d'Amboise; 12 October: "Papa accepit medicinam malam"; Friday 13 October: "in febrim frigidissimam incidit", vomiting, then fever "usque ad funus"); p. 285 (17 October: communion, extreme unction the following night, death).
46 51 55 57 59 64 66 69 71 74 76 77 87Dispacci di Antonio Giustinian, ambasciatore veneto in Roma dal 1502 al 1505, ed. Pasquale Villari, vol. II, Florence, Successori Le Monnier, 1876: dispatch 554 of 23 September 1503, pp. 205-206 (pope "mal condizionado, precipue de le gambe", already lanced and twice cauterized); dispatch 556 of 24 September, pp. 206-207 (pope bedridden by his leg ailment, Apostolic Chamber found "carga de debiti"); dispatch 558 of 25 September, p. 208 (first congregation of the cardinals: reform of the Church to begin immediately after the coronation, and peace to be made between the Christian princes); dispatch 562 of 28 September, p. 212 ("Al Papa sono stati fatti due tagli alla gamba con molto dolore", editor's summary).
61 62 68 79Gaetano Milanesi, commentary on the Life of Pinturicchio, in Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, vol. III, Florence, G. C. Sansoni, 1878, p. 516: room intended for the works of Pius II and his books "così greci come latini"; according to contemporary memoirs he quotes, the Cardinal of Burgos and Don Diego de Mendoza, governors of Siena for Charles V, stripped the Duomo of books, which Milanesi identifies with those of the Libreria; the remains passed to the public library of Siena.
88 93Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, 2nd ed., Florence, Giunti, 1568, part II, "Vita di Bernardino Pinturicchio", p. 498, reprinted in Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, ed. Gaetano Milanesi, vol. III, Florence, G. C. Sansoni, 1878, p. 494: "Ma è ben vero che gli schizzi e i cartoni di tutte le storie che egli vi fece, furono di mano di Raffaello da Urbino, allora giovinetto". In the Life of Raphael (1568 ed., part III, vol. 1, p. 66; Milanesi ed., vol. IV, 1879, p. 319), Vasari writes only that Raphael made for him "alcuni dei disegni e cartoni di quell'opera". Neither this edition, nor that of 1550, nor Ascanio Condivi's Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti (1553) mentions the statues of the Piccolomini altar.
91Giovanni Mariacher, "Bregno, Andrea", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 14, Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1972, online notice: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/andrea-bregno_(Dizionario-Biografico)/: on 15 May 1481, Platina asking Lorenzo the Magnificent to let through the marble intended for the altar which "Andreas marmorarius, sculptor egregius" was to execute for Cardinal Piccolomini in the Siena Duomo; workshop piece signed "opus Andreae Mediolanensis" and dated 1485. Gaetano Milanesi read in this signature the name of Andrea Fusina (Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, vol. III, 1878, p. 517, note).
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