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A Papal Gift. From Girolamo Aliotti to Pope Pius II Piccolomini, via Vespasiano da Bisticci
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                          FABRIZIO GOVI, MARGHERITA PALUMBO

                                A Papal Gift.
               From Girolamo Aliotti to Pope Pius II Piccolomini,
                          via Vespasiano da Bisticci


                        DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2240-3604/13958


                           __________________________________

    1. Aliotti, the Pope and the Humanistic Patronage between Arezzo and
    Rome


i
    n 2018, a deluxe presentation manuscript once owned by Pope Pius II
    Piccolomini (1405-1464) suddenly emerged through the antiquarian book
    trade.1 This precious volume, finely illuminated with Pius II’s papal coat
    of arms (Fig. 1 and 2), contains the text of the Gratulatio ad Pium II pro
    foelici, ac secundo ex Mantuana peregrinatione reditu by the Aretine humanist
    and, as of 1446, prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Flora and St.
    Lucilla, Girolamo Aliotti (1412-1480).2 In addition to this laudatory text,


    * Margherita Palumbo wrote paragraphs 1 and 2; Fabrizio Govi wrote paragraphs 3 and
    4. The essay further develops the book description already published on «Philobiblon.
    Italian Books», I, 2019 (<https://www.prphbooks.com/italian-books-1>, last access:
    1.12.2021).

    1 The manuscript is now in a private collection in New York.
    2 On the figure of Girolamo Aliotti see the biography appended to HIERONYMI ALIOTTI
    Arretini ordinis sancti Benedicti SS. Florae et Lucillae Epistolae et Opuscula Gabrielis Mariae
    Scarmalii notis et observationibus illustrata, Arretii, typis Michaelis Bellotti impressoris
    episcopalis, 1769, 4°, vol. 1, pp. XIII-XXX, mainly edited by Gabriele Maria Scarmagli,
    prior of St. Flora and St. Lucilla from 1750 to 1757, and subsequently by Scarmagli’s
    successor Paolo Redi (hereafter: Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula). More recently, cf.
    ALDO ONORATO, Gli amici aretini di Giovanni Tortelli, Messina, Centro interdipartimentale
    di Studi umanistici, 2010, pp. 3-60; ELISA TINELLI, Introduzione a GIROLAMO ALIOTTI, De
    optimo genere degende vite, Napoli, La Scuola di Pitagora editrice, 2016, pp. 7-108; and of
    course the ponderous volume by CECILE CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine en humaniste.
    Girolamo Aliotti (1412-1480), Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2018 (hereafter: CABY,
    Autoportrait d’un moine). In both the text and the final Index des noms de personnes et de
    lieux, Caby inexplicably refers to Scarmagli as Giovanni Maria, rather than Gabriele
    Maria, as he is generally known in the literature. See LUCA CERIOTTI, Contributo alla
    cronologia abbaziale dei monasteri cassinesi (1419-1810), Parma, Tipografie Riunite Donati,
    2019, p. 227, «Gabriele Maria Scarmagli da Lucignano», in the list of the abbots of the
    monastery of St. Flora and St. Lucilla. On this Benedictine monastery cf. MARIO SALMI,
    Ricerche intorno alla Badia di ss. Flora e Lucilla d’Arezzo, «L’Arte», XV, 1912, pp. 281-292;
    MARIA TERESA BARTOLI, La Badia delle SS. Flora e Lucilla in Arezzo, «Studi e documenti di



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the manuscript also contains two more works by Aliotti, the Dialogus de
optimo vitae genere deligendo and the De monachis erudiendis, both of which
were composed in the 1430s and originally dedicated to other prominent
patrons.




         Fig. 1. G. ALIOTTI, verses in praise of Pope Pius II Piccolomini, fol. 2/8r.
                               New York, private collection.




architettura», VI, 1976, pp. 27-35; ANNA PINCELLI, Monasteri e conventi del territorio aretino,
Firenze, Alinea Editrice, 2000, pp. 51-55, MAURO MUSSOLIN, Architettura ad Arezzo nel XV
secolo, in Arezzo nel Medioevo, a cura di Giovanni Cherubini et al., Roma, Bretschneider,
2012, pp. 271-281.



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Aliotti had always zealously promoted himself and his relatives: the
manuscript we present here offers striking evidence of his industriousness
in this regard, demonstrating the different strategies he employed in an
effort to attain a higher social status, as well as the particular use and re-
use of his writings in order to win new and ever more effective patronage.
The Prior of St. Flora and St. Lucilla was able to build a wide network of
mutual recommendations and favours not only within – as Carlo
Ginzburg states – the «clan of Aretine humanists»,3 but also in Rome as
well as in other Italian cities, as evinced by a voluminous manuscript of
his correspondence held at the Biblioteca Città d’Arezzo.4 Among his
numerous correspondents the names of Ambrogio Traversari, Poggio
Bracciolini, Giovanni Tortelli, and Leonardo Bruni particularly stand out.
   Aliotti had become acquainted with the Sienese humanist, and future
pope, Enea Silvio Piccolomini in the early years of their common training
at the Gymnasium in Siena.5 Piccolomini counts among the most interesting
and multifaceted figures of the Italian Renaissance; he was a diplomat as
well as a prolific writer, having also composed love poetry and prose, and
in 1442 was crowned poet laureate by Emperor Frederick III. He was
elected pope on 19 August 1458 and took the name of Pius II, a reference
to ‘pious Aeneas’, the hero of Virgil’s epic.


3 Cf. CARLO GINZBURG, Indagini su Piero. Il Battesimo, il ciclo di Arezzo, la Flagellazione di
Urbino. Nuova edizione con l’aggiunta di quattro appendici, Torino, Einaudi, 1994, p. 20
(Engl. transl. The Enigma of Piero. Piero della Francesca, London-New York, Verso, 2000, p.
29). Besides Aliotti himself, there were Carlo Marsuppini, Giovanni Tortelli, and
Giovanni Bacci. Cf. also ROBERT BLACK, Humanism and Education in Renaissance Arezzo, «I
Tatti Studies. Essays in the Renaissance», II, 1987, pp.171-237, esp. pp. 206-219; ID.,
Benedetto Accolti. A Portrait, in ID., Studies in Renaissance Humanism and Politics. Florence
and Arezzo, Farnham, Surrey, Ashgate, 2012, vol. IV, pp. 1-22; PAOLO VITI, Arezzo tra
Firenze e Roma. Lo sviluppo della cultura umanistica, in Arezzo nel Medioevo, cit., pp. 261-269.
4 Arezzo, Biblioteca città di Arezzo, ms. 400. For a description of the content of this

manuscript, which was once preserved at the Abbey of St. Flora and St. Lucilla (see the
ownership inscription on fol. 3r, «Iste liber est manasterii Sanctarum Flore et Lucille de
Aretio»), and which also includes the texts of numerous works by Aliotti, cf. I manoscritti
medievali della Biblioteca Città di Arezzo, a cura di Giovanna Lazzi et al., Firenze, Regione
Toscana; SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2003, p. 69, n. 65; Catalogo di manoscritti filosofici
nelle biblioteche italiane, vol. 10, Firenze, Olschki, 2003, pp. 67-68, n. 36; CABY, Autoportrait
d’un moine, pp. 86-92. I am grateful to the staff of the aforementioned Library for allowing
me to consult the original manuscript in December 2018. The ms. 400 represents the main
source used by Scarmagli for the edition Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula. For a
punctual survey of Aliotti’s correspondence, his epistolary practices, and the limits of
Scarmagli’s expurgated edition, cf. CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, pp. 85-198.
5 On Aliotti’s studies and his relationship to the Piccolomini circle see CABY, Autoportrait

d’un moine, pp. 164-171. Caby stresses Aliotti’s construction of the motif «de la mémoire
de l’âge d’or des études communes», which justifies «en effet l’activation, relativement
tardive, de ce motif et du reseau qui’il supporte, en lien étroit avec l’accession au
pontificat d’Eneas Silvio Piccolomini» (ivi, p. 165).



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Soon after Piccolomini’s election to the pontifical throne, Aliotti composed
the laudatory Oratio ad Pium II Pont. Max. pro Florentino populo – in order to
demonstrate the Tuscan fidelity to the new pope – and then sent it to him,
though it failed to have much effect.6 At the beginning of 1460, he learned
that Pius II, returning from Mantua to Rome, intended to sojourn in his
hometown of Siena. Aliotti did not let the occasion go to waste, and –
possibly through the intercession of one of his patrons, Cardinal Juan de
Torquemada (1388-1468) – managed to obtain an invitation to the aula
pontificalis from the new Roman pontiff. Aliotti decided to commission a
gift for the Pope in the form of a luxurious manuscript containing the
expressly written Gratulatio ad Pium II pro foelici, ac secundo ex Mantuana
peregrinatione reditu, along with – as revealed by the newly discovered
manuscript – two other works, the Dialogus de optimo vitae genere deligendo
and the well-known De monachis erudiendis.
   As attested by Gabriele Maria Scarmagli’s manuscript Synopsis
Monumentorum SS. Florae et Lucillae, no expense was spared in preparing
the volume for its illustrious recipient. From his maternal uncle – the
wealthy wool merchant Paolo di Nanni Spadari – Aliotti had received the
sum of 70 florins to finance his travel to Siena and for the production of a
codex fit for a pope.7 The copying of the texts and illumination were
commissioned to none other than the Florentine cartolaio or bookseller
Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421/22-1498), an established and internationally
renowned figure in the production of illuminated manuscripts who
counted among his clients kings, popes, cardinals, and bishops, in
addition to a number of eminent and affluent scholars throughout Europe,
and is known to have employed the most refined artists to satisfy his high-
profile clientele.8

6 The text of Aliotti’s Oratio ad Pium II Pont. Max. pro Florentino populo is contained in the
ms. 400 of the Biblioteca Città di Arezzo (fols. 292v-294r); an edited version is included in
Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula, cit., vol. 2, pp. 317-322. On Aliotti’s reasons for
writing this oration, see CABY, Autoportrait d’une moine, p. 420.
7 GABRIELE MARIA SCARMAGLI, Monasterij S.S. V.V. Florae et Lucillae Synopsis

Monumentorum Ex ejusdem Archivo deprompta, Arezzo, Archivio Diocesano e Capitolare,
(without shelfmark; hereafter: SCARMAGLI, Synopsis), p. 943, «1460. […] Si fece dare fiorini
70. da Paolo di Nanni degli Spadari quando andò a uisitare il Papa che stette un mese in
camino, e comprò due caualcature, e pagò il Libro, che donò al Papa». The entries in the
Synopsis concerning the commission and production of the manuscript are based on
Aliotti’s account books, particularly on ‘libro 62’, as indicated by Scarmagli himself at the
end of his notes regarding the expenses for those months, ibid., «Lib. 62. f. 2. 142. 147. 148.
158. ad 162. 180. 181. 212. ad 216. 237. ad 242.». The Book 62 of Aliotti’s account records is
now lost. See on this point CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, p. 417, note 153. I am grateful to
the Director of the Archivio Diocesano e Capitolare, Arezzo, for allowing me to consult
Scarmagli’s manuscript in December 2018.
8 On Vespasiano da Bisticci, refer above all to the seminal works by ALBINIA C. DE LA

MARE, especially New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence, in Miniatura fiorentina del
Rinascimento 1440-1525. Un primo censimento, a cura di Annarosa Garzelli, Firenze, Giunta



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As transcribed by Scarmagli, Aliotti’s account book – now lost – reports a
sum previously paid on 2 January 1460 to Vespasiano «per […] la scrittura
d’un libro».9 Further, «Il dì 20. di Marzo l’Ab.e fece nota delle spese fatte
nel uiaggio a Siena et a Firenze quando fece scrivere il dialogo al Papa, e
per la miniatura in mandar a Firenze – 5».10 i.e. for the copying and
illumination of the Dialogue commissioned as a gift to Pope Pius II:
precisely this newly discovered manuscript, which scholars had believed
to be no longer extant.11
    The manuscript is a total work of art: the parchment employed is of the
highest quality; a single and yet unknown scribe copied the texts in an
elegant and accurate humanistic script; the page layouts are spacious and
light; and the fine white vine-scroll initials opening each text, as well as
Piccolomini’s illuminated coats of arms, are executed with exquisite taste,
likewise befitting the prestige of the recipient. The decision to entrust
Vespasiano da Bisticci with the production of a codex intended for the
pope was certainly not accidental. Aliotti highly esteemed the pre-eminent
bookseller,12 and Pope Piccolomini himself possessed manuscripts that
had been copied and illuminated for him in Vespasiano’s workshop.13

Regionale Toscana, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 393-600; Vespasiano da Bisticci e i copisti fiorentini di
Federico, in Federico di Montefeltro. Lo stato, Le arti. La cultura, a cura di Giorgio Cerboni
Boiardi et al., Roma, Bulzoni, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 81-96; Vespasiano da Bisticci as Producer of
Classical Manuscripts in Fifteenth-Century Florence, in CLAUDINE A. CHAVANNE-MAZEL,
MARGARET. M. SMITH Medieval Manuscripts of the Latin Classics. Production and Use.
Proceedings of the Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Los Altos Hills, CA,
Anderson-Lovelace; London, The Red Gull Press, 1996, pp. 167-207. See also GIUSEPPE M.
CAGNI B., Vespasiano da Bisticci e il suo epistolario, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura,
1969, pp. 11-114.
9 SCARMAGLI, Synopsis, p. 943, «il dì 2. Gen. o 1460. à nat. L’Ab. e per Mr Gio: Roselli mando

a Vespasiano […] per pagar la scrittura d’un Libro». On the Aretine lawyer Giovanni di
Antonio Roselli cf. CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, pp. 26-27.
10 SCARMAGLI, Synopsis, p. 943. The price notice given by Scarmagli is of course of the

greatest importance, as it can be compared with analogous data reporting the cost of
manuscript materials, writing, and illumination. See for example A. C. DE LA MARE, New
Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence, cit., pp. 408-412; ANNA MELOGRANI, Manuscript
Materials: Cost and the Market for Parchment in Renaissance Italy, in Trade in Artist’s
Materials. Markets and Commerce in Europe to 1700, edited by Jo Kirby, Susie Nash, Joanna
Cannon, London, Archetype Publications, 2010, pp. 199-219.
11 Caby assumes the existence of this manuscript exclusively on the basis of information

given by SCARMAGLI in the Synopsis, which she summarizes in her Autoportrait d’un moine,
pp. 416-417, adding «je n’ai retrouvé aucune trace [of the manuscript]» (p. 416).
12 Cf. Aliotti’s letter of 1446 to Francesco Coppini, Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula,

cit., vol. 1, p. 196 (and CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, p. 597), regarding a manuscript of
Pliny’s De naturali historia he wanted to borrow, «opus sane longissimum, et multorum
dierum opera conficiendum, modo tu exemplaria invenire possis, quae certe sunt apud
Cosmum [Cosimo de’ Medici]. Ceterum nescio an apud aliquem alium habeantur
Florentie. Tu isti sciscitator a librariis publicis et a Vespasiano nostro, qui est optimus
huius rei explorator». Aliotti’s letter is also quoted by A. C. DE LA MARE, New Research on
Humanistic Scribes in Florence, cit., p. 401, «In 1446, when Vespasiano was little more than



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The illumination of the new discovered manuscript can confidently be
attributed to the renowned Florentine artist Filippo di Matteo Torelli
(1408/10-1468), as suggested by the similar decorative elements and
nuance in colour handling and composition.14 A pupil of Michele di
Giovanni Guarducci, Filippo di Matteo Torelli is considered a maestro of
border decoration, and deeply influenced Florentine artists of the next
generation, above all Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, and Ricciardo di
Nanni. 15 This attribution is based on a comparison with a group of
manuscripts produced by Vespasiano in 1458-1464 for the Medicis.
Among others, the Ab urbe condita by Livy, realized in 1458 for Piero de’
Medici,16 and the De civitate Dei by Augustine, produced on commission
for Pietro’s brother Giovanni.17 These manuscripts are decorated with

twenty-five years old, Girolamo Aliotti […] already referred to him as “the best person to
investigate such matters”».
13 On this issue, cf. A. C. DE LA MARE, New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence, cit., p.

404 «Pope Pius II (1458-1464) owned at least one Florentine manuscript, in addition to the
many that he acquired or commissioned in Rome». See also FRANCESCA CORSI MASI, Su
alcuni codici miniati a Firenze per Enea Silvio Piccolomini, in Il codice miniato in Europa. Libri
per la chiesa, per la città, per la corte, a cura di Giordana Mariani Canova, Alessandra
Perricoli, Padova, Il Poligrafo, 2014, pp. 461-474.
14 On Filippo di Matteo Torelli, see MIRELLA LEVI D’ANCONA, Miniatura e miniatori a

Firenze dal XIV al XVI secolo. Documenti per la storia della miniatura, con una premessa di
Mario Salmi, Firenze, Olschki, 1962, pp. 99-107; FRANCIS AMES-LEWIS, The Library and
Manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, New York-London, Garland, 1984, pp. 167-.173;
ANNAROSA GARZELLI, Le immagini, gli autori, i destinatari, in EAD., Miniatura fiorentina del
Rinascimento 1440-1525, cit., vol. 1, pp. 33-36; DIEGO GALIZZI, Torelli, Filippo di Matteo, in
Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, a cura Milvia Bollati, Milano, Edizioni Sylvestre
Bonnard, 2004, pp. 956-958.
15 Filippo di Matteo Torelli was also active for the Opera del Duomo in Florence as well as

the Dominican closter of San Marco See for example the four choir books realized for the
Opera del Duomo, in partnership with Zanobi Strozzi (Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana, Edili 148-151); cf. ANGELA DILLON BUSSI, La miniatura quattrocentesca per il
Duomo di Firenze. Prime indagini e alcune novità, in I libri del Duomo di Firenze. Codici liturgici
e Biblioteca di Santa Maria del Fiore (secoli XI-XVI), Lorenzo Fabbri, Marica Tacconi,
Firenze, Centro Di, 1997, pp. 79-96.
16 Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 63.10-12. Cf. Vespasiano’s letter to Piero

de’ Medici, Florence, 23 June 1458, in G. M. CAGNI, Vespasiano da Bisticci e il suo epistolario,
cit. no. 18, pp. 141-142, «Il Prinio [sic] e lla Decha sono di tutto finiti in buona forma, in
modo credo che vi piaceranno sommamente. […] Mandate uno chon qualche panno da
involgergli che non si guastino. Meser Piero Strozi ha finite l’abreviationi e holle date a
Pippo <che> le mini, e subito si legheranno». See F. AMES-LEWIS, The Library and
Manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, cit., pp. 109-112, 283; A. GARZELLI, Le immagini, gli
autori, i destinatari, cit., p. 34; A. C. DE LA MARE, New Research on Humanistic Scribes in
Florence, cit., pp. 427-428, 570.
17 Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 12.19 The manuscript is dated to

1460/63, and was copied by Piero di Benedetto Strozzi. See F. AMES-LEWIS, The Library
and Manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, cit., pp. 233-234; A. GARZELLI, Le immagini, gli
autori, i destinatari, cit., p. 34; A. C. DE LA MARE, New Research on Humanistic Scribes in
Florence, cit., p. 530, no. 11; the entry by ANGELA DILLON BUSSI, in Manoscritti e incunaboli



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elaborate white vine, or bianchi girari borders, inhabitated by winged putti
called ‘putti eroici’, which are practically signature Filippo di Matteo
Torelli.18 Striking similarities are also noted with the opening page of the
ms. Harley 2731 of the British Library, which once belonged to Pius II and
contains an abridgment of Livy’s Ab urbe condita.19 This manuscript was
likewise produced in Vespasiano’s workshop, with the copying of Livy’s
text being attributed by de la Mare to the scribe ‘Sinibaldus C’.20 The
opening page of the London codex is framed by a three-sided white vine
border with winged putti and various animals; at the bottom of the page,
the papal arms are surrounded by a laurel wreath held by two winged
putti, which are identical – in style, features, and colouring – to those
holding the papal crest on fol. 2/8r of the newly discovered manuscript
(Fig. 1).
   Scarmagli reports that on 5 February 1460 Aliotti travelled to Florence
to collect the manuscript he had commissioned. He then travelled to Siena,
riding the horse he had purchased with his uncle’s money and, to enhance
his prestige, with a chaplain and two monks in tow.21 We do not know
precisely on which day Aliotti may have finally been able to meet Pius II
at the aula pontificalis to offer him his precious manuscript gift, since
Scarmagli based his report on account books, stating only that Aliotti went




di testi patristici da Francesco Petrarca al primo Cinquecento, a cura di Sebastiano Gentile,
Firenze, Rose, 1997, no. 83, pp. 328-329. Filippo illuminated further manuscripts for the
Medici family; see for example the Latin translation of the Praeparatio evangelica by
Eusebius of Caesarea, decorated in 1462 for Giovanni de’ Medici, and also kept in the
Biblioteca Laurenziana (Plut. 17.25; cf. the entry by A. DILLON BUSSI, in Manoscritti e
incunaboli di testi patristici, cit., no. 62, pp. 275-278).
18 On the ‘putto eroico’, a motif introduced by Filippo di Matteo Torelli from 1447

onwards, cf. A. GARZELLI, Le immagini, gli autori, i destinatari, cit., p. 33, «Le novità
morfologiche sono costituite da una rarefazione del mondo vegetale, da una maggiore
simmetria delle componenti, da un infittirsi della popolazione dei Putti di cui è
interessante osservare la struttura, quasi un assemblaggio di zone muscolari, come per
blocchi, ad esempio nella saldatura dei ventrali […] converge su questa ‘scultura’ il
complesso di connotazioni proprie del nudo virile eroico, ostentato quasi
umoristicamente». See also F- AMES-LEWIS, The Library and Manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo
de’ Medici, cit., pp. 169-170, «The putti in the border of the Livy, Dec. IV, fol. 1r, are plump
and heavily-built, but convincingly rendered in three dimensions with the use of fairly
heavy modelling […] Their faces are well characterized; they have solid heads with thin,
upturned noses and deep-set eyes».
19 London, British Library, ms. Harl. 2731.
20 Cf. A. C. DE LA MARE, New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence, p. 537, no. 9.

Vespasiano also prepared for Piccolomini a manuscript containing Cicero’s Orationes,
copied by Piero di Benedetto Strozzi (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 231; cf. ibid., p. 531,
no. 39).
21 SCARMAGLI, Synopsis, p. 943, «Il dì 5. Feb.o andò a Firenze, e poi a Siena, ove condusse il

Cappellano, due Cherici, e due caualcature».



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to Siena on 21 April and returned to Arezzo on 6 May, spending a total of
16 florins on his familiari and two horses.22

2. A Complex Strategy: Literary Re-Use and Political Propaganda
The manuscript opens with the Gratulatio ad Pium II pro foelici, ac secundo ex
Mantuana peregrinatione reditu, written in the form of a fictional dialogue
between the pope’s nephew Guidantonio Piccolomini and Aliotti himself.
   The conversation concerns an especially pertinent topic at the time, and
one of Pius II’s highest priorities, i.e. the crusade against the Ottoman
Turks, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453. As is generally known,
in 1459 Pius II had called a council in Mantua for discussing his project
with the representatives of European states, an initiative strongly
supported by Cardinal Torquemada. The assembly opened in Mantua on 1
June 1459 and the pope proceeded to hold various orations on the
potential benefits of a war against the Turkish Sultan, Mehmed II. His
efforts failed, however, and the Council closed in January 1460 without
apparent issues. Disappointed, Pius II left for Siena, in the company of the
loyal Torquemada. It is therefore not coincidental that the Gratulatio
contains an unbounded defense of the planned crusade against the Turks,
and ends with a 78-verse poem (Fig. 1) in praise of Piccolomini and his
plea for Christian unity.23 Until the discovery, in 2018, of this earliest
version of Aliotti’s Gratulatio, the text was known by a miscellaneous
codex dating to 5 February 1461 and preserved in the National Library of
Florence,24 as well as by the collection later assembled by Aliotti himself,
now kept at the Biblioteca Città d’Arezzo.25

22 Ibid., «Il dì 21. Ap.le l’Ab.e andò a Siena e torno il dì 6. di Maggio, e spese fiorini 16 per
se e tre famigli, e due caualcature». Cf. also the information included in Aliotti’s letter to
an unidentified disciple of Lorenzo Valla (‘Cuidam Laurentii Vallae discipulo’), Arezzo,
16 May 1460, Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula, cit., vol. 1, p. 413, «Senis te primum
vidi in aula Pontificali […]». On Pius II’s stay in Siena between February and April 1460,
cf. SERGE STOLF, Les Lettres et la Tiare. E. S. Piccolomini, un humaniste au XVe siècle, Paris,
Classiques Garnier, 2012, pp. 347-348, and 355-361.
23 See below, paragraph 3. The literature on Pius II’s plan for a crusade against the

Ottoman Turks and the Council in Mantua is vast; particularly worthy of mention in
relation to the present study is LUCA D’ASCIA, Il Corano e la tiara. L’Epistola a Maometto II di
Enea Silvio Piccolomini (papa Pio II), Bologna, Pendragon, 2001; MARCO PELLEGRINI, Pio II, il
collegio cardinalizio e la dieta di Mantova, in Il sogno di Pio II e il viaggio da Roma a Mantova,
Atti del convegno internazionale, Mantova 13-15 aprile 2000, a cura di Arturo Calzona et
al., Firenze, Olschki, 2003, pp. 15-76; JOHANNES HELMRATH, Pius II. und die Türken, in ID.,
Wege des Humanismus. Studien und Diffusion der Antikeleidenschaft im 15. Jahrhundert,
Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2013, pp. 279-342.
24 Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale, cod. Magl. XXI.151, fols. 25r-45r. See CABY, Autoportrait

d’un moine, p. 37, note 112.
25 Arezzo, Biblioteca Città di Arezzo, ms. 400, fols. 124v-132v, edited in Hieronymi Aliotti

Epistolae et Opuscula, cit., vol. 2, pp. 323-345. On the content of the Gratulatio, cf. ELISA
TINELLI, Pio II e la dieta di Mantova nella Gratulatio pro felici ac secundo reditu di Girolamo



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Aliotti’s intent to flatter is clear, and the other two texts included in the
present manuscript – the Dialogus de optimo vitae genere deligendo and the
De monachis erudiendis – are likewise part of his strategy to ingratiate
himself with Pope Piccolomini and gain the latter’s patronage. Both works
had been composed during the 1430s, and addressed by Aliotti to other
patrons in order to win their favour. Aliotti regarded his literary
production as a «monnaie d’échanges de faveurs»:26 in 1460, each work
was now introduced by four dedicatory verses to Pius II written on the
verso of the preceding leaves.27
   The Dialogus de optimo vitae genere deligendo is the first humanistic work
composed by Aliotti. The text was written in 1437 and originally dedicated
to his patron, the Bishop of Split and future Archbishop of Florence
Bartolomeo Zabarella (d. 1445). Only one manuscript of the original
version, containing the dedication to Zabarella, is recorded, included in a
miscellaneous codex held at the Casanatense Library in Rome.28 The
renewed version addressed to Pius II – introduced by the verse dedication
«Ad maximum ponteficem Pium secundum versiculi ante dialogum hunc
de optimo vite genere deligendo» – was, until now, attested by two
manuscripts, preserved at the Biblioteca Città d’Arezzo29 and the
Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, respectively.30 In both cases, the text



Aliotti, in Roma, Napoli e altri viaggi per Mauro de Nichilo, a cura di Davide Canfora e
Claudia Corfati, Bari, Cacucci, 2017, pp. 409-418; CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, pp. 412-
416. Of course, neither Tinelli nor Caby could refer to the present codex, which emerged
only in 2018.
26 CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, p. 298.
27 See below, paragraph 3.
28 Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, ms. 4053, fols. 1r-32r. On the text of the Dialogus de

optimo vitae genere deligendo as testified in this codex (and introduced by the slightly
different title De optimo genere degende vite) see ELISA TINELLI, Il ‘De optimo vitae genere
deligendo’ di Girolamo Aliotti. Alcune osservazioni, «Archivum mentis», II, 2013, pp. 127-150.
Tinelli considers the ms. 4053 of the Casanatense Library as «l’esemplare di dedica
all’arcivescovo di Spalato: un testimone, dunque, presumibilmente affidabile e di pregio,
cronologicamente vicino all’originale poichè certamente confezionato tra il 18 ottobre
1439, data dell’epistola a Leonardo Bruni riprodotta in calce al testo del De optimo vite
genere, e il 18 dicembre 1439, data della promozione di Zabarella al seggio vescovile
fiorentino» (ivi, p. 134).
29 Arezzo, Biblioteca Città di Arezzo, ms. 459, fols. 1r-25r. In this manuscript, the initial

dedication to Pope Pius II is expressed in a rather different form from that copied in the
newly discovered manuscript. Further, in the ms. 459, the dedication is immediately
followed by four verses; by contrast, in the new manuscript, these four verses are
transcribed on the verso of the leaf preceding the beginning of the text. On the ms. 459
see also I cancellieri aretini della Repubblica di Firenze, a cura di Roberto Cardini e Paolo Viti,
Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, 2003, no. 30 (description by
Maria Chiara Flori); I manoscritti medievali della Biblioteca Città di Arezzo, cit., n. 87.
30 Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Marc.lat.XIC.180 (4467); cf. CÉCILE CABY,

Réseaux sociaux, pratiques culturelles et genres discursifs: à propos du dialogue ‘De optimo vitae



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presents some textual variants as compared to the newly discovered
manuscript.




    Fig. 2. G. ALIOTTI, Gratulatio ad Pium II pro felici               Fig. 3. Binding.
      ac secundo ex Mantuana peregrinatione reditu,             New York, private collection.
                     opening page.
              New York, private collection.

The third and more lengthy text included in the present manuscript is one
of the most famous works by Aliotti, the dialogue De monachis erudiendis,
composed around 1439.31 Divided into two books, the work is a manifesto
for a reform of monastic life, remediating the decline of monasteries
encouraging studies. Aliotti had already presented this text to a pope in
1445: in fact, the Vatican Library preserves Aliotti’s presentation
manuscript for Eugene IV,32 offered as a gift for receiving ecclesiastical
benefices, and consequently obtaining greater social stature. The Vatican

genere’, in Humanistes, clercs et laïque dans l’Italie du XIII e au début du XVIe siècle, dir. Cécile
Caby et Rosa Maria Dessì, Turnhout, Brepols, 2012, pp. 405-482.
31 For an in-depth discussion of the De monachis erudiendis, cf. CABY, Autoportrait d’un

moine, pp. 265-367.
32 Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat.lat. 1063. On the Vatican

manuscript see JEANNINE FOHLEN, La bibliothèque du pape Eugène IV (1431-1447).
Contributions à l’histoire du fonds Vatican latin, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, 2008, p. 29; ANTONIO MANFREDI, ”Lo misse sopra la libreria che aveva ordinata”.
Note sul Tortelli bibliotecario di Niccolò V, in Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae,
XVI, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2009, p. 213.



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codex, whose decoration and script are however of minor quality, is
introduced by an obsequious epistola to Eugene IV, which Aliotti uses
again in the present manuscript, this time preceded by a short metric
dedication to Pius II.33 On 6 November 1445 Aliotti sent a supplication to
Eugene IV requesting he be granted, as a reward, the benefice of the abbey
of St. Fedele de Strumi at Poppi, near Arezzo. In 1460 he attempted to re-
use the De monachis erudiendis to obtain a bishopric from Pius II, possibly
that of Città di Castello, in the Umbria region, whose then-bishop Rodolfo
was in a precarious state of health. Surely Aliotti’s plan to reform monastic
life, transforming monasteries into veritable humanistic academies, would
be even more welcomed by Pius II, the Humanist Pope par excellence.
    Aliotti thus revised the text, corrected various scribal errors, and
partially reworked the section dealing with the study of philosophy. As a
result, the text of De monachis erudiendis included in the present
manuscript is quite different from that of the Vatican codex. The newly
discovered codex is therefore not only a splendid example of Florentine
humanist book production, but also of highly significant import from a
textual point of view.
    Unfortunately, even this second tribute to Pius II did not have the
desired effect. On 8 June 1460 – just one day before the death of the Titular
Archbishop Rodolfo – Aliotti personally wrote to Pope Piccolomini,
reasserting their familiarity, originating from their common studies at the
University of Siena, along with their shared cultural interests.34
Nevertheless, Aliotti’s supplication seems to have fallen on deaf ears, and
on 28 August he sent a letter to Cardinal Torquemada, enquiring as to
Pius II’s opinion on his manuscript.35 Torquemada answered politely: the
Pope had obviously appreciated Aliotti’s works, but could read only a few
pages of the volume, owing to his «majores et continuas occupationes».36

33 See below, paragraph 3.
34 Aliotti to Pius II, 8 June 1460, in Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula, vol. 1, pp. 415-
417. See esp. p. 416, «Vacaturus est propediem Episcopatus Tipherni, quae Civitas nobis
finitima est, nec pluribus quam XX. millibus passuum disparate. Ad eum Episcopatum
per Sanctitatem vestram promoveri cupio cum servatione hujus Monasterii mei».
35 Aliotti to Juan de Torquemada, Arezzo, 28 August 1460, ibid., p. 424, «Cupio interprete

atque intermedia Reverendissima Dominatione vestra explorare prudenter, caute
judicium Sanctissimi Domini nostri circa libellum meum, quem dono dedi Sanctitati suae;
nam scribuntur ad me egregia quidem ab amicis, sed ego vereor, & suspectas habeo
adulatorum artes».
36 Juan de Torquemada to Aliotti, Siena, 31 August 1460, ibid., vol. 2, pp. 369-370,

«Praeterea ut desiderio vestro morem gestum daremus, quam existimationem de libro
vestro faceret, heri a Sanctissimo Domino Nostro diligenter exploravimus. Retulit enim
Sanctitas Sua, pauca quaedam se in eo legisse, propter quae de toto libro optime concepit,
quem laudat, & affirmat sibi placuisse, licet propter majores & continuas occupationes
Sanctitas Sua eum totum videre nequiverit, quem nescio cui Episcopo interea videndum
commisit». On Aliotti’s epistolary exchange with Torquemada about the Gratulatio, see
also CABY, Autoportrait d’un moine, pp. 417-418.



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Aliotti would have remained prior of the St. Flora and St. Lucilla
monastery until his death in 1480, while the luxurious and expensive
manuscript commissioned to Vespasiano da Bisticci remained among the
shelves of the large private library Pius II had amassed. In fact, the present
manuscript never even entered the Vatican Library, and was inherited –
along with the greater part of the pope’s library – by his nephews Andrea,
Antonio, Giacomo, and Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini. Pius II’s books
were later dispersed, and manuscripts bearing his papal coat of arms are
presently scattered across various European and American libraries.37

3. Physical Description of the Manuscript and its Decoration Project
Aliotti’s illuminated manuscript is on parchment and measures 253x181
mm. It consists of 14 quires and comprises II + 139 + II leaves (collation: 1-
1310, 149-10). It is unfoliated and complete but for the final blank leaf which
is lacking. The fols. 2/10r, 14/8v, and 14/9r-v are blank. The catchwords
are written in the middle centre of the last page of each quire except quires
2 and 4. The text block measures 164x90 mm, is in one column and
comprises 28 lines. The first capital letter of each sub-chapter is set out.
Ruled in brown ink, the text is written in brown ink by a unique hand in
formal humanist script. Headings and names of interlocutors are provided
in pale red ink.
   The illumination includes on fol. 1/1r the papal coat of arms of Pius II
Piccolomini38 (55x109 mm) presented in shield in the bas-de-page, in blue
and gold embellished with floriated extensions in red, green, purple, and
gold, and on fol. 2/8r a large miniature (112x78 mm) bearing at the centre

37 On Pius II’s library and the book collection of the Piccolomini family more generally, cf.
ENEA PICCOLOMINI, De codicibus Pii II et Pii III deque Bibliotheca Ecclesiae Cathedralis
Senensis, «Bullettino senese di storia patria», VI, 1899, pp. 483-496; RINO AVESANI, Per la
biblioteca di Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini vescovo di Pienza, in Mélanges Eugène Tisserant, vol.
VI, Bibliothèque Vaticane. Première partie, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
1964, pp. 1-87, esp. pp. 33-37; ALFRED A. STRNAD, Studia Piccolomineana. Vorarbeiten zu
einer Geschichte der Bibliothek der Päpste Pius II und III, in Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II.
Atti del convegno per il quinto centenario della morte, a cura di Domenico Maffei, Siena,
1968, pp. 295-390; MAURO LENZI, MILVIA BOLLATI, I codici della Libreria: vicende storiche. The
Codices of the Library: their Later History, in SALVATORE SETTIS, DONATELLA TORRACA, La
Libreria Piccolomini nel Duomo di Siena, Modena, Franco Cosimo Panini, 1998, pp. 312-320.
It is quite difficult to trace the subsequent story of Aliotti’s codex newly discovered. A
potential clue is offered by notices written on the pastedowns and on the pasted-in card,
both of which attest to its circulation on the German market (see below, paragraph 4).
This point will be discussed in depth by the author elsewhere.
38 See ADRIANA MARUCCHI, Stemmi di possessori di manoscritti conservati nella Biblioteca

Vaticana, in Mélanges Eugène Tisserant, vol. VII. Bibliothèque Vaticane. Duexième partie, Città
del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1964, pp. 71-72; LUIGI BORGIA, L’araldica dei
Piccolomini, in Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Pius Secundus. Atti del convegno internazionale 29
settembre-1 ottobre 2005, a cura di Manlio Sodi e Anna Antoniutti, Roma, Libreria
editrice Vaticana, 2007, pp. 183-237.



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the coat of arms of Pius II in burnished silver, blue, and gold surmounted
by a white and gold tiara and surrounded by a laurel crown held by two
winged putti; the background is coloured in red and patterned in white,
while the white-vine border and the putti are in blue, red, and green;
attached to the miniature is a three-line gold and white-vine initial (18x19
mm). Furthermore, there are 5 four- to six-line gold and white-vine initials
(34x31 mm) in blue, red, and green, 14 smaller gold initials (18x13 mm)
variably mixing blue, red, and green for the ground with patterns in
white, and 5 one-line blue paragraph marks.
   The volume is bound in early twentieth-century German blind-tooled
pigskin over wooden boards. It also has a spine with four raised bands,
marbled flyleaves, gilt and gauffered edges (Fig. 3).
   The first leaf is slightly soiled, there are four small round wormholes in
the blank outer margin of the first leaves reducing to one and then
disappearing, a few marginal stains, and an old repair to the lower blank
margin of fol. 14/3, but all in all a very well-preserved manuscript.
   The text is arranged as follows:
   - fols. 1/1r-2/7v: G. ALIOTTI, Ad Maximum beatissimumque Pontificem
Pium II. Pro felici ac secundo ex Mantuana peregrinatione reditu (G. ALIOTTI,
Epistolae et opuscula, vol. 2, pp. 323-345). Inc. «Ego beatissime pater cum
per hos superiores dies Roma rediens»; Expl. «meae gratulationis cantus
adoriar sic placet»;
   - 78-verse poem follows on fols. 1/8r-2/9v (inc. «Inclita signa uago
lumen radiantia mundo»);
   - fols. 2/10v-4/10r: G. ALIOTTI, Dialogus de optimo vite genere deligendo (C.
CABY, Réseaux sociaux, pratiques culturelles et genres discursifs: à propos du
dialogue ‘De optimo vitae genere’, pp. 461-482). Inc. «Nuper apud foianum
agri aretini opidum»; Expl. «Hiero. Vale o cimber! Mar. valete & reliqui.
Finis»;
   - fols. 4/10v-14/8r: G. ALIOTTI, De monachis erudiendis (G. ALIOTTI,
Epistolae et opuscula, vol. 2, pp. 176-292). Inc. «Plerosque nostrorum
temporum religiosos»; Expl. «beatissimi martiris donati inscriptum nomini
atque constructum. Finis».

4. Provenance
The manuscript, produced in the workshop of Vespasiano da Bisticci, was
given by the author to Pope Pius II in Siena in the Spring of 1460.
Dispersed for centuries like the rest of Piccolomini’s library, it has re-
emerged in Germany at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th
century. The binding dates to that period and region, as probably the small
round stamp on the opening page (fol. 1/1r; the stamp is repeated on fol.
14/8r), which reads «Dr. Adolph […]horn», and by a pasted envelope on
the first flyleaf verso that houses half a card from the Frankfurt publisher
and bookseller Moritz Diesterweg (1834-1906) bearing pencilled notes
(«Pius II Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini in humanistischen Minuskel


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geschrieben, sehr gut erhalten»), as well as a thick, folded piece of paper
with several pencilled notes on both sides (side A: «Hieronymi Aretini
monachis eruditis gehört Papst Pius II 1440. Dedicationexempl.
Manuscript auf Pergament in humanistischen Minuskel 2 Teile nebst
Einleitung u. Widmung am Papst Eugen IV (Aeneas Silvio Piccolomini)
mit 19 blauen Initialen, 2 Bordüre auf 1 Blatt, 1 schönes Kopfstich mit
Papstwappen in 4 Farben»; side B: Mk 900 «Widmung an Papst in
Hexameter in einem gepresste neueren Holzband. Vollständiges als das
Exemplar in der Libreria Vaticana segnanto [sic] del num. 1063 139 Blatt.
Aretino Girolamo Abate di Santa Flora Allen Maggs - Breslauer, R. - H.
Rosenthal L. Bibl. Vatic. Hiesermann»). Diesterweg began his career as a
bookseller in Berlin, Leipzig, and Vienna.39 In 1859 he started working in
Frankfurt at Hermann’sche Buchhandlung, which he took over in 1860. At
the same time, he devoted himself to his recently founded publishing
house, Moritz Diesterweg Verlag, and quickly gained renown for its
academic editions. After the early death of his youngest son Emil
Diesterweg (d. 1905), who was also his successor at the publishing house,
the two men’s widows sold the company to long-time employee and
bookseller Erich Herbst, who continued to run it in the spirit of its
founder. In 1995, the publishing house was sold to the Holtzbrinck Group
by Dietrich Herbst, one of Erich’s grandsons. Today it belongs to the
Braunschweig-based Westermann publishing group.
   The whereabouts of the manuscript from the early 1900s to its
reappearance in 2018 in the antiquarian book market are not known.




39Cf. 100 Jahre Verlag Moritz Diesterweg, «Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel», LI,
1960, pp. 1111-1112; PATRICIA STAHL, Diesterweg, Moritz. Artikel aus der Frankfurter
Biographie      (1994/96)      in:    Frankfurter     Personenlexikon    (Onlineausgabe),
<https://frankfurter-personenlexikon.de/node/2015>, last access: 15.12.2021.




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