Collected Letters of Enea Silvio Piccolomini. Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. Vol. 6: Letters from 1453 (nos. 284-436). Preliminary version

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The present volume contains Enea Silvio Piccolomini’s personal letters from 1453, altogether 152 letters. These letters cover a period of great events, as related to and by Piccolomini: It began with Porcari’s rebellion against the papal government of Rome, which, with some luck, might have succeeded. It continued with with negotiations to settle the Austrian rebellion against the emperor in 1452 that had led to the release of the boy-king Ladislaus the Posthumous’ accession to the thrones of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. Then a series of problems in the three realms arose or manifested themselves, some of them unsurmountable. In June, Constantinople fell to the Turks, threatening to continue their invasion of Europe. In the autumn, the court trial to settle the Prussian rebellion against the Teutonic Order took place, which prevented Piccolomini from returning to Italy, where the powers finally managed to move towards a permanent peace. And the Count of Celje was deposed from the government of Austria and the king’s person.