Oration “Quamvis grandes materias” by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (10 December 1450, Naples). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. Final Version. 2024.(Orations of Pope Pius II; 14)
Résumé
In October 1450, Bishop Enea Silvio Piccolomini, a high-ranking imperial diplomat and Bishop of Trieste, was sent by Emperor Friederich III to the Court of Naples. His mission was to negotiate the contract of marriage between the emperor and Princess Leonora of Portugal and sister of the King of Portugal, and niece of King Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily. His oration, in the genre of the classical epithalamium, i.e., wedding oration, revived by the Italian Renaissance humanists, praised the two royal personages and their respective houses. Piccolomini also presented a view of women remarkable for its opposition to traditional misogynist views. And, finally, he praised marriage for its dignity as a God-given institution, for its utility for society and for the spouses themselves, and for its joys, including the comfort and love of one’s wife, the delights of women, and - remarkably - the pleasures of sex.
Mots clés
Enea Silvio Piccolomini
Renaissance oratory
Pope Pius II
Empress Eleonora of Portugal
Renaissance orations
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini
Æneas Silvius Piccolomini
Kaiser Friedrich III Habsburg
Misogyny
History of women
Marriage
Princely marriages
History of sexuality
Emperor Frederick III Habsburg
King Alfonso V the Magnanimous Aragon
Empress Leonora of Portugal
Marriage alliances
Renaissance rhetorics
1450
Fifteenth century
Epithalamium
Epithalamia
Papa Pio II
15th century
Wedding orations
Domaines
HistoireOrigine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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