The work carried out during the three years involved both research activity leading to publications, and conferences and dissemination to a broader public.
To achieve its primary research objectives the project comprised two short objectives: a) to produce a complete census of Piccolomini’s letters; b) to have a detailed understanding of the content of his letters, paying special attention to cultural, religious, and political questions and his interactions with others.
Meeting the first objective involved cataloguing over 1,000 manuscripts from about 250 libraries around the world. Thanks to the catalogue of manuscripts, important information for the project was found, including Piccolomini’s works, dating and ownership thereof, miniatures, paratexts, and accompanying works by other authors. Different groups of manuscripts with collections of Piccolomini’s letters, some of them never before studied, were identified as well as miscellaneous manuscripts with works by many authors.
The second objective involved studying which letters were most widely circulated, in relation to their content. To analyze all this material an interdisciplinary methodology was used, which included textual criticism, book history, codicology, and history of literature. The result allowed for better understanding of the circulation of Piccolomini’s works in the second half of the 15th century and in the first half of the 16th century, both in reference to literary and religious interests. In particular the project identified: 1) which letters or groups of letters and which works were not only widely read, but became models in the use of the Latin language and in the cultural formation of the second half of the 15th century; 2) which works spread widely discussed religious and political ideas between the 15th and 16th centuries; and 3) which works included devotional texts. A particularly significant aspect, 4), which opened a parallel branch of research, emerged from the examination of some collections of letters and some manuscripts that connect Piccolomini to Ambrogio Traversari, another key figure of Italian humanism and religious history of the first half of the 15th century, in the context of the Council of Basel. The research delved into this strand in order to publish Traversari’s Hodoeporicon and to better substantiate the first three points in anticipation of a monograph.
The project was presented in the University of Turin’s online magazine Frida (October 2022), at the ‘Goggio Lecture’, Department of Italian Studies (March 2023), and at an international workshop in Turin (2025). During these three years one or more panels were organized for the following conferences: the Renaissance Society of America Virtual (December 2022) and in person in Chicago (March 2024) and Boston (2025); the Society for Renaissance Studies in Liverpool (July 2023) and Bristol (2025); the Society for Italian Studies at Royal Holloway, Egham (June 2024) and a paper was given. An international conference was also organized in Turin (2025).
Turning to engagement with the general public, there were an exhibition at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto; a conference at the cultural association Vita Tre (2025), the ‘Research night’ in Biella (2025), and the project’s website, with images of manuscripts chosen from various works by Piccolomini; a summer school for teachers, graduates and doctoral students at the University of Turin (2025).
