Author Description

Perhaps the opening paragraph from Paul Larson's (Baylor University) prologue to the Epistola ad Mahomatem II summarizes what this new Scripta Humanistica volume has to offer to readers of literature and history alike: "This new scholarly edition certainly begs the question: how can a fifteenth century letter from the then Pope Pius II to the Muslim conqueror of Constantinople have any relevance for contemporary scholars and students in the early 21st century? Embroiled as we are in chaotic and tumultuous religious and political conflict in Europe and the Middle East, perhaps the answer is only too obvious: the same political and religious concerns that drove Piccolomini to pen his letter are still applicable to today." Today's political climate is no different from that of the Fourteenth Century and that is why Leaños's work is so relevant in present time political rhetoric. Written in 1461, eight years after the Fall of Constantinople, Piccolomini's work is a lengthy oration invoking a crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Throughout approximately the 90 folios of this missive, which elucidates the superiority of the Bible over the Qur'ãn, Pius II attempts to convert the Sultan to Christianity by providing arguments from doctrine, scripture, history, classical literature, political thought, and reason. Leaños's work is extensive and his lucid study on one of the most famous rhetoricians, humanists, diplomats, and prelates of the Italian Renaissance, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, would benefit scholars and graduate students interested in the political-religious intersection between the West and the East.