Pope Paul II

Wedged between the prolific humanist Pius II and the arch-nepotist Sixtus IV, Paul II is one of the more easily overlooked popes of the 15th century. Pietro Barbo was born in Venice in 1417, into an extensive network of interconnected clerically dominated families that had recently produced two popes, Gregory XII (r. 1406–1415) and Eugenius IV (r. 1431–1447). It was Eugenius who raised Barbo to the cardinalate in 1440. Nicholas V (r. 1447–1455) promoted him from being cardinal deacon of S. Maria Nuova to cardinal priest of S. Marco, the most fitting choice for a Venetian, but when Pius II (r. 1458–1464) chose him to fill the episcopal vacancy at Padua in 1459 it created a diplomatic crisis between Venice and Rome. On 30 August 1464 Barbo was elected to succeed Pius, but his initial desire to take Mark as his papal name was rejected by the cardinal electors and he became Pope Paul II. He died on 26 July 1471. The key features of his life and pontificate can be found in any number of Reference Works, though separate Overviews are relatively scarce. Primary Sources are certainly not in short supply, meaning that they are divided for present purposes into Papal Lives and Other Sources. Those sources duly inspired the classic history of the papacy and the recent biography which are paired under the heading Lives and Times, as well as the more detailed research published in Collections of Papers and a specialist Journal. From that point the structure of this article is dictated by the distinctive features of Paul’s pontificate. Curia Romana brings together a number of studies on papal administration, but its positioning is dictated by a relatively minor organizational change. That triggered a reaction among the curialists who lost their employment and can therefore be linked to the humanists of the Roman Academy and their alleged plot to murder the pope in 1468. That episode provides the bulk of the material included as Literary Culture, which might otherwise appear less prominently. Paul’s literary interests have been a matter of debate, but there is no doubt about his interest in and patronage of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning. If this article is thought of in terms of concentric circles, the pope was in his palace adjacent to the church of S. Marco, from which one can move outwards into Rome and the Papal States and, beyond that, Rome and the Secular Powers of western Christendom, including Venice.

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