Epistola ad Mahumetem

PIUS II, Pope

Published by Ulrich Zell, [Cologne], 1469

About this Item

Small quarto, 54 leaves, complete with the initial blank; opening initial letter rubricated; 19th-century brown calf binding, front cover lettered in gilt. A remarkable and rare fifteenth-century printed document: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pope Pius II (reigned 1458-1464), writes at considerable length, addressing the Ottoman emperor, Sultan Mehmed II, the great conqueror of Constantinople, challenging him to convert to Christianity. Never actually delivered, and first published only shortly after the pope's death, its purpose has to be seen as propagandist rather than realistic, including Pius's disingenuous offer to Mehmed of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire if he were to convert. The background is the continuing threat from the Ottoman empire and the letter, presented as a simple attempt by a well-meaning Pope to persuade his Muslim enemy to convert, is actually invoking anti-Islamic sentiment, showing that the letter is more for domestic consumption than for any realistic prospect of the conversion of the Ottoman emperor. The crusades are not far from his underlying thoughts as the Pope speaks to nationalist and chauvinist instincts for religious conflict that survive. Crusading impulses were morphing at this time from purely religious armed expeditions to being inexorably tied up with territory and expansion: as Cross has pointed out (p.436), "crusading ideas helped to shape the Portuguese and Spanish oceanic expansion [well into] the early sixteenth century, and the history of the Crusade was thus interwoven with early colonialism". Nancy Bisaha has analysed the letter at length ("Pope Pius II's Letter to Sultan Mehmed II: a Reexamination", Crusades, Volume 1, 2002, online at tandfonline.com), examining the numerous theories as to its actual purpose and reminding us that elsewhere Pius "called Mehmed II "that foul leader of the Turks (spurcissimus ille Turchorum dux). the most repulsive beast (teterrima bestia)". Pius saw the fall of Constantinople as a tremendous blow to Greek literature and learning. The former intellectual capital would now surely decline under the Turks, "savage men, hostile to good manners and to good literature." In one of his most famous quotes, Pius laments: "This will be a second death to Homer, and a second destruction of Plato"…". She concludes that "Having examined Pius's letter to Mehmed closely and compared it to Pius's other works and conversion treatises by other authors, I see no reason to believe that Pius ever intended to send the work to the sultan. Most likely it was written expressly for Western readers or as a meditation for Pius, but it does not fall into the category of conversion efforts. It might have pleased modern readers to think that Pius was capable of doubting his xenophobia and viewing his adversaries more generously in other words, the way we like to see ourselves. One would like to think he would have used more tact and sensitivity had he been addressing a Muslim audience. Pius may not appear as a pacifist or a visionary, but he does appear to have remained true to his goals: to strengthen Christianity and to defend "Western civilization" as only a humanist could conceive it.". Pius was "one of the greatest representatives of the humanism of his age" (Cross). A close student of Ptolemy, whose second-century Geography had only been rediscovered earlier in the 15th century, his unfinished geographical treatise "Historia rerum ubique gestarum" was an important spur for early discoverers, including Columbus. Subsequently published multiple times within Italy, this is the second of the three first printings of the letter produced by Ulrich Zell in Cologne, ca. 1469 72. Other than the present, we have traced only two copies at auction in the past fifty years. . Provenance: Contemporary bibliographical note on A1 blank, manuscript signatures and occasional marginalia in the same hand throughout; Stonyhurst College library, with their stamp on the first and last leaves, and. Seller Inventory # 4506082

Bibliographic Details

Title: Epistola ad Mahumetem

Publisher: Ulrich Zell, [Cologne]

Publication Date: 1469