The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, Volume 04: Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and Other Original Sources

The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages #4

by Ludwig von Pastor, Frederick Ignatius Antrobus (editor)

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535 pages, ebook

First published August 22, 2015

About the author

Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden (31 January 1854 – 30 September 1928), was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his History of the Popes. He was raised to the nobility by the Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1908. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.

Reviews

[Peter Thurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth volume in Ludwig Pastor's 40+ volume set deals with the papacies of Pope Paul II (1464-1471) and Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484). Renaissance Popes, Sixtus IV is perhaps the most well-known of the two, having commissioned the Sistine Chapel's construction and it's initial side-wall frescoes, painted by some of the biggest names in Renaissance artistry. As always, Pastor is even-handed in dealing with his subjects, though it's clearly obvious that he is a partisan historian, most visible in his editorialized condemnation of church heretics.

I love reading Pastor's writing because he is clearly engaged with his subjects material - his enthusiasm comes through in his writing. When writing about the excesses of Sixtus IV's nephews, who were made Cardinals almost immediately upon his ascension to St. Peter's Chair, Pastor is very clearly disappointed with the fact that the Pope did not rein them in, but instead gave them everything and anything they wanted. Pastor is a historian, but he's an interested and passionate historian, not content to merely recount history as a set of dates and people.

I also love reading this series because it gives me a place to start in terms of exploring interesting events during that time. This volume has led me to do additional reading about the plot to kill Lorenzo de Medici, Prince of Florence, as well as the capture of the Italian port town of Otranto by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II.

On to Volume V and Popes Innocent VIII and Alexander VII