Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II, wrote one of the most popular Latin prose romances of the Renaissance. Based perhaps on a true story, the History of the Two Lovers survives in a large number of manuscripts and early printed versions, as well as in translations into many vernacular languages, including English. It is a tale of adulterous love, passion and painful consequences, in the tradition of the Italian novella, but redolent of the enormous classical humanist learning for which its author was famous. The protagonists, Eurialus and Lucrece, are brilliantly drawn characters who become caught in the trap of irrational passion while simultaneously attempting to reason their way first around and then through their affairs. Social commentary, the role of women, lovesickness, ancient memories, epistolary discourse, and the terrible retribution of a rigorous morality all drive a story which has captured the imagination of readers for over five centuries.

The Editors

Kenneth Bartlett is Professor of History and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He is the author of The English in Italy, 1525-1558: A study in Culture and Politics (1991), and author or editor of many other books and articles on cultural relations between Italy and England in the Renaissance. He was also Founding Directory of the University Toronto Art Centre.

Emily O’Brien, a graduate of the University of Toronto, is completing her Ph.D. in history at Brown University. Her Dissertation examines humanist literature at the court of Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini). She is currently teaching at Harvard University.