Commentaries (Pope Pius II)
The Commentaries is an autobiography by Pope Pius II. It is his most important literary work, and contains a full account of all the events in which he was engaged. Bartolomeo Platina in his Life of Pius II mentioned the existence of these commentaries; but they were not published till 1584, by Francesco Bandini Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena, who possessed a manuscript which had been copied by a German priest,.
Archbishop Piccolomini assigned to the copyist the honour of being the publisher, therefore the Commentaries of Pius II were published under the name of Gobellinus. Giovanni Antonio Campano, however, in a letter to Cardinal Giovanni Piccolomini, said that Pius II wrote the Commentaries, and handed over to him for correction the results of his hurried dictation; he pronounced that they need no other hand to increase their dignity, and are the despair of those who would wish to imitate them. Campano, however, divided them into twelve books, and probably made a few additions and alterations. Platina mentions the beginning of a thirteenth book which Gobellinus did not include in his manuscript. The thirteenth book was published by Georg Voigt in the appendix to the second volume of his Ænea Sylvio de Piccolomini.
According to church historian Mandell Creighton, the Commentaries are the best literary work of Pius II:
It is the first memoir written by a sitting pope in history, followed only by Pope Francis' Hope in 2025. The first translation, in any language, of the entire Commentaries was done by Florence Alden Gragg into English and published in several volumes from 1936 to 1957.