![‘De Europa’, a journey through the continents of the Renaissance, has been republished ‘De Europa’, a journey through the continents of the Renaissance, has been republished](https://media.famigliacristiana.it/2024/5/europa_3415609.jpg)
Reflect on the past and future of Europe in search of its renewed political and cultural identity in the face of a complex and constantly changing global scenario. This is the intent that pushed the Embassy of the Holy Order of Malta to the Holy See to publish a new edition of “De Europa” by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464), who became Pope in 1458 with the name of Pius II.
Published by the IF Press publishing house and edited by Don Manlio SodiPresident Emeritus of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, and by Antonio Zanardi LandiAmbassador of the HM Order of Malta to the Holy See, the publication was presented in Rome, at Casa Litta-Palazzo Orsini, by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and from Giuliano AmatoPresident Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, as well as the Grand Chancellor of the HM Order of Malta, Riccardo Paternò of Montecupoin the presence of the Grand Master of the Order, Brother John T. Dunlap.
Translated for the first time into Italian fifteen years ago on the initiative of Ambassador Zanardi Landi and the then Monsignor Ravasi, “De Europa” (written between 1458 and 1461), printed in a few hundred copies which soon sold out, came to time conceived as a gift from the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano to Benedict XVI. Both had in common a deep interest in Europe. “How can we not also connect the European perspective of Enea Silvio, his profound knowledge of the geography and history of the continent of which he had been an active protagonist for many years, with the spirit, attention and care that the current Pontiff places in underline the need for a precise and updated definition of the identity of this continent of ours?”, Napolitano wrote at the time.
“The idea of republishing ‘De Europa’ comes from the erudite passion of Don Manlio Sodi, a great scholar of the works of Pius II, but also from the fact that Cardinal Ravasi mentioned it in his speech in parliament on the occasion of the president’s passing Napolitano, as a high point in his relations with the head of state and of the latter with His Holiness Benedict XVI. Further encouragement came from Pope Francis’ gestures of great friendship towards the recently deceased President. Gestures that have led us to reflect on the beautiful and very positive collaboration between the pontiffs and the heads of the Italian state in recent decades also on issues inherent to the future of the societies of the countries of the Union and to Europe’s mission in the world”, stated the ‘Ambassador Zanardi Landi. The new edition of the volume, translated by Francesca Mancino, with a preface by the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Brother John T. Dunlap and an afterword by Cardinal Angelo Amato, aspires to offer food for thought and study in a moment of great tension and unknowns about Europe’s prospects.
The text is a journey through 15th century Europe, with brilliant and acute descriptions of people, places and historical events. A journey that starts from Hungary and ends in the Kingdom of Naples. “The work”, explains Cardinal Ravasi, “reveals in filigree the face of its author, a passionate lover of politics and diplomacy”. The pages dedicated to the fall of Constantinople, conquered by the Muslims, are impressive, also due to the liveliness and crudeness of the descriptions. “We must highlight”, notes Ravasi, “the impressive symbolic aspect that the fall of Constantinople, the ‘new Rome’, had for Western Christianity, an emotion that vibrates alive in these pages”. As Giuliano Amato underlined, today in relations between Christians and Muslims the spirit of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration on Human Fraternity, signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, prevails.