PICCOLOMINI, FAMILY. - Originally from Siena. A MARTINO di Piccolomo is named in a document of 1090. The P. enriched themselves in the 13th century through trade, then invested their patrimony in landed possessions. Of the Guelph party, many of them held the highest political offices in Siena.
AMBROGIO di Nino P. was one of the three founders of the abbey of Monteoliveto (1313). The family's fortunes reached their greatest splendor when ENEA SILVIO was created pontiff (v. Pius II) and gathered it into a consorteria. It then received from Emperor Frederick III (1458) the dignity of count palatine. Pius II was generous with his own: his nephew ANTONIO, castellan of Castel S. Angelo (1st Sept. 1458), took part in quelling the tumults of Rome in 1460, in the wars of the Kingdom of Naples in favor of King Ferdinand, and received the duchies of Sessa and Amalfi and the county of Celano. LAUDOMIA, the pope's sister, wife of Nanni Tedeschini, was the mother of FRANCESCO Tedeschini P., created cardinal by her uncle and pontiff in his turn for a few weeks in 1503 (v. Pius III). The latter left his bishopric of Siena to his nephew GIOVANNI Tedeschini P., created cardinal by Leo X on 1 July 1517, who was also administrator of L'Aquila, bishop of Ostia and died in the Curia on 21 Nov. 1537. ALFONSO P., duke of Montemarciano, left an evil memory of himself as chief of bandits in the Papal State under Gregory XIII, when in 1583 he dared to enter Rome to foment disorders and was put to death in Florence on 16 March 1591. OTTAVIO P. (1600-56) was in the service of the Empire during the 17th century and was created marshal and prince. The archbishopric of Siena was often held by the P. Besides the two pontiffs, one finds there ANTONIO, abbot of Vilio from 18 Sept. 1458 to 8 Nov. 1459; in the following century there were ASCANIO, elected in 1588, d. 13 May 1597, and the other ASCANIO (18 Sept. 1628-18 March 1671), who hosted Galileo Galilei after his condemnation. Other members of the family held the bishopric of Pienza: TOMMASO (Testa) P. (20 Sept. 1480-83), GIROLAMO (10 Dec. 1510-33), a second GIROLAMO (1535-54), FRANCESCO MARIA (1554-99), FRANCESCO (3 July 1741-45). Under Alexander VII, CELIO P. distinguished himself as secretary of memorials, archbishop of Caesarea, sent as nuncio to France in 1656 during the Jansenist controversies, created cardinal on 14 Jan. 1664, d. in 1681; he had held the archbishopric of Siena from 18 March 1671 onward. The last of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the house of P. was GIACOMO (b. in Siena in 1795), created cardinal by Gregory XVI in 1844 and died in 1864. The P. of the family of Pius II divided into various branches, some of which became extinct.
Bibliography2 works
Roberto Palmarocchi