Further reading: Anita F. Moskowitz, The Sculpture of
Andrea and Nino Pisano (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1986).
Pisano, Giovanni (c. 1250–c. 1314) Italian sculptor and
architect
The son of Niccolò PISANO, Giovanni was born in Pisa and
was trained by his father, whom he assisted from the mid-
1260s, first with the Sienese pulpit and later with the great
fountain in Perugia. Before 1284 Giovanni produced a se-
ries of monumental figures of saints and prophets for the
exterior of the Pisan baptistery, and after this date he
worked in Siena on the lower part of the facade of the
cathedral. This great Gothic sculptural scheme was de-
signed to glorify the Virgin Mary.
Giovanni also contributed to the cathedral of San Cer-
bone at Massa Marittima (1287) and carved pulpits for the
church of Sant’ Andrea at Pistoia (1301) and Pisa cathe-
dral (1302–10). He executed several sculptures on the
Madonna and Child theme, among them a small ivory in
the sacristy of Pisa cathedral, a majestic standing
Madonna in the ARENA CHAPEL, Padua (c. 1305), and the
Madonna della Cintola (c. 1312) in Prato cathedral. His
last known commission (1313) was for the tomb of Mar-
garet of Brabant (died 1311), wife of Emperor Henry VII,
in the former church of San Francesco, Genoa; a portrait
head from this tomb survives in the Palazzo Bianco,
Genoa. Widely acknowledged as the greatest Italian sculp-
tor of his day and occupying a position comparable to that
of GIOTTOin painting, Giovanni Pisano exercised a pro-
found influence on later TRECENTOartists in his integra-
tion of classical and Gothic elements.
Pisano, Niccolò (c. 1220–c. 1278) Italian sculptor
He began his career in Apulia, at a time when Emperor
Frederick II was encouraging artists there to take a re-
newed interest in classical motifs, and he then moved to
Pisa, probably shortly before 1250. His first known work
there was the hexagonal pulpit in the baptistery (c. 1260),
on which the relief scenes from the life of Christ are com-
posed along the lines of the scenes on the antique sar-
cophagi in the Camposanto. Between 1265 and 1268
Niccolò produced an even more magnificent octagonal
pulpit for Siena cathedral, although in this work the in-
fluence of French Gothic predominates over the classiciz-
ing impulse in his Pisan sculptures. His last major
commission, in which he was assisted, as on the Sienese
pulpit, by his son Giovanni PISANO, was the fountain
(c. 1275) for the former Piazza dei Priori (now Piazza IV
Novembre), Perugia. Besides Giovanni, Niccolò’s follow-
ers included Fra Guglielmo da Pisa (1256–c. 1312), who
carved the pulpit of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia,
and the Arca di San Domenico, Bologna, and Arnolfo di
Cambio (died c. 1302), who was an architect as well as a
sculptor, working in Florence and Rome.
Pistorius, Johann, the Younger (1546–1608) German
physician and theologian
Pistorius was born at Nidda, the son of Johann Pistorius
the Elder (1503–83), one of the first Catholics to convert
to Lutheranism. He studied theology, law, and medicine at
Marburg and Wittenberg and in 1575 became court physi-
cian to Charles II, margrave of Baden-Durlach. He became
disillusioned with Luther’s doctrines and after a brief pe-
riod as a Calvinist he returned to the Catholic faith. He
published polemical religious works in Latin and in Ger-
man, edited collections of the works of early German and
Polish historians, and produced a volume of cabbalistic
texts and studies, Artis cabalistica (1587).Pius II (1405–1464) Pope (1458–64); Italian humanist
and historian
Aenea Silvio Piccolomini was born at Corsignano, near
Siena, the eldest of 18 children of an impoverished aristo-
cratic family. His extensive knowledge of classical litera-
ture came largely from private study, though he was for a
time a pupil of Francesco FILELFO in Florence. He at-
tended the Council of BASLE(1432) with the cardinal of
Fermo, then traveled in Germany and to Scotland. He was
crowned poet laureate by Emperor FREDERICK III(1442)
and worked in the emperor’s chancery for the following 13
years, though not exclusively as Eugenius IV made him a
papal secretary in 1445, overlooking his previous service
to the antipope Felix V. His rise through the ecclesiastical
hierarchy was steady; he became bishop of Trieste (1447)
and of Siena (1450) and was made cardinal in 1456. He
was elected pope with the help of Rodrigo Borgia, later
Pope ALEXANDER VI, and assumed the name Pius in refer-
ence to Virgil’s hero “pius Aeneas.” At the Congress of
Mantua (1459) he was active in organizing a crusade
against the Turks to avenge the fall of Constantinople
(1453). He died at Ancona, where he had gone to assem-
ble his fleet for this expedition.
Pius wrote a history of the Council of Basle and an au-
tobiography (Commentarii), as well as more secular
works. The Commentarii gives a frank picture of his atti-
tudes and motivations. His letters, a precious source of in-
formation, are models of humanistic Latin. His career is
the subject of frescoes by PINTURICCHIOin the Piccolomini
library of Siena cathedral (see Plate XII). Pius was also im-
portant for the stimulus he gave to classical studies in
northern Europe; in 1459 he signed the foundation char-
ter for the university of Basle, which thus began its exis-
tence as a center of humanistic learning. He also
encouraged humanists to join the college of papal secre-
taries—PLATINAwas one employed in this way—but he
demanded rather stricter standards of Christian conduct
than his predecessor, NICHOLAS V. Pius II’s works were
published in folio at Basle in 1551, and his other lasting
monument was his model city of PIENZA. The translation
of the Commentarii into English by Florence A. Gragg wasPPiiuuss IIII 3 38811