2007 Archive Edition - See the Archive Notice on the Project Homepage for more information.


The Ecole
Initiative

The Ecole Glossary


Nicholas V

When Tommaso Parentucelli was elected pope in 1447, he took the name Nicholas in honor of his patron, Nicoḷ Albergati. Tommaso, the son of a doctor, was born in 1397 at Sarzano, and when his parents died, he abandoned his studies at Bologna to become a tutor. He served as bishop of Bologna and papal legate before being named a cardinal. As pope, he negotiated a concordat with Emperor Frederick III in which the emperor recognized the right of the pope to fill vacant sees and other vacant high-profile clerical positions in Germany. After ending a schism with Antipope Felix V in 1449, the pope declared the following year one of jubilee. A plague broke out in 1450. Nicholas is sometimes considered the true founder of the Vatican library because he left it 1,200 Latin and Greek manuscripts when he died in 1455.

Karen Rae Keck


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