The career of the humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) is breathtaking: within just a few years, the author of sensual-erotic bestsellers rose to become pope, renounced his former life, and created two monumental legacies, the masterfully written autobiography "Commentarii" and the construction of a new city, Pienza, which could only emerge in a new era, the Renaissance. The jurist and poet Piccolomini is primarily known for the captivating image he painted of himself. In this first Piccolomini biography in decades, Volker Reinhardt reveals the true life of this self-made man. He describes how the advisor in matters of love, who propagated a cynical view of humanity and fought against papal authority, ultimately placed himself in the service of the pontiff and later wielded unprecedented power as pope.