![]() | Pagan Virtue in a Christian World: Sigismondo Malatesta and the Italian Renaissance Subjects: Paganism -- Italy -- Rimini; Malatesta Sigismondo Pandolfo signore di Rimini 1417–1468; Paganism in literature; Italy -- History -- 1268–1492; Christianity and other religions; Civilization Medieval; In 1462 Pope Pius II performed the only reverse canonization in history, publicly damning a living man. The target was Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini and a patron of the arts with ties to the Florentine Renaissance. Condemned to an afterlife of torment, he was burned in effigy in several places in Rome. What had this cultivated nobleman done to merit such a fate? |
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