The Tale of Two Lovers

The Tale of Two Lovers (Latin: Historia de duobus amantibus) (1444) is a novel by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II.

It is one of the earliest examples of an epistolary novel, full of erotic imagery.

The novel is set in Siena, Italy, and centres on the love story of Lucretia, a married woman, and Euryalus, one of the men waiting on the Duke of Austria.

[1] The lovers were identified by some with Kaspar Schlick, the chancellor of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, and a daughter of the elder Mariano Sozzini, Aeneas' law teacher at the University of Siena.

In 1462, it was translated into German by Niklas van Wyle, who dedicated it to his patron Mechthild of the Palatinate.