Editing Pope Nicholas V (section)

===Arts patron===
[[File:II. SixtusÁtadjaSzentLőrincnekAz EgyházKincseitKJ.jpg|thumb|left|Fresco in the Niccoline Chapel depicting [[Pope Sixtus II]] with the physical features of Pope Nicholas V]]
Nicholas V's major focus was on establishing the Vatican as the official residence of the Papacy, replacing the Lateran Palace. He added a substantial new wing including [[Niccoline Chapel|a private chapel]] to the [[Vatican Palace|Vatican]], and{{snd}}according to [[Giannozzo Manetti]], biographer of Nicholas{{snd}}planned substantial changes to the [[Borgo (rione of Rome)|Borgo]] district. He also laid up 2,522 cartloads of marble from the dilapidated [[Colosseum]] for use in the later constructions.{{sfnp|Manetti|1734}}

The Pope's contemporaries criticised his lavish expenditure on building: [[Giannozzo Manetti|Manetti]] drew parallels with the wealth and expenditure of Solomon, suggesting that Papal wealth was acceptable so long as it was expended to the glory of God and the good of the Church.{{sfnp|Hollingsworth|1995|p=243}} The decoration of the [[Niccoline Chapel]] by [[Fra Angelico]] demonstrated this message through its depictions of [[St Lawrence]] (martyred for refusing to hand to the Roman state the wealth of the Church) and [[Saint Stephen|St Stephen]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/borgiastheirenem00hibb <!-- quote=Pope Alexander VI. --> Hibbert, Christopher. ''The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431–1519'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, p. 9] {{ISBN|9780151010332}}</ref>

Under the generous patronage of Nicholas, [[humanism]] made rapid strides as well. The new humanist learning had been hitherto looked on with suspicion in Rome, a possible source of [[Schism (religion)|schism]] and [[heresy]] from an unhealthy interest in [[paganism]]. For Nicholas, humanism became a tool for the cultural aggrandizement of the Christian capital, and he sent emissaries to the East to attract Greek scholars after the [[fall of Constantinople]].{{sfnp|Duffy|1997|p=181}} The pope also employed [[Lorenzo Valla]] to translate Greek histories,{{sfnp|Sider|2005|p=147}} pagan as well as Christian, into [[Latin]]. This industry, coming just before the dawn of [[printing]], contributed enormously to the sudden expansion of the intellectual horizon.

Nicholas, with assistance from [[Enoch of Ascoli]] and [[Giovanni Tortelli]], founded a library of five thousand volumes, including manuscripts rescued from the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] after the fall of Constantinople.<ref>Bobrick, Benson. (2001). ''Wide as the waters: the story of the English Bible and the revolution it inspired''. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 84. {{ISBN|0-684-84747-7}}</ref> The Pope himself was a man of vast erudition, and his friend Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, later [[Pope Pius II]], said of him that "what he does not know is outside the range of human knowledge". A lifelong bibliophile, he treasured books: while the Vatican library was still being designed and planned, he kept the rarest books near to him in his bedroom, with the others in a room nearby. Often thinking fondly of his former work as a librarian, he once remarked, "I had more happiness in a day than now in a whole year."<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Library: An Illustrated History|last = Murray|first = Stuart|publisher = Skyhorse Publishing|year = 2012|location = New York|pages = 85}}</ref>

He was compelled, however, to add that the lustre of his pontificate would be forever dulled by the [[fall of Constantinople]], which the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] took in 1453. Unsuccessful in a campaign to unite Christian powers to come to the aid of Constantinople, just before that great citadel was conquered, Nicholas had ordered 10 papal ships to sail with ships from Genoa, Venice and Naples to defend the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. However, the ancient capital fell before the ships could offer any aid. The Pope bitterly felt this catastrophe as a double blow to [[Christendom]] and to [[Greek literature|Greek letters]]. "It is a second death", wrote Aeneas Silvius, "to Homer and [[Plato]]."<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Nicholas (popes) |first=Carlton Joseph Huntley |last=Hayes |author-link=Carlton Joseph Huntley Hayes |volume=19}}</ref>

Nicholas preached a [[crusade]] and endeavoured to reconcile the mutual animosities of the Italian states, but without much success.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In undertaking these works, Nicholas was moved "to strengthen the weak faith of the populace by the greatness of that which it sees". The Roman populace, however, appreciated neither his motives nor their results, and in 1452 a formidable conspiracy for the overthrow of the papal government under the leadership of [[Stefano Porcari]] was discovered and crushed. This revelation of disaffection, together with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, darkened the last years of Pope Nicholas. "As Thomas of Sarzana", he said, "I had more happiness in a day than now in a whole year".<ref name="EB1911"/>