Piccolomini’s Aims and Ambitions: Considering the Dedications of De la Sfera del Mondo and De le Stelle Fisse

As with many authors of the period, Piccolomini tended to use the dedicatory prefaces to his works to fulfil several different functions: to praise his dedicatee, to explain to why he has decided to write the following volume and to set out some of the intellectual parameters of the work, including acknowledging some of the authors to whom he is indebted and explaining the methods he will use to complete the task in front of him.