Pope Pius III

About Pope Pius III

Pope Pius III, born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini in 1439, served as the 215th Pope for only 26 days in 1503, following the long reign of Alexander VI. Despite his brief pontificate, his historical importance is significant enough to earn him an HPI Rank of #640 out of approximately 15,000 tracked figures. Before his election, he was a cardinal and highly regarded for his intellect and diplomacy, representing the Papacy at key events throughout the tumultuous late 15th century.

In the contemporary digital landscape, Pius III exhibits a notable underattention gap. With only 65K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025, his cultural presence online is dramatically muted relative to his historical standing, representing an Attention Gap of -5x. For contrast, Pope Leo I, who ranks only slightly more important at #720 HPI, garners nearly 12.5 times the attention with 809K views. This disparity suggests that the memory of Pius III's brief time as pontiff has not translated into consistent modern internet engagement, despite a recent +93.2% year-over-year increase in views.

The recent growth indicated by the YoY change suggests a potential, albeit minor, surge in contemporary interest, though this interest softened slightly into the third quarter, as shown by an -18% drop in momentum from Q1 to Q3.