This essay focuses on the necessary and unavoidable relationship betwe­en history and rhetoric, as the development of 19th C. historiography had showed. After the connection between drama and historiography is established, the essay put in evidence the role of objectivation of ideology played by historiography and analyses some rhetoric effects of the writing of history. In the last part it takes into consideration the relationship between rhetoric and proof, to ends up considering how different is the writing of history from legal process.

Keywords: Arts, drama, history, rhetoric.

This article focuses on the historiographical account of the so-called “conspiracy of the cardinals”, which occurred in 1517. The official version, as told by Paolo Giovio and Francesco Guicciardini, surmises that some cardinals had conspired to poison Pope Leo X. These cardinals were prosecuted, deprived of their privileges, and in one case also executed. However, a careful study of the surviving archival evidence shows that the curia was poised to take an aggressive stance in order to solve a serious financial crisis created by the ongoing war of Urbino. The position of Gi­rolamo Borgia, a historian who was not tied to the Medici, is particularly revealing in this context.

Keywords: Papacy, conspiracy, Leo X, Francesco Guicciardini, Paolo Giovio.

Through an analysis of archival sources, this essay aims to offer a picture of the missions carried out by Virginio Orsini, second Duke of Bracciano, between 1594 and 1606. These trips, closely linked to the foreign policy of his uncle Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, led Virginio to some of the most important European courts, where he created relationships with leading figures of that period. Virginio Orsini is not a well-known figure, this essay shows he was fully inserted in the political dynamics of his time.

Keywords: Virginio Orsini, Ferdinand I Medicis, diplomatic missions, Spanish monarchy.

At the end of the 17th C., Sicilian Prince Giovanni Valdina had been accu­sed of rebellion against the Spanish Crown during the revolt of Messina. To defend himself, Valdina publishes a Manifesto to exploit the Genoese diplomatic and political resources. The local government is worried by his presence, but it is firmly resolved to defend its role. Although Valdina is subjected to a strict supervision, the Genoese government does not submit to Spanish requests for the delivery of Valdina, leaving him certain freedom of action. This story shows the peculiarities of the Genoese government system and the power of Old Regime news spreading.

Keywords: Spanish monarchy, Genoa, political propaganda.

Pietro Gabrielli was a cleric tried by the Roman Inquisition for being the patron of a group of libertine intellectuals in 1692. He was sentenced to life detention in the fortress of Perugia. This article analyses his time in prison and describes how he managed to continue his studies with the intellectuals present in Perugia between 1702 and 1704. Gabrielli dis­cussed with Antonio Felice Marsili, Alessandro Burgos and Domenico Lazzarini during this period of time. Therefore, he was in contact with a heterogeneous group of professors and clergymen, that were committed to reform the Universities’ teachings in the Papal States. This article has reconstructed the activities of these intellectuals, describing how they were the branch of a much larger movement, that created a precedent for the successive enlightened reforms.

Keywords: 18th C. sociability, Pietro Gabrielli, Alessandro Burgos, Dome­nico Lazzarini, Papal States teaching system.

In the last third of the 16th C. several important treatises on government were translated into Spanish. This article questions the translators’ mo­tivations and purposes, and focuses in particular on the translation of Bodin’s Six Livres de la République, published by Gaspar de Añastro Isunza in 1590 in Turin, where he was in the service of Catalina Micaela, duchess of Savoy. The essay analyses the modifications due to the translator: the amendments concern primarily historical facts and ideas on the Spanish Monarchy and the Duchy of Savoy, while Añastro faithfully translated the theoretical passages about sovereignty and government. In its second part, the article discusses the role of this translation in the reception of Bodin’s ideas in Spanish political literature.

Keywords: Early modern Spain, political literature, Jean Bodin, sovereignty, duchy of Savoy.

This article analyses the experience in Spain described by the Florentine patrician Girolamo da Sommaia in his Diary. At the beginning of the 17th C., he spent eight years at the University of Salamanca, and he took part in the cultural circles of the university city. Linked by kinship to the Guicciardini family of Florence, he always maintained close relations with the uncles who were ambassadors and rulers of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Sommaia was animated by a profound interest in the acqui­sition of literary and historical texts and in Salamanca he obtained many writings thanks to the loan and the copy of writings, and he put those he had brought from Florence into circulation in the same way. The essay describes the experience of borrowing and producing copies of texts, that would have entered a further circuit of spatial mobility, and focuses in particular on this process of exchange between poles of European politics and culture from the perspective of lending texts.

Keywords: Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Spain, cultural exchanges, lending of books and manuscripts.

This article reflects upon the practices through which men of letters circulated, negotiated, and accessed – often simultaneously – political networks. It focuses on Iberian men of letters who were expelled from the territories of the Iberian Monarchies during the mid-17th C. crisis, and considers their role as brokers of intellectual and political informa­tion amid the general context of the Thirty Years’ War. Some of these Iberian men of letters were already well-connected with the intellectual networks of the Republic of Letters when they found a refuge in the Italian Peninsula under the protection of families connected to papal politics. Though the role of Rome as a cultural capital of Europe that recruited men of letters proceedings from diverse horizons is well-known, this article reveals that other key centres of the Papal States were used to test, train, and lead these men through an uncertain cursus honorum. Among these places, and due to its long-lasting connections with the Iberian Peninsula, Bologna became a key pole for Iberian men of letters. How did these men position themselves through their correspondences amid the fragmented Roman and Bolognese communities of knowledge? How did their broader ascriptions to the Republic of Letters condition their political practices during a time marked by conflicts, and how did they manage competition with other intellectuals? These are some questions that this article considers as part of a broader history of the dislocated intellectual geographies of the fragmented worlds of politics in Western Europe during the 17th C.

Keywords: Men of letters, Iberian monarchies, Republic of Letters, Rome, Bologna, 17th C. crisis.

Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657), member of the Accademia dei Lincei and art collector is famous for his “Museo Cartaceo”. Rather less well-known is his library which, with its 9,000 volumes, was an exceptional case among the private libraries of 17th C. Rome. By looking closely at one of the inventories that have come down to us, the article aims to show how the study of a library raises a series of questions that not only have to do with the personal profile, past and cultural position of its creator, but also with the trends, conflicts, interests and developments of the political, social and cultural context in which the undertaking was realized. In this particular case, Dal Pozzo’s library can provide scholars with many opportunities for reflection on the relationship between books and the cultural debates of the time, on the intellectual networks connected to this relationship in Rome during the crucial years of Urban VIII’s pontificate when control and repression by censorship does not seem to have completely impeded the circulation of knowledge that could still connect the pope’s city with the modern world.

Keywords: Cassiano dal Pozzo, libraries, Rome, Academy of the Lincei, Urban VIII.