This volume is the first attempt at a comparative reconstruction of the foreign policy and diplomacy of the major Italian states in the early modern period. The various contributions reveal the instruments and forms of foreign relations in the Italian peninsula. They also show a range of different case-studies and models which share the values and political concepts of the cultural context of diplomatic practice in the ancien regime. While Venice, the Papal States, the duchy of Savoy, Florence (later the duchy of Tuscany), Mantua, Modena, and later the kingdom of Naples may be considered minor states in the broader European context, their diplomatic activity was equal to that of the major powers. This reconstruction of their ambassadors, their secretaries, and their ceremonies offers a new interpretation of the political history of early modern Italy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: new perspectives on the diplomacy of Italian states in the early modern period Daniela Frigo; 1. Diplomacy and government in the Italian city-states of the fifteenth century: Florence and Venice Riccardo Fubini; 2. Aspects of Medicean diplomacy in the sixteenth century Alessandra Contini; 3. An outline of Vatican diplomacy in the early modern period Luca Riccardi; 4. Economic and social aspects of the crisis of Venetian diplomacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Andrea Zannini; 5. 'Small states' and diplomacy: Mantua and Modena Daniela Frigo; 6. Neapolitan diplomacy in the eighteenth century: policy and the diplomatic apparatus Maria Grazia Maiorini; 7. Savoyard diplomacy in the eighteenth century (1684-1798) Christopher Storrs.