Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland nebst erganzenden Aktenstucken, Section 4, Vol. 7: Nuntiaturen des Malatesta Baglioni, des Ciriaco Rocci und des Mario Filonardi. Sendung des P. Alessandro d'Ales (1634-1635) (review)

This impressive publication of the classic series Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland covers the correspondence between Rome and the papal representatives at the imperial court in Vienna from November 11, 1634, to December 29, 1635. Though it produces no major surprises, the volume casts considerable light on papal and imperial policy during this crucial year of the Thirty Years' War and on the mentality and mode of procedure at the two courts. Four issues dominate the correspondence. First there was the continuing effort of Pope Urban VIII to mediate a peace among the three Catholic rulers, Emperor Ferdinand II, Louis XIII of France, and Philip IV of Spain. At this point the papacy worked to persuade the three crowns to name their representatives to the peace conference that the pope hoped to convene and to determine the city where it would meet. Later in 1636 Cologne was agreed upon as the site, but the conference never did get off the ground. The second issue was the Peace of Prague between the emperor and Electoral Saxony finally concluded in May, 1635. Here papal policy opposed the concessions made to the Protestants while at the same time appreciating the necessity that compelled Ferdinand to make them. The third issue was the arrest of the prince-archbishop of Trier, Philip-Christoph von Sötern, by the Spaniards in late March, 1635, and the problems that this posed for ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Last but certainly not the least was the persistent effort of Cardinal Francesco Barberini to secure the recognition of the precedence of his brother Taddeo, who had been named prefect of Rome by Urban VIII, before the ambassadors of the three crowns and other princes on ceremonial occasions in the city. The attention devoted to this issue in the correspondence points to the surprising importance assigned it by the Barberini pope.

All the documents are from Vatican holdings. In Rome the regular correspondent was Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the papal nephew and nominal head of the secretariat of state. In Vienna four figures wrote regularly to Barberini: Malatesta Baglioni, Bishop of Pesaro, who arrived in Wiener Neustadt on November 25, 1634, and would remain as nuncio until 1639; Ciriaco Rocci, his predecessor, who had served since 1630 and remained in Vienna until April 7, 1635; the Italian Capuchin friar diplomat, Alessandro d'Ales, who had come to Vienna as Barberini's personal representative in April, 1634, and remained until mid-August, 1635; and Mario Filonardi, who en route to his post as nuncio in Poland served as an extraordinary nuncio in Vienna from August 18, 1635, until the following February, to deal with the issues surrounding the arrest of the prince-archbishop of Trier. Each week on Saturday a packet was dispatched from both Rome and Vienna with letters and attachments; this amounts to an enormous amount of material. Printed here are the leading communications usually sent in code. At the head of each of these a German summary is given. The Italian text itself follows with German summaries of passages that are repetitive or of lesser importance. Copious notes draw attention to other related correspondence, for example with other nuncios, and they sometimes include large segments from the avvisi from Vienna that report on all sorts of events there including church ceremonies or operas. Apart from the initial instruction for Baglioni, the volume does not include the text of documents that have been published elsewhere but provides a German summary. Many of these texts can be found in Konrad Repgen, Die römische Kurie und der Westfälische Friede: Papst, Kaiser und Reich 1521–1644 (Tübingen, 1962–1965). The volume also contains...