A diplomacia das letras no século XVIII: um exercício de civilização em nome dos valores das Luzes

The diplomacy of letters encompasses the literary activity of many men of letters who were involved in the public affairs of their states, or whose careers took place around the courts and power centers of the Ancien Régime. As secretaries, advisors, business-men, close to politics, they were able to ob-serve the dynamics of power and express their thoughts on the history of their time in their literary output (poems, letters, travel logs, newspapers, etc.). Thanks to these men of letters, all the values of the Republic of Letters of the th century (peace, private and public happiness, tolerance, etc.) came into play in political history: their struggle for a diplomacy willing to embrace the val-ues of the Enlightenment shows the im-portance of communication between cul-ture and politics, which is one of the strong-est legacies of the th century, and which should inspire international relations even today.

L'articolo definisce il campo d'azione della diplomazia delle lettere e considera alcuni casi esemplari per comprendere l'incidenza della cultura nelle relazioni internazionali