I nunzi pontifici e la politica diplomatica del granduca Ferdinando I de' Medici

The essay employs the lens of the papal nuncios who were sent to Florence to analyse the diplomacy of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici. On the one hand, the nuncios sent from Rome during Ferdinando's rule included Venetian nuncios, who were almost absent during the regime of his predecessors Cosimo and Francesco I. On the other hand, the correspondence exchanged with the Secretariat of State demonstrates both the relevance of the Grand Duke's pro-French tendency and his functional harmony with Venice. This understanding reached its culmination in the joint endeavour made in support of the readmission to Catholicism of Henry of Bourbon in 1595 by Ferdinand and the Venetian cardinal Giovan Francesco Morosini, a relative of Marino Zorzi, nuncio in Florence between 1592 and 1596. Concurrently, the analysis identifies an equally significant component of appointments to the Florentine nunciature in the three protégés of Cardinal Nephew Pietro Aldobrandini. They succeeded each other as nuncios to Florence between 1596 and 1605. Their presence coincided with a challenging period in the relationship between Rome and Florence, characterised by shifts in pro-French policy and the Medici's disillusionment with the Peace of Lyons in 1601. Moreover, even when pro-French sentiments had diminished during the second phase of Ferdinando's rule, Venetian representation at the nunciature was re-established by the new Pope Paolo V, with the appointment of Antonio Grimani in 1605. A man who was acceptable to the Medici power, Grimani operated in Florence during the Interdict crisis, caught between papal obedience and Venetian affiliation. His mission, which continued even after Ferdinando's death, until 1616, and that of his successor Pietro Valier, who was also Venetian, demonstrated how the presence of Venetian nuncios in Florence remained a constant fact until the end of Paolo V’s pontificate in 1621.