Das Papsttum, die Christenheit und die Staaten Europas 1592-1605: Forschungen zu den Hauptinstruktionen Clemens' VIII ed. by Georg Lutz

Abstract

Das Papsttum, die Christenheit und die Staaten Europas 1592-1605: Forschungen zu den Hauptinstruktionen Clemens' VIII. Edited by Georg Lutz. Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom, Band 66. (Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. 1994. Pp. xxviii, 248.) A review of this volume serves also to acquaint American early modernists with a significant development in the publication of the nunciature reports or correspondence between the papacy and its nuncios or representatives at the various European courts. They are a major source for early modern Europe. After the opening of the Vatican Archives by Leo XIII in 1883, various European historical institutes in Rome, such as the German Historical Institute (originally the Royal Prussian Historical Institute), undertook to edit and publish the correspondence regarding their own states. Usually this was done primarily with a view to the history of the particular state or court to which the nuncio was posted rather than to the history of the papacy. Rivalries between historical institutes sometimes intervened, and for a long time there was limited coordination of efforts. Some chronological periods were emphasized to the neglect of others. Altogether, by my count, sixty-one volumes of nunciature reports haw been published since 1892 for German-speaking lands covering the years from 1533 to 1646, with heavy emphasis on the sixteenth century and the years 1533 to 1572 complete. Then, at the initial suggestion in 1971 of Pierre Blet, professor of church history at the Gregorian University and himself the editor of several volumes of French nunciature reports, a new approach was undertaken. Blet recommended that instead of continuing to attempt to edit and publish the complete nunciature correspondence, a task requiring vast human and financial resources, the institutes cooperate to publish only the principal instructions given papal nuncios, legates, and other officials at the start of their missions. These would reveal clearly at least the main outlines of papal policy. At the further suggestion then of Klaus Jaitner of the German Historical Institute, the decision was reached to publish all the instructions for a pontificate rather than the instructions for the nuncios to a particular state over a long period of time. This happily sets the focus clearly on overall papal policy. Jaitner then edited for the German Historical Institute in Rome the first volumes in the projected series entitled Instructiones Pontificum Romanonun: the magisterial Die Hauptinstruktionen Clemens' VIII.fuer die Nuntien und Legaten an den europaeschen Fuerstenhoefen 1592-1605 (2 vols.; Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1984). Jaitner identified ninety-nine diplomatic missions for the papacy of Clement VIII, of which he was able to locate and publish the instructions for seventy-eight. These he annotated richly and provided with an introduction of 273 pages, so that the volumes constitute a mine of leads to further sources. Similar volumes for the pontificates of Paul V (1605-1621) and Gregory XV (1621-1623) are now well advanced toward publication. Now to the volume under review. It contains eight papers, some substantially elaborated, which were initially presented at a colloquium sponsored by the German Historical Institute in Rome on March 18-19, 1985, to evaluate and exploit Jaitner's volumes. The papers a all of a high quality, as one would expect from the distinguished scholars involved, and despite the lot interlude until publication, they have by no means lost their relevance. …