Kurie und Politik. Stand und Perspektiven der Nuntiaturberichtsforschung ed. by Alexander Koller

Abstract

Kurie und Politik. Stand und Perspektiven der Nuntiaturbericlitsforscining. Edited by Alexander Koller. [Bibliothek des Deutschen Ifistorischen Instituts in Rom, Band 87.] (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. 1998. Pp. xii, 532. DM 152.00.) This valuable volume grew out of a colloquium sponsored by the German Historical Institute in Rome from October 9 to 12, 1996, to evaluate and chart the course for the continuing publication of papal nunciature reports and to find ways for their wider use by scholars. It suggests new directions for use of the reports in light of changing historical interests and financial constraints, and it provides an overview of research into early modern papal foreign policy and diplomacy including efforts at church reform. As Wolfgang Reinhard emphasizes in his contribution, the history of papal diplomacy must be seen from a truly European perspective and its study to be a common European venture. The composition of the volume, with twenty-two contributions from scholars of seven nations, as well as the now established co-operation among historical institutes shows that this approach has taken hold. A highlight of the volume is the bibliography compiled by Alexander Koller and Peter Schmidt of 1131 items published since 1890, 206 of them documentary collections nearly all of which are nunciature reports. The various institutes continue to publish the nunciature reports. The newly founded Polish Historical Institute in Rome has published ten volumes in the 1990's, with one in preparation, and the revived Czech Historical Institute in Rome is preparing its first volume. The exceptions are Spain and Portugal, for which very few volumes have ever been published. Besides Europeanization Reinhard enumerates a number of new approaches to the study of the nunciature reports that take it beyond the publication of documents. Among his many suggestions are their evaluation from the perspective of bureaucratic history, prosopographical studies of the nuncios and their staffs, anthropological and semantic analyses of the reports, and studies of the papal role in Catholic confessionalization. After noting an upswing of interest in diplomatic history that bodes well for the future of the nunciature reports, Schmidt analyzes the publications in the bibliography from a number of formal perspectives, He writes, for example, that 28.7% deal with the second half of the sixteenth century, 21% with the period from 1600 to 1650 including the Thirty Years'War, and only 9.1 % with the first half of the sixteenth century or the Reformation. An important moment in the Europeanization of the study of papal diplomacy was the publication of Instructiones pontificum Romanoruln. Die Hauptinstruktionen Clemens'VII. fur die Nuntien und Legaten all den europaischen Furstenbofen 1592-1605, edited by Klaus jaitner (2 vols.: Tubingen, 1984). Up until this time the publication of nunciature reports was usually undertaken with the purpose of gathering information about the country where the nuncio resided. The publication of the principal instructions of a pontificate shifted attention to the policy of the papacy itself while at the same time avoiding the expense of publishing the weekly nunciature reports, Jaitner has followed this up with a similar publication for the brief but critical pontificate of Gregory XV (1997), In his contribution to this volume he shows that in contrast to the bureaucratic conflicts of Clement VIII's pontificate, under Gregory XV the pope, the cardinal-nepot, Ludovico Ludovisi. and the secretary of state., Giovanni Battista Agucchi all worked together in harmony. Soon to be published is a third volume of this type for the pontificate of Paul V (1605-1621) edited by Silvano Giordano, who summarizes in his contribution the main lines of Paul Is efforts to implement the decrees of Trent. To be sure, in the flauptinstruktionen one misses the details of the application of policy to individual circumstances as well as many other details that one finds in the nunciature reports. …