Noble Family Research Articles

Orland szalony jako poemat o kobietach. Analiza postaci na tle tradycji epickiej: Angelika, Marfiza i Bradamanta

Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto as a Poem on Women. Angelica, Marfisa, Bradamante and their heroic epic representation: The article concerns Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, and its interpretation according to which it may be read as a poem about women who break the traditional male monopoly on heroism in the epic literature. The author aims to prove Ariosto’s innovative approach by analyzing Orlando Furioso’s protagonists. Hence the paper is mainly dedicated to three of Ariosto’s characters – Angelica, Marfisa and Bradamante. Those women are presented in a comparative perspective against their traditional prototypes with particular reference to those moments in the poem that render visible Ariosto’s novelty in creating his protagonists. Angelica, Marfisa and Bradamante, especially in contrast with the poem’s male cavalieri seem to be more in line with the canonical representations of heroism. In the first part of the study, the author presents Ariosto’s Angelica, often interpreted as a mere capricious object of man’s desire. Nevertheless, the character appears as self-aware and confident, striving to make her own decision when it comes to choosing the partner for life. The second part of the article is dedicated to Ariosto’s most canonical virago – Marfisa. Undefeated in the battlefield till the end of the poem, she often breaks her stereotypical comical image and consciously resigns from love. The last part of the study concentrates on Bradamante, who combines both amori and armi: the Christian knight, future founder of the Este noble family despite being in constant pursuit of her lover Ruggero, not sacrificing her passion for chivalry. According to the author of the article, Bradamante should be perceived as the central character of Orlando Furioso, as she carries the main idea of Ariosto’s masterpiece.

The Ruling Elite in Russia at the End of the 15th — 17th Сenturies in Modern Russian and Foreign Historiography

The article is devoted to modern Russian and foreign historiography of the ruling elite (the Sovereign's Court) of the 16th — 17th centuries. The article analyzes both general special studies on the ruling elite and works that touch upon certain aspects of the history of the court (study of the genealogy of noble families, land ownership of the nobility, analysis of the history of boyar clans, participation of the elite in the court struggle, anthropological plots concerning the mentality, religious life, everyday life of the upper classes of Russian society). The paper notes nowadays a significant increase of interest in the study of the nobility, including the ruling elite. It is shown that the studies of the last decades are developing in line with those directions that were outlined in soviet and foreign historiography back to the 80s of 20th century Modern researchers of the history of the ruling elite pay great attention not only to the traditional institutional approach, but also to the study of informal relations in the court environment, inner—family ties, behavioral strategies at court, cultural needs, and religiosity of representatives of noble families. Particularly noted is the introduction into scientific circulation of a huge array of new sources for studying the composition and structure of the Sovereign's court, family ties, land ownership of the ruling elite, which creates favorable prerequisites for further study of this topic.

Catholic diocese in Kiev and Dominicans of Kiev in 14th and 15th

The first permanent Catholic institution in Kiev was – from the 1380s – a Dominican monastery with a wooden church of St Nicholas. It was founded on the initiative of the missionary organization of the order (Societas Fratrum Peregrinantium propter Christum inter gentes, SFP) with the support of a small community of the faithful, mostly Polish and Genoese merchants, Lithuanian officials and soldiers, as well as the Armenians of that confession. Until 1456, it belonged to the Ruthenian Vicariate of the SFP, but the monks – as in other monasteries of this Vicariate – were recruited almost entirely from the environment of the Polish Dominicans. The stability of the monastery was guaranteed by the subsidy of Włodzimierz Olgierdowicz, the prince of Kiev district, half-brother and vassal of the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło. That subsidy was given after he had assumed the throne in February 1386. The endowment included nearby landed estates and lucrative income from the grain trade in Kiev. The privilege of Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellończyk from 1495 increased the share of Dominicans in the income from trade in Kiev. From 1456, after the liquidation of the SFP, the monastery belonged to the Ruthenian contrata in the Polish province of the order. In the 15th century, it had neither novitiate nor conventual studies. The religious priests conducted missions among the local Orthodox Ruthenians and provided pastoral care for Catholic immigrants, mainly Poles and Armenians. The Catholic bishops, permanently or at least frequently residing in Kiev, appeared at the same time, for the Dominican monastery was their only support. Until 1430, they were appointed exclusively from the circle of the Polish Dominicans. The last time when a Polish Dominican (Michał of Lviv) sat on the bishop’s throne in Kiev was in the years 1486-1494. In 1412, the diocese of Kiev was incorporated into the ecclesiastical province of Lviv. This diocese formally encompassed the entire area of Kiev and Czernichów. In 1411, King Władysław II Jagiełło founded a separate cathedral (in a wooden building) on the Castle Hill in Kiev, near the seat of Lithuanian governors, and from 1471, Kiev voivodes. He also granted the diocese a sparsely populated land, bringing meagre income. Throughout the 15th century, the Kiev cathedral also served as a local parish. The clergy working there were few in number. From 1430, from the royal gifts, the bishop’s dignity was given to the Polish clergy from both ecclesiastical provinces, Gniezno and Lviv. Only in the years 1473-1474 a bishop was a Lithuanian priest from the diocese of Vilnius, Wojciech Narbut, who came from a noble family. Under the jurisdiction of bishop Klemens of Widawa (1451-1473), two city parishes were established, in Żytomierz and Cudnów. The first one existed until 1492, while the latter did not survive the Tatar invasion in 1482. During this invasion, the chapel in the Kiev castle, founded by voivode Marcin Gasztołd in 1471, also burned down.

In suo Patrocinio - landowners in Dąbrówka and Ostałówka in the 17th century

Dąbrówka and Ostałówka founded in the 14th century were once two private villages, the latter is now the hamlet of the former. Until today, both have not been discussed in literature, and their owners were for instance land judge of Zator and vice-voivode Piotr Strzała from Krakow, valet of Mikołaj Zebrzydowski – Hieronim Strzała, subprefect of Żywiec Stanisław Biegański, Krakow town councillor Jakub Reynekier or master of the pantry (stolnik) of Podolia Michał Wilkoński. Apart from a brief overview of the villages and their inhabitants in the 17th century, the author introduced the noble families who were the landowners of the local estates. The text is supplemented with a source edition of the foundation of the cows by Jan and Barbara née Strzała Paszkowski family. The document is a testimony to the severe plague of 1663 and the relationship of the Dąbrówka and Ostałówka owners with the local rural community and parish in Stryszów.

Pedigreed Legends as a Way of Integration of the Political Elite in the XVI Century

The article analyzes the role of pedigreed legends in the formation of political and managerial elites in Russia of the XVI century. The need to recruit, circulate and consolidate the elites at that time led to the formation of the institution of pedigree legends, which allowed the nobility to lengthen and elevate their origin. The article analyzes the pedigree of the legend about the origin of the Ratsha from which many noble families had their origin. The authors conclude that the supreme power actively used pedigreed legends in its symbolic policy.

Benedicamus Domino tropes in the monastery of Benedictine nuns at St George’s, Prague

Abstract Within the rich spectrum of musical documents from medieval Bohemia, the corpus of tropes that survives in manuscripts from St George’s convent at Prague Castle is perhaps the most important. Forty-two Benedicamus Domino tropes appear in manuscripts from the monastery—one of the richest and most important female foundations in Central Europe, with a small community of nuns from noble families—most of them compiled at the end of the 13th and the first decades of the 14th centuries. The collection includes Benedicamus tropes that were circulating in the wider Central European territory, tropes that had their origins in the west and for which Prague constituted one of the furthest destinations within their dissemination, and a significant number of chants survive only in manuscripts from St George’s and may have had their origins in this milieu. These Benedicamus tropes exhibit a striking variety of forms and richness in their melodic material: a number of polyphonic tropes employ a Stimmtausch technique, others are wholly structured as strophic songs with or without refrains. Many of the trope texts indicate that they were meant to be sung by both male and female communities at St George’s, and their appearance in books with private prayers suggests that they may also have served an educational purpose.

What’s the Use of a Manuscript? Uncovering Relevant Information from András Lugosi Fodor’s Unpublished Book

"András Lugosi Fodor was the medical superintendent of Hunyad (Ro: Hunedoara) County in the first half of the nineteenth century, with a keen interest in Dacian and Roman sites in the region. Some of his most significant contributions to archaeology are a series of unpublished manuscripts. These contain information about his visits to sites, but most importantly, they also present the collections of antiquities belonging to the Transylvanian nobility. Fodor not only provided detailed descriptions about these items, but also drawings. The locations of most of these items are unknown today, making Fodor’s manuscript more important. This paper will try to reconstruct the collection of Roman finds owned by noble families from Hunyad County, based on Fodor’s manuscript. Keywords: research history, antiquarianism, nineteenth century archaeology, manuscripts, Transylvania, Roman Dacia"

“Kunstiajalugu on ju siinses ülikoolis uus distsipliin.” Tartu ülikooli kunstiajaloo kabineti rajamine

“Kunstiajalugu on ju siinses ülikoolis uus distsipliin.” Tartu ülikooli kunstiajaloo kabineti rajamine

Nobility, kinship and memory in Santa Eufemia de Cozuelos, the first female convent of the Military Order of Santiago

This paper refers to the noble patronage around Santa Eufemia de Cozuelos, the first female house of the Military Order of Santiago since 1186, based in the north of the Kingdom of Castile, during the second half of the thirteenth century. This patronage provided the convent with funerary spaces to perpetuate the memory of some noble Castilian and Leonese families whose members effected important land donations to the monastery, thus assuring prayers for the salvation of their souls. Unlike the vast majority of the many female monastic houses founded in the kingdoms of Castile and León in the Middle Ages, the lack of aristocratic founders, patrons or benefactors in all the female Jacobean convents in Castile and León since their founding until the second half of the thirteenth century, Santa Eufemia among them, is striking. The subject of this paper aims to determine how the Military Order of Santiago managed to attract to its first female house a whole group of noble lineages. The patronage of these noble families along the second half of the thirteenth century provided the Jacobean monastery with the noble prestige that many other Castilian female convents had from their origin and of which Santa Eufemia lacked, and furthermore, also provided the Jacobean convent with the most relevant territorial expansion of its monastic domain, precisely along this same period. A detailed revision of the available source material and bibliography allowed us to put together enough information to follow and verify this process.

List of Professors and Students of the Zhytomyr Academy of 1790

The history of educational institutions that operated on the Right Bank of Ukraine in the 18th century is almost unexplored. In part, this can be explained by the lack of sources that could shed light on this aspect of Ukraine’s history. Considering this, the list of students and teachers of the Zhytomyr Academy, which is included in the register of the Roman Catholic population of the Kyiv Voivodeship, is unique. The source provides a list of students and teachers of the local educational institution by name and their ages. The vast majority of students came from noble backgrounds. Many of them belonged to noble families that settled in the Kyiv region and neighboring voivodeships in previous centuries.The list of students and professors of the Zhytomyr Academy is published with the preservation of the original format (table), the spelling is presented without changes, and the language of the source has not been modernized.

The story of three letters. Spiritual relay of the generations. V. N. Karazin – E. I. Koltunovsky – M. F. Sumtsov

Goal: based on private letters of V.N.Karazin to E.I. Koltunovsky, published by M.F. Sumtsov, supplement the biography of M.F. Sumtsov, investigate his origin, influence on the formation of his scientific views E.I. Koltunovsky, supplement the biography of V.N. Karazin with little-known facts of the latter year of his life in Kharkov, to introduce the reader to the figure of the talented artist E. I. Koltunovsky, once famous in Kharkov, the author of the only portrait of V. N. Karazin in his old age. Research methodology: the principles of historicism and objectivity, embodied by the application of special historical methods - chronological and retrospective. Scientific novelty.For the first time, information about the family of M. F. Sumtsov's mother is published, the family and scientific connections of M. F. Sumtsov with E. I. Koltunovsky are investigated, the biography of V. N. Karazin is supplemented with the facts of the last year of his stay in Kharkov, brief information about of the talented icon painter E. I. Koltunovskyi and his contribution to the creation of the cultural face of Kharkiv, traced the spiritual relay of generations of cultural figures who were closely associated with Kharkiv University. Topicality.Creating and supplementing the scientific biography of outstanding figures of culture, science and art is always an important topic of historical research. In 2023, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University and the Ukrainian scientific community will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the university's founder Vasyl Nazarovych Karazin. Therefore, supplementing the scientific biography of a scientist with new facts is an interesting and relevant topic. It is interesting to trace the spiritual relay between representatives of three generations of Kharkiv cultural figures. Conclusions. The little-known pages of the biographies of the founder of Kharkiv University V. N. Karazin, academician, professor of Kharkiv University, founder and first director of the Kharkiv Historical Museum M. F. Sumtsov and famous Ukrainian icon painter E. I. Koltunovskyi were studied. The authors studied the issue of scientific and personal connections between Karazin and Koltunovsky and between Koltunovsky and Sumtsov, which made it possible to trace the spiritual relay of different generations of these figures of Ukrainian culture and science. On the basis of three letters from Karazin to Koltunovsky, which were introduced into scientific circulation by M. F. Sumtsov, it was possible to reproduce some facts of the last year of the life of the founder of Kharkiv University, and a little-known portrait of Karazin in his old age, painted by Koltunovsky during the events in question, was also researched language in letters. As a result of the research, new facts were established about Sumtsov's origin, his belonging to the ancient noble family of the Koltunovskys. The continuation of the search and processing of new materials related to the biography of M.F. Sumtsov will reveal the scientific potential of this person even more fully, and will complement his contribution to the cultural development of Slobozhanshchyna.

Imported tableware and socio-cultural change in the urban community: The case of early modern Vilnius

The period from the 16th to the 17th century is known for changes in material culture, especially in dining traditions, as different tableware appeared, replacing the dominant pottery of the medieval period. New types of technologically and functionally advanced vessels and dishes including Dutch and Italian tin-glazed earthenware, German stoneware, and a variety of slipwares were changing dining traditions across Europe. All this can be observed from the archaeological material uncovered in what is today Vilnius old town. Tableware from both western European and Ottoman manufacturers was found during archaeological excavations in Vilnius. Compared to the Middle Ages, the total number of imported wares increased significantly. Medieval tableware was very rare in Vilnius and available exclusively to individuals of high social classes but during the early modern period the situation changed. Imported pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries showed that inhabitants of the town were influenced by western dining traditions and usage of imported tableware in their everyday rituals had grown significantly. Focusing on this change traced from Vilnius old town archaeological material, the paper will examine whether imports were available to the representatives of specific social classes or were widely known to the town’s community. Imported tableware as a marker of urban lifestyles suggests that town dwellers, especially noble families, monks and nuns used a variety of imported tableware. This fact represents that dining practices anchored into early modern Vilnius society and changed traditional dining practices.

Boims’ epitaph from the chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Passion of the Lord in the context of the evolution of memorial plastic between the 16th and 17th centuries

Basing on the use of principles of a system approach, comparative and historical, semiotic, iconographic, iconic, formal and stylistic methods it has been defined the place and the meaning of Boims’ epitaph from the chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Passion of the Lord in Lviv dealing with the topology of memorial plastics and sculptural portrait’s evolution in the modern West-Ukrainian lands at the border of the 16th and 17th centuries; the paper characterizes image-thematic and artistic peculiarities of a landmark and points out identifications of separate personalities among those who have been specified. The study stresses on the fact that the epitaph combines the features of memorial compositions of family prayer kneeling that was popular in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 1550–1575s, and the adoration of the sacred scene by spouses that is presented as iconographic type developed in the 1600–1625s as the imitation of monumental tombstones of noble families’ representatives. The author suggests that except for J. Pfister's desire to avoid usual decisions, lack of space to place sculpture and customers’ wishes to immortalize all representatives of the genus, the composition tiering has been inspired with single tiered family bourgeois epitaphs in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the sculptor's tendency to develop multi-level structures. The research demonstrates the portrait’s development in Lviv sculpture that has proved the subordination of the heraldic program to the psychological features of the depicted personalities, its shift from the reproduction as a part of the ancestral organism (the epitaph of the Sholts-Volfovychs’ family) to the creation of the family image as an emergent unity of individuals, and is a characteristic of Boim’s epitaphs. The author highlights the development of Lviv sculptural portrait presented with the visualization of psychological interconnections of Boim’s family representatives, the expression of the essential one at the moment, the depiction of individual one in the associations with generally cultural and over-timed one. The paper focuses on “a-tectonicity”, “belonging to painting”, and dynamic development of the epitaph’s form especially noticed in a group of “Pieta”. The study highlights the integrity of a composition provided with zigzag baroque rhythm, outlining imaginative triangle with prayerfully folded palms of George and Yadviga Boim and the head of the Mother of God, the contrast of white alabaster and black marble background, stressing on central axis with fragmented Crucifixion, cartouche scrolls, the figure of the blessing Christ. The author suggests the statement about the picture at the second level of the composition that is the first from the inscription, not of the son, but of Pavel Georgy Boim’s brother, and in the series as a whole is the adoration of the Pieta by the sons of the family protoplast. The author points out the deformation of the epitaph’s reception under the conditions of its probable transferring from the original surrounding.

WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY MODERN TIME – OUTSTANDING PERSONALITIES OF THE DRUGETH FAMILY

The article is devoted to today's actual problem - the analysis of the role of women of noble origin in early modern times in the socio-political and socio-economic relations of the northeastern part of the Hungarian kingdom. Although the study of gender (women's) history has recently gained momentum and become popular, this problem has been little studied in Ukrainian and Hungarian historical science and requires further research. The article presents an analysis of historical documents from the 16th to the first half of the 17th century with a special emphasis on the female characters of the Drugeth family. During the writing of the article, the author encountered various problems, including lack of basic biographical data. The problem is also the fact that the available data are incomplete and contradictory, and the family (genealogical) trees are compiled incorrectly, so the author proposes to introduce a new, refined version of the Drugeth genealogy into scientific circulation. Further archival research enables the author to slowly but surely write a more plausible history of the family. The article summarizes the study new aspects of the family history through the unknown (or yet published) moments of the life path of the Drugeth women (Anna Báthory, Erzsébet Perényi, Margit Zrínyi, Fruzsina Török, Erzsébet Rákóczi, Fruzsina Dóczy) and new give aspects of the family's history, and characteristics of their impact on socio-political, economic and religious changes in the region through the prism of Hungarian legislation. In our opinion, thanks to the research, we made an additional contribution to the study of some unknown fragments of the history of the Drugeth family. The article analyzes the concept of Transcarpathian historians regarding the decisive influence of aristocratic women on the religious practice (religious conversion) of noble families during the Reformation and then the Counter-Reformation. It has been proven that Drugeth women had a significant influence on their environment, including on the formation of socio-political and socio-economic relations. In our opinion, during the writing of the article, an additional contribution was made to the study of unknown fragments of the history of the Drugeth family.

Traveling history of the Armenian four gospels dated to 1686 (NCM RAR 82)

The colophons of the old manuscripts, in general, convey important information about various persons, noble families, churches, monasteries, historical facts or contemporary political situations. In addition, the colophons often allow us to trace the history of creation, composition, purpose, preservation and sometimes to follow the journey of the manuscripts. One of such books is the Old Printed Armenian Four Gospels (RAR 82) preserved in the Rare Books Room at K. Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts.

The “Origini della fameglia Orsina”: Incredible Genealogies Between a Pseudo Ficino and a Pseudo Petrarch

This paper analyses and publishes a diptych of texts on the origins of the Orsini family preserved in the manuscript Florence, BNC, II.VII.82. The texts are fully in line with the trend of ‘unbelievable genealogies’ developing in Italy during the 16th century. The first of the texts recounts the remote origins of the noble family and is attributed to an otherwise unknown son of Marsilio Ficino. The second one narrates Orsine events in the Carolingian era and is instead attributed to Francesco Petrarca.

Reason and Experience in Renaissance Italy by Christine Shaw

Drawing on her unequaled expertise concerning the governments and political systems of Renaissance Italy—the fruit of decades of research in both the archival and published sources of every major Italian state (and several minor ones) between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth century—Shaw has produced a comprehensive and salient analysis of what she identifies as the fundamental “political principles” of Italy’s republics. This excellent and deeply learned book—the latest of her many monographs—challenges the dismissive view of Renaissance republicanism as moribund, especially after European monarchies took control of most of the peninsula in the early sixteenth century.Shaw’s approach is grounded in careful explication of the language of the “principles” that she unearths, not from the works of political thinkers but from the records of council proceedings, proposals by government committees, debates and advisory sessions, preambles to legislation, chancery letters, diplomatic instructions and reports, and much more. These practical, collaborative, and mostly anonymous documents reflect the historical experience of five republics—Venice, Genoa, Florence, Lucca, and Siena. Their historical value, Shaw affirms, lies in their authors’ expectation that the “reasons and principles” expressed in them “would appeal to, and be agreed by, many of those to whom they were addressed” (14). For example, most citizens of republics were in agreement (at least in principle) that unity was a supreme virtue; that “nothing poses greater danger” than “dissension” and faction (16); that in republics “no ranks are recognized” (36); that “it befits justice and equity to provide that all may share in offices and magistracies” (65); that the “true and supreme prince” of a republic, even in Venice and Genoa where doges held the highest office, was “always a corporate entity, a council, or the popolo or comune” (101); that “it is just that all citizens should bear the [fiscal] burdens of their city” (104); that “he who has more should pay more” (112); and that “the administration of justice is the universal foundation of all the cities and states of the world” (163). Governments embraced such ideas to enhance their legitimacy and forge consensus.Yet Shaw also elucidates the conflicting interpretations of these principles and the sharp divisions between factions, classes, and interest groups about fact to achieve unity, curtail factions, and define ranks; about who constituted the “all” who should share in offices; about which council or which definition of the people was the “supreme prince”; and about how taxes were to be assessed and what was to be taxed. The principles no doubt rested on what Shaw calls the “core values”—justice, equality, and equity—of republican governance (4), but this fact did not prevent divergent interpretations by different social constituencies. Shaw’s subtle and discerning treatment thus merges close scrutiny of the shared idiom of republicanism with the effects on it of competing, even antagonistic, sociopolitical interests.Shaw also casts new light on Italy’s principalities. Because, she says, the “legitimacy of princely rule” was “equivocal” and not self-generated, it almost always depended either on approval by subjects (however expressed or manufactured) or on investiture by popes or emperors. Inheritance as a buttress of legitimacy was “complicated by limited acceptance of primogeniture”—noble families often seeing themselves as “equals, rivals, even superiors” to a prince’s family—and by subject cities with their own “histories of self-government” that required princes “to come to terms” with local communities (176–177). Princely regimes lacked a “concept of the crown” as distinct “from the person of the prince,” whereas in republics the “palace” metonymically distinguished the state from the party in power (216). Principalities borrowed republican principles of legitimacy, especially approval by subjects, to bolster their ambiguous status.Shaw further demonstrates the persistence into the sixteenth century of republican values in resistance to princely rule and, after Charles Habsburg became emperor, to imperial pretensions to supreme power over all states within the old boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. Republics frequently rejected imperial attempts to station garrisons, build fortresses, and demand complete obedience and onerous subventions (276–290). Even after the loss of independence, therefore, deeply rooted republican principles protected long-standing liberties. This original and penetrating study illuminates promising new paths for the history of political ideas.

PHILOSOPHICAL JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE RESTORATION OF INDEPENDENT STATEHOOD OF ZAKARYANS

In the middle of the 80s of the 12th-century revivals in the consciousness of the Armenians in aspiration for independence, the formation of new noble families, the formation of a powerful army, the absolute unity of new nobility, the stubborn preservation of their faith, the legislative formation of the judicial system, the final formation of the tools of the network marriage institution ensured the creation and half-century existence of an independent statehood of Armenia in 1185-1236.

PHILOSOPHICAL JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE RESTORATION OF INDEPENDENT STATEHOOD OF ZAKARYANS

In the middle of the 80s of the 12th-century revivals in the consciousness of the Armenians in aspiration for independence, the formation of new noble families, the formation of a powerful army, the absolute unity of new nobility, the stubborn preservation of their faith, the legislative formation of the judicial system, the final formation of the tools of the network marriage institution ensured the creation and half-century existence of an independent statehood of Armenia in 1185-1236.

Scipione Gonzaga, Fürst von Bozzolo, kaiserlicher Gesandter in Rom 1634–1641

Abstract In the first half of the 17th century, the image of the imperial embassy in Rome was dominated by the long-standing service of the brothers Paolo and Federico Savelli. In comparison, the period in between, during which Scipione Gonzaga held the office, has left hardly any traces. Yet a closer look at his years of service reveals the political problems of those years and shows the prince of Bozzolo to be a committed diplomat. Furthermore, the circumstances of his life show the envoy’s activity in an unusual context, that of a lower-ranking prince in Imperial Italy who sought to gain stature for the empire in order to maintain the limited power attained by himself and his family, and to improve their overall status by acquiring another ancestral entail that had fallen into other hands. Beyond his personal involvement in the costly office, his brothers and other relatives placed themselves at the service of the empire and also entered a network of influential noble families close to the imperial court through marriage. The Gonzaga reigns in Bozzolo and Mantua ended with the War of the Spanish Succession. However, the social and cultural influence they had accumulated lasted longer. Through their family connections, the relatives of the former imperial envoy contributed to the pervasive adoption of the Italian language and way of life, which had become established among the upper classes of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary and remained dominant throughout the reign of Emperor Leopold I.