Diplomacy is a performance. The stage is set on the streets and palaces that centre upon the spaces of political power. As this volume explores, diplomacy as 'spectacle' is no mere metaphor for political interaction, but an elevation of how it was practiced as performance. No other activity in the early modern world yielded to such an intensive flow of cultural exchange, artistic endeavour to be patronised, or expense to be lavished on the aggrandisement of events, entertainments, and festivities. Indeed, these efforts were orchestrated: the ambassadors were both impresarii and lead actors. Understanding the ambassador as a cultural mediator is the recognition of the power of diplomatic activity to transform culture through the process of mediation, and more, the appreciation of the sphere of diplomatic mediation as a most fertile ground for cultural invention.



Contributions by Cristina Agüero Carnerero | Maria Alberti | Teresa Chirico | María Concepcíon Gutiérrez Redondo | Miguel Conde Pazos | Camille Desenclos | Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira | Cristina Fernandez | Maria sol García González | Vera Grund | Attila Györkös | Armando Fabio Ivaldi | Özgür Kolçak | Lars-Dieter Leisner | Elizabeth Montañez-Sanabria | Pierre Nevejans | Clemens Peck | John Plemmenos | Nathalie Rivere de Carles | Rostislav Smíšek | Ondřej Lee Stolička | Lenka Švandová Maršálková | Luis Tercero Casado | Matylda Urjasz-Raczko | Irena Veselá | Tiago Viúla de Faria | Philippa Woodcock | Yasir Yilmaz



INTRODUCTION



I. THEATRES OF DIPLOMACY



The Drama of Tapestries:

A Theatrical History of Early Modern Diplomacy



Blackboxing Diplomacy: On Mimesis, Ghosts and

the Extraterritoriality of Sovereignty in Early Modern Drama



The Sage on the Stage: The Image of the Perfect Ambassador in Diplomatic Manuals and Opera Libretti in Early Modern Europe



Fandom or Cultural Diplomacy?

Giacomo Durazzo's Theatre Mission in Venice (1764–1772)



II. THE ROMAN STAGE



Staging the Marriage and Coronation of Emperor Frederick III Habsburg

and Eleonora of Avis (Rome, 1452): A Survey of the Portuguese Sources



The Display of Otherness: Two Polish-Lithuanian Diplomats

on Their Missions to the Mediterranean World:

Rome and Madrid (1627–1647)



The Admiral of Castile's Embassy of Obedience to Innocent X

and the Two Cavalcades Performed in Rome (1646)



'The Queens Carpet':

Religious Performance and the Fight for Diplomatic Precedence

in Early Eighteenth-century Rome



"Una basilica diventata teatro":

Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Political Ambitions

of José Maria de Fonseca of Évora in Eighteenth-century Rome



III. VENICE – FLORENCE – GENOA



Spectacles to Forging Common Identity:

The Myth of Troy and the Franco-Venetian-Hungarian Alliance (1502)



Middle Eastern Guests in Florence during

the Age of Grand Duke Cosimo II (r.1609–1620)



L'Effimero barocco: da metafora del potere a sperimentazione dell'artista.

Alcuni esempi genovesi fra sei e settecento



IV. THE IMPERIAL COURT



Ceremonial Entries as Political Performance:

The Duke of Angoulême's Embassy to the Holy Roman Empire (1620–1621)



From the Shores of Ragusa to the Eastern Crossroads of the Habsburgs:

The Paradigm of the Cleric-agent Allegretto Allegretti



Foreign Diplomats at the Imperial Court during the Reign of Leopold I (r.1658–1705) through the Eyes of the Highest Court Dignitaries



An Imperial Diplomat at the Beginning of His Career:

Dominik Andreas Count of Kaunitz during the 1680s and the Early 1690s



V. IMPERIAL EMBASSIES TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE



Imperial Ambassador Walter Leslie's

Embassy to Adrianople and Constantinople (1665–1666)



The Last Habsburg Peace Attempt in Istanbul

before the Second Ottoman Siege of Vienna (1683)



VI. SPANISH DIPLOMATIC STRATEGIES



The Performance of Diplomacy through the Contemporary Texts:

The Extraordinary Embassy of the Duke of Feria to Paris in 1610



Ambassadors, Informers, Spies and the Spanish Secrecy

about the Indies in the Seventeenth Century



Ceremonial Entry of the Imperial Ambassador Paul Sixt II Trautson (1635–1678) to Madrid in the Year 1677



VII. PARISIAN DIPLOMATIC STAGES



"Sono fastiditi per non saper più trovar nuove invenzioni di farsi":

Masquerades and Diplomatic Performance at the Court of François I



The Ambassadors' Fireworks Parties:

Public and Private Performance in Bourbon Paris



Performing Posthumous Homage to the Ambassador:

Two "Oraisons Funèbres" to Abel Servien (1659)



VII. MUSIC AND DIPLOMACY:

ROME – VIENNA – DRESDEN – MUNICH – PRAGUE



«Magnificenza è figlia di sovruman costume»:

L'ambasciatore cesareo Johann Wenzel von Gallas, patrocinatore della

serenata Sacrificio a Venere di Giovanni Bononcini (Roma, 1714)



The Habsburg Succession Addressed on the Operatic Stage:

The Court Operas Teofane (Dresden 1719), Adelaide (Munich 1722)

and Costanza e Fortezza (Prague 1723)



The Power of Music and the Performance of Portuguese Diplomacy:

Roman Festivities in Honour of Infante Alexandre's Birth (1724)

under the Patronage of André de Melo e Castro



IX. APPENDIX



Names

Places