Fifteenth-Century Diplomatic Documents in Western European Archives and Libraries (1450-1494)
Keyword(s):
The enormous mass of fifteenth-century diplomatic documents deposited in European archives and libraries, mostly in Italy, has never been explored and utilized systematically. Relatively small selections have been published in various collections and appendices of specialized monographs, but the over-all significance of these papers has never been assessed. By contrast sixteenth-century diplomatic documents have given rise to many printed collections and publications ever since the third decade of the last century when Leopold von Ranke first made extensive and effective use of the Venetian dispacci and relazioni in his History of the Popes.