The ambassadors of the Republic of Venice as agents in the circulation of knowledge

Abstract

The dispatches to the Senate from the Venetian ambassador in Rome, Alvise Contarini, recount in 1633 the successful diplomatic career of a Polish student from the University of Padua: Count Jerzy Ossoliński. The diplomatic apparatus of the ancient Italian Republic contributed to the development of the University of Padua in negotiating the recruitment of the best doctores legentes to complete the staff of the university. From this perspective, in the early decades of the Seventeenth century, the importance of the embassy in Rome becomes evident, both because of the numerous universities in the Papal States, which were then a good recruitment pool, and to initiate negotiations to ensure a state graduation procedure that took into account the composite nature of the Venetian state, with a strong Greek Orthodox  component. The reputation of the University of Padua was such that even foreign ambassadors in Venice recognized the importance of recruiting doctores legentes in diplomatic relations.