Genoese Rome and Genoa–Rome relations in the late seventeenth century (1644–1700)

Abstract The late seventeenth century in Genoa presents aspects of great fascination, some of which are largely unexplored, as in the case of relations with Rome (city, court and Curia). These were decades in which Genoa tried to find an alternative route to the Spanish Mediterranean, to relaunch its navy towards the Levant and the Far East (as an ideal goal). Its diplomats for this purpose went to Constantinople, London and Holland, although their most important forum remained Rome, the court of the courts, where, from the death of Urban VIII Barberini (1644) onwards, they managed tough negotiations, assisted by the most eminent prelates of their nation. The crisis of the protectorate (for the entire second half of the seventeenth century, Genoa did not have a cardinal protector) and that of St. John the Baptist, a national church, hospital and confraternity, is also inscribed in this framework of relations. Furthermore, from the pontificate of Innocent X Pamphilj (1644–55) onwards, the postmaster generals of Genoa had the task of renewing and managing communications between the Holy See and the nunciature in Madrid, the apostolic see to which the papacy entrusted the task of mediating between Spain and France, in view of the agreements of Westphalia (1648) and the Pyrenees (1659).