We are very pleased to inform you about a new publication related to our project. After participating in the international conference entitled Gentilhuomo Padovano, which took place in Padua on 27–28 April 2022 [CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PROGRAMME] Dr. Dorota Gregorowicz published an article in Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum, entitled La nunziatura di Annibale di Capua in Polonia (1586–1591) nell’ottica delle sue conoscenze patavine [CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ARTICLE; CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RESEARCH DATA]
The article constitutes a case study, serving as an introduction to a broader research on the education of post-Tridentine apostolic nuncios and the impact of their education on their future careers. The text presents the issue of the influence that Annibale Di Capua’s university acquaintances, formed during his legal studies in Padua, had on his subsequent diplomatic mission as apostolic nuncio in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1586–1591). This study places particular emphasis on the relationship between Di Capua and two prominent figures in the Paduan academic landscape of the time: Stanisław Tarnowski, who would later assume the role of Castellan of Sandomierz, and Jan Zamoyski, who subsequently became both Great Chancellor and Hetman. The primary source utilised for this analysis was the correspondence exchanged by Annibale Di Capua during his mission in the Commonwealth, in addition to other texts of a different nature (e.g. poetry), which attest to the acquaintances made in Padua by the young Neapolitan nobleman. The analysis indicates that the approximately 25-year period between the Archbishop of Naples’ student days and his sojourn at the Polish-Lithuanian court was likely too extensive for the cultivation of such acquaintances to exert a substantial influence on Di Capua’s diplomatic endeavours. The subject’s formative experiences within the Polish community of Padua were also not conducive to an improvement in his comprehension of the socio-political circumstances in which the Archbishop of Naples found himself at the commencement of the third interregnum in 1587. The nuncio arrived within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without any up-to-date contacts, unfamiliar with the specifics of the place where he was to operate, and with little knowledge of the Polish-Lithuanian political system.