Le secrétaire d’ambassade, acteur indispensable de l’exercice diplomatique : le cas de Jacopo Guidi à la cour de France (1544-1545)

Abstract

The embassy secretary is an often neglected and invisible figure in the history of Renaissance diplomacy. This contribution explores the various functions of this type of secretary by way of a diplomatic duo, namely Bernardo de’ Medici, Ambassador of Florence to the court of France between 1544 and 1545, and Jacopo Guidi, his secretary. Analyzing the material elements of diplomatic dispatches – primarily the indications of the author, the handwriting and courtesy formulas, but also close analysis of the texts – it shows the secretary as one of the main figures in diplomatic pratices. Through this study, the secretary emerges as the ambassador’s right hand man, the second member of a pair of complementary figures, and not as a mere subordinate to his master.

Keywords

• ambassador
• secretary to an embassy
• diplomatic dispatches
• social history of diplomacy
• sixteenth-century Florence
• chanceries