Italian Madrid: Ambassadors, Regents, and Courtiers in the Hospital de San Pedro y San Pablo

Abstract

The Court…, more accurately, the city where the Court resided, was a microcosm of the Monarchy that was governed from it. That was the case in Madrid. This paper deals with a little-known institution, the Hospital and the Church of the Italians, analysing above all its transformation in the 17th century through two important documents, the personal diary of a Neapolitan regent and a record of a conflict of powers between the Council of Italy and the nunciature in Madrid containing the hospital’s founding documents.