3° Readings in European History The reports of the Venetian ambassadors in the sixteenth century. letters, and other documents, and his " diaries " are a mine of informa- tion for the first third of the sixteenth century. Le relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti al senato durante il seculo decimosesto, edited by Alberi, 15 vols., Florence, 1 839-1 863. The prudent Venetian government had made a rule as early as 1268 that their ambassadors to foreign lands should on their return promptly file a written statement of the things they had observed which it might be advantageous for the republic to know. The earliest example of these reports which has been discovered is dated 1492, and there are few earlier than 1535. In Alberi's edition of these extraordinary docu- ments (of which examples are given below, pp. 31 sqq. and — sqq-)> six volumes relate to states outside Italy, five to the Italian states, and three to the Turkish possessions. The Italian in which they are written is singularly simple and clear. Dumont, Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens : contenant un recueil des Traitez d 'alliance, de paix, de treve, etc., 17 26-1 731, 8 vols., folio, and a supplement by Rousset containing treaties omitted by Dumont and adding later ones to 1738, 2 vols., folio. The best- known old collection of treaties. Burchard, Diarium, sive rerum urba?iu7n commentarii, i^8j-ijo6, edited by Thuasne, 3 vols., 1883-1885. By a German connected with the papal palace, who coldly observed and recorded the events at Rome, especially under Alexander VI. Guicciardini, Storia d' Italia. This relates especially to the open- ing of the sixteenth century, and comes down to 1534. Formerly used as the most accessible and reliable source, but sharply criticised by Ranke in the appendix to his Geschichte der romanischen und germa- nischen Vblker, where the other sources for the period are also discussed.
