Table of Contents

Introduction Gianvittorio Signorotto and Maria Antonietta Visceglia; 1. A turning-point in the history of the factional system in the Sacred College: the power of the pope and cardinals in the age of Alexander VI Marco Pellegrini; 2. The court and the city in the ceremony of the possesso in the sixteenth century Irene Fosi; 3. 'Rome, workshop of all the practice of the world': from the letters of cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici to Cosimo I and Francesco I Elena Fasano Guarini; 4. The 'world's theatre': the court of Rome and politics in the first half of the seventeenth century Mario Rosa; 5. Factions in the Sacred College in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Maria Antonietta Visceglia; 6. The Secretariat of State as the pope's special ministry Antonio Menniti Ippolito; 7. The cardinal protectors of the crowns in the Roman curia during the first half of the seventeenth century: the case of France Olivier Poncet; 8. The squadrone volante: 'independent' cardinals and European politics in the second half of the seventeenth century Gianvittorio Signorotto; 9. Roman avvisi: information and politics in the seventeenth century Mario Infelise; 10. Hegemony of the social scene and zealous popes, 1676–1700 Renata Ago.