Any observation concerning papal politics in the mid-seventeenth century which intends to relate the development of the conflict among European powers to the internal dynamics of the papal see must take into account the Innocentian Age during which the most significant and well-known changes occurred. However, this does not mean that an inevitable progression of events led from the trauma of the ‘iron century’ to the dawn of the ‘crisis of the European conscience’. It simply seems more correct and profitable to examine the latter from a mid-century viewpoint rather than taking a retrospective approach, as these aspects have already been looked upon as preliminary indications of the advances to be made during the Enlightenment.

Therefore we must clarify whether during the traumatic middle years of the seventeenth century – which remain the most obscure period in early modern European history – any significant changes took place. The best way to do this is by examining the perceptions of contemporaries. According to the traditional perspective, the peace treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees marked the definitive demise of the Apostolic See as a protagonist on the international political scene. This does not require a historiographical review, but it should be emphasized that undervaluing the papacy has led to a simplified conception of political manoeuvres during the seventeenth century. (In fact, this is probably true of the entire modern age.) This is particularly evident if we evaluate this interpretation in terms of the immobility and subjection of the potentates in the Italian peninsula.

Rome was defined during the early modern era as the teatro del mondo (theatre of the world) and patria comune (common homeland); these images expressed the awareness of a universalism that was not only religious in nature, but also a sign of cultural belonging and a recognition of an undisputed political centrality. The chapter on ‘négotiation continuelle’ in the Testament politique attributed to Richelieu, considered as a cardinal text of baroque politics, contains a warning that: ‘we need to act the world over, near, far, and above all in Rome’. In the city of the pontiffs, where power was manifested at the highest level, private citizens and delegations from institutional bodies and nations constantly strove to gain concrete advantages, prestige and authority. It was precisely for these reasons that Rome can be considered – to use a modern term – a political laboratory, a place where experiments were made with original ways of doing politics and where such ways were the subject of reflection and theorizing. The identification of the environments, the specific forms, the protagonists of the culture and political practices formulated in Rome still await a systematic reconstruction, despite the abundant written material on the subject, both Italian and international.