Includes bibliographical references and index.

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

This book describes power and politics in Rome and the role of the papacy in early modern European politics. It attempts to overcome the traditional historiographical approach to the papacy during this period by focusing on the actual mechanisms of power in the papal court - political, personal, spiritual and ceremonial.

Print version record.