Diplomary, Italian style

Lisa Kaborycha's article takes cue from the personal relations among powerful people to analyze the exchange of letters between Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino and Cosimo I dè Medici, Duke of Tuscany.

The diplomacy that those man carried out is even utilize in the modern politics; gestures extremely friendly hide the great political activities to smooth differences, from that moment we had seen great political adverses exchange gift and kindness but often we don't know the exact words passed between them, while, from the Medici archives, a serie of letters comes out to clarify the real relation among those shrewdest politicians.

At first I wont remember who were Guidobaldo II and Cosimo I: they had many things is common, they were contemporary and became sovereign both very young after the violent died of their predecessors at the top of two bordered states they were at the world political center in a period caratterized by the Spanish occupation of Italy and by the Roman's Pope power, besides affronting the foreign affairs they must affront internal plotting; expecially in Florence many cityzen looked back nostalgically to their lost repubblic, one of them was Strozzi politically supported by the Duke of Urbino; also the Guidobaldo's home politics navigated in dangerous waters infact the citizens tried of taxes and constant war and the papacy had its eye on the state to repossess the territory.

On the letters wrote each other the two political men, over the discussions of banditism and appeals of justice their corrispondence is full of friendly gestures. They sent, each other , small and great gifts from cheeses to leons to rimedys for kidney stones.

There are many letters of congration on the marriages of those children, and births of grandchildren, but there are also many touching letters of condolences.

The Duke of Urbino takes frequent wrote relations with his mother-in-law, Caterina Cibo, who lived at the Florentine's court, telling her about military developments.

The Duke used his mother in law as his spokesman to Cosimo I, infact the two rivals never been on open personal conflict to not compromise the well-crafted alliance.

They worked behind to smooth their contrasts .

The gift, the loving letters were, and today are, gestures carefully orchestrated; since five centuries this way to diplomacy is still actual.