Rome. "The World's Public School": Cardinal Granvelle in the City of the Popes

Combining an analysis of both the published correspondence of Antoine Perrenot of Granvelle (1517-1586, card. 1561) with unpublished sources from Spanish and Italian archives, the article aims to trace the cardinal's activity during his sojourns in Rome (1566-1571; 1575-1579). Dispatched to the eternal city not of his own choice but in order to be removed from Flanders, Granvelle had some trouble adjusting to court dynamics there, and even if he was not cardinal protector of any of the Catholic king's dominions, he became, in collaboration with the ambassador, Juan de Zuniga, one of the main architects of Phillip II's Italian policy. Phillip expressly charged him with the task of monitoring the conflict in Flanders while also keeping an eye of papal orientations. In Rome Granvelle was at the receiving end of an extraordinary intelligence network that covered all of Europe. Having entered important papal congregations, he was an interlocutor with cardinal Giovanni Morone over questions of international politics at the time of the League of Lepanto and the crisis of Genoa. Granvelle's political role, however, and his relations with other cardinals in the "Spanish" party cannot be fully understood without considering his cultural activities and his promotion of book publishing. Involved in the imperial experience of Charles V during the transition to Spanish Italy, Granvelle was able to grasp Rome's increasing global importance starting from the pontificate of Gregory XIII.