These editions of reports sent back by Venetian ambassadors to the Great Council of the Republic in the sixteenth century were edited by Eugenio Albèri (1807-78) and published between 1839 and 1863. As Albèri notes in his preface, a law of 1296 decreed that all embassies should submit a written report to the Council at the end of their mission, and the surviving records provide an invaluable resource for political and economic historians. The fifteen volumes are divided into three series, on relations with European states outside Italy; with other Italian states; and with the Ottoman Empire. Volume 5 (Volume 2 of the second series), published in 1841, contains reports dating from 1540 to 1576 on relations with states including Florence, Genoa and Milan. The embassy to Don John of Austria at Naples, when Venice had made a separate peace with the Turks after Lepanto, was especially important.
