This is the first volume in a seven-volume collection - published in nine parts between 1864 and 1890 - comprising Venetian and other northern Italian state papers relating to England. Translator and editor Rawdon Lubbock Brown (1806–83) lived for many years in Venice, had unrivalled access to the Venetian archives and travelled widely to find documents in other Italian libraries and archives. He had previously published two volumes of Sebastian Giustinian's dispatches to Venice from Henry VIII's court (also reissued in this series). This first volume contains documents from the years 1202–1509, a large proportion being decrees of the Venetian Senate. Also included is correspondence of the English crown, such as Henry VI's and Edward IV's letters to the Pope. The editor's extensive preface puts the documents into historical context, and the volume also includes chronological tables of documents, ambassadors, consuls and other diplomats featured in the records.
