This is the second 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 second volume contains documents from the years 1509–19, beginning with the accession of Henry VIII - a momentous period for the Venetian state, which was then seeking an alliance with England. Giustinian's ambassadorial correspondence is reproduced here. The editor's preface puts the various documents into historical context, and the appendices include a history of Italian cipher.
