Paper short abstract:

By the mid-17th century, Rome was a capital of knowledge and a refuge for foreign national representatives who sought political support.The study of Portuguese scholars in Barberini's Rome reveals the links that these scholars established between the Republic of Letters,Rome and João IVs monarchy

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the overlaps between state administration, the early modern Republic of Letters and national communities in foreign cities like Rome. It focuses on Portuguese scholars, who in the midst of the Portuguese Restauração, played an active role in the political and intellectual networks of Barberini's Rome (c.1620-1650). These scholars fostered political interactions between the new monarchy of Joao IV, the diplomatic apparatus of the Hispanic Monarchy as well as the Roman intellectual milieux and their ramifications in the learned communities of the Republic of Letters. By analyzing the correspondences of these Portuguese men of letters with politicians, diplomats, religious authorities but also with merchants and book sellers among many others, this paper advocates for a more complex social history of early modern erudition and scholarly diasporas. This paper takes into account the important role of foreign communities in capitals of knowledge as well as their activities in the diplomatic wars that fostered the new international laws and political map of Europe during the aftermath of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).