‘The relations of the Republic of Venice and the Marquises d’Este in the mid-fourteenth to mid-fifteenth century based on the lettere ducali from the Western European section of the Historical Archive of the Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.’

2018.

Khvalkov E., Чиркова А. В., Агеева Д. А.

The present study is devoted to the research into a set of the Venetian lettere ducali to the Marquises d’Este of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries collected by N.P. Likhachev (1862-1936), Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, stored in the Western European section of the Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the preparation of their full-text critical publication. The lettere ducali are an excellent source to study the Serenissima and its continental and overseas domains. The source material of the Venetian lettere ducali have long and not without reason been considered and actively investigated by researchers as one of the most important sources on the economic, social, political, legal, environmental, cultural, and ethnic history of Venice. In addition, Venetian sources often provide researchers with important material on the history of other states of the Italian Peninsula, including, in our case, the domains of d’Este. This explains the exceptional importance of studying lettere ducali as the most important source on the history of the Western European Middle Ages and early modern times. This study revealed historical material on the specific cities and regions of Italy (Venice, Treviso, Ferrara, Verona, Padua, the Po Delta), as well as the Venetian colonies in the Mediterranean (Crete, Cyprus) and the Adriatic (Shkodra, Dalmatian Coast), history of international relations, history of economic relations, history of everyday life, history of state institutions and international law, history of a medieval document, history of Latin writing.

Keywords: Mediterranean Sea, trade, diplomacy, International relations, latin paleography, History of Italy, 14th – 16th centuries, Venetian Republic, Terraferma, Treviso, Ferrara, Doges of Venice, chancery, diplomatic

Publication based on the results of: Епископы, дожи и купцы: тексты средневековых городов Италии XIII-XV вв. (2018)