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These editions of reports sent back by Venetian ambassadors to the Great Council of the Republic in the sixteenth century were edited by Eugenio Alberi (1807-78) and published between 1839 and 1863. As Alberi notes in his preface, a law of 1296 decreed that all embassies and legations should submit a written report to the Council at the end of their mission, and the surviving records provide an invaluable resource for both 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 1, published in 1839, contains reports from between 1506 and 1548 on diplomatic relations between Burgundy, Spain, France and England (which is described as divided into three parts, 'Anglia, Wales and Cornwall'), at a time when the Habsburg 'marriage diplomacy' was re-shaping the political map of Europe.