5 - Mercenary Diplomacy

Summary

Late Renaissance conflicts drew mercenaries of knowledge to act as informal mediators in a wide range of diplomatic interests and territories located around the Holy See. Since the sixteenth century, Rome had become a refuge for foreign subjects, many of whom Romanized themselves while securing their patrimonies across and beyond the city. Nogueira offered his services from Rome to patrons and correspondents in Paris and Lisbon as well as in the Eternal City. This chapter discusses the multivalent position he occupied as a bibliopolitician in Rome after his return from Bologna in 1640 and the beginnings of his involvement with the politics of the Portuguese Restoration.