Ottavio Villani – ein Gegner der päpstlichen Politik im Dreißigjährigen Krieg

Abstract In 1631 a paper was passed around describing the events that occurred during a banquet attended by high imperial officers and diplomats in Vienna that ended in uproar. It gives an impression of the very tense atmosphere occasioned by the alarming military progress of the Swedish army in Germany and the pope’s failure to provide generous aid. The violent quarrels between the papal nuntio and the Spanish deputy Ottavio Villani demonstrate that politicians at the Habsburg courts were not unaware of Urban VIII’s secret diplomatic activities in favour of France. This awareness compromised the reputation of the pope, who expected to be respected as a neutral padre comune , promoting peace among the Catholic states of Europe. Moreover, the details of Villani’s career not only give us an impression of the combative character of the nuntio’s opponent, but reveal the strongly polemical attitude of the Roman Curia towards a man who had been administrator for the house of Orsini, executive member of the commission for imperial fiefs in Italy, assistant to the princes of Guastalla and, in 1633, a politician in charge of ensuring that Wallenstein would not abandon his support for the Spanish objectives in the Thirty Years’ War as he had decided.