The present collection of data pertains to a historical study published in Italian, entitled "Annibale di Capua's nunciature in Poland (1586–1591) from the perspective of his Patavine connections". This article examines the impact of Annibale di Capua's university connections, forged during his legal studies in Padua, on his subsequent diplomatic mission as apostolic nuncio to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The research indicates that the 25-year period between Di Capua's university days and his time at the Polish-Lithuanian court was likely too extensive for these acquaintances to exert a substantial influence on his diplomatic activities, particularly given his lack of cultivation of these relationships during that interval. Indeed, the nuncio arrived in the Polish-Lithuanian state with no prior contacts, unaware of the specifics of his future workplace and with limited knowledge of the local political system.
The data collection encompasses scans of archival materials utilised for the purposes of the article, including diplomatic correspondence, where permitted by the storing institution's access and dissemination rights. The scans and photographs have been attached as .jpg files. In instances where the publication of images was not permitted by the institution where the materials were stored, transcriptions and summaries of the referenced documents were provided instead. The text files were saved in the open .odt format.
The data was collected following an archival query in Polish, Italian and Vatican scientific institutions (namely, the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences/Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow, the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, and the Archivio Graziani). The data was then processed using historical criticism methods.
In addition to the source material, the data set comprises a detailed list of the bibliography utilised, in addition to a series of references to the scientific works employed in the apparatus. Consequently, these references can be readily located in Open Access repositories.
(2025-08)
