Staff Profile

Dr Toby Osborne

Senior Lecturer in the Department of History

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41062

Member of the Centre for 17th-Century Studies

Member of the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Toby Osborne is interested in early-modern court history and diplomatic culture. He has worked on the Piedmontese diplomat, abbé and art patron, Alessandro Scaglia (1592-1641), known throughout the courts of Europe, from London to Rome, during the period of the Thirty Years’ War. His work has a strong international character, with a focus on Catholic Europe and the Italian peninsula. He is currently working on several strands of research, including the papal court, the competition for status and prestige amongst the dynastic powers of Italy, the subject of exile in the seventeenth century, and international diplomatic culture. He would welcome interest in early-modern court and elite history, covering Britain and Europe.

Research Interests

Dynastic politics in early modern Europe
The courts of Catholic Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean region

Publications

Books: authored

2002 Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years’ War, Cambridge University Press, 304 pp.

Essays in edited volumes

2013 'The House of Savoy and the Theatre of the World: performances of sovereignty in early-modern Rome', in Vester, M (ed.), Sabaudian Studies: Political Culture, Dynasty, and Territory, 1400–1700, Truman State University Press, pp. 167-190
2012 ''Notre grand dessein': O projecto de casamento entre o Duque Victor Amadeu e a Infanta Isabel Luisa e a politica dinastica dos Saboia (1675-82)', in Lopes, M. Antonia & Raviola, B. Alice (eds.), Portugal e o Piemonte: a casa real portuguesa e os Sabóias. Nove séculos de relações dinásticas e destinos políticos (XII-XX), Coimbra University Press, pp. 211-238
2012 ''Renaissance Diplomacy and the Early Modern State'', in Eich,Peter, Schmidt-Hofner, Sebastian & Wieland, Christian (eds.), Der wiederkehrende Leviathan: Staatlichkeit und Staatswerdung in Spätantike und Früher Neuzeit, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, pp. 117-138
2011 'A queen mother in exile: Marie de Medicis in the Spanish Netherlands and England, 1631-41', in Mansel, P & Riotte, T (eds.), Monarchy and Exile: The Politics of legitimacy from Marie de Medicis to Wilhelm II, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 17-43
2008 'Interessi territoriali e prestigio dinastico. La Casa Savoia e la Corte di Roma durante il pontificato di Paolo V Borghese', in Alexander Koller (ed.), Die Außenbeziehungen der römischen Kurie unter Paul V. Borghese (1605-1621), Niemeyer, pp. 285-299

Journal papers: academic

2007 'The surrogate war between the Savoys and the Medici: sovereignty and precedence in early modern Italy', International History Review 29, pp. 1-21
2007 'Van Dyck, Alessandro Scaglia and the Caroline court: friendship, collecting and diplomacy in the early seventeenth century', The Seventeenth Century 22, pp. 24-41
2000 ''Chimeres, monopolies and stratagems': French exiles in the Spanish Netherlands during the Thirty Years' War', Seventeenth Century 15, pp. 149-74
2000 'Abbot Scaglia, the Duke of Buckingham and Anglo-Savoyard relations during the 1620s', European History Quarterly 30, pp. 5-32
1999 'The Scaglia di Verrua: aristocratic power at the court of Savoy during the early seventeenth century', Studi Piemontesi 28, pp. 367-90
1997 'In the service of Savoy: Abbate Alessandro Scaglia (1592-1641)', The Court Historian 2, pp. 29-38

Teaching Areas

Christopher Wren
Early modern European courts
Reformation Europe