ИСТИНА

Tommaso di Guasparre Spinelli (1472-1522) was one of the best-known diplomatic agents of Italian origin at the service of the early Tudor kings in the Habsburg lands. After his sudden death, Tommaso was not totally forgotten and for many years Sir Brian Tuke, the King Henry VIII’s Master of the Posts, remembered him as an irreplaceable loss. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to Tommaso Spinelli’s testament, which survived among his family papers (Beinecke Library. Yale University. Gen Mss 109). This document not only gives us a rather detailed overview of his worldly possessions and his connections, but also is his ultimate attempt to assess his ambassadorial status, to prove that his life-long work was a profession, rather than a side-job, as diplomacy of that period had often been regarded. It is a fine example of the rising self-consciousness and self-importance of a Renaissance personality.