These editions of reports sent back by Venetian ambassadors to the Great Council of the Republic in the sixteenth century were edited by Eugenio Alberi (1807-78) and published between 1839 and 1863. As Alberi notes in his preface, a law of 1296 decreed that all embassies and legations should submit a written report to the Council at the end of their mission, and the surviving records provide an invaluable resource for political and economic historians. The fifteen volumes are divided into three series, on relations with European states outside Italy; with other Italian states; and with the Ottoman Empire. Volume 7 (Volume 3 of the second series), published in 1846, contains reports from ambassadors to the papacy in the first half of the sixteenth century. A formal visit in 1523 is enlivened by sight-seeing: Roman churches and newly unearthed antiquities, such as the 'Laocoon', are described.