This is the second of three parts of the sixth volume in a seven-volume collection - published between 1864 and 1890 - comprising Venetian and other northern Italian state papers relating to England. Translator and editor Rawdon Lubbock Brown (1806–83) lived for many years in Venice, had unrivalled access to the Venetian archives and travelled widely to find documents in other Italian libraries and archives. He had previously published two volumes of Sebastian Giustinian's dispatches to Venice from Henry VIII's court (also reissued in this series). This second part of the sixth volume contains documents from the years 1556–7, when Queen Mary's husband, Philip II of Spain, had gone to fight the French in Flanders and the Venetians were actively involved in diplomatic measures to negotiate peace. Correspondence from Giacomo Soranzo, ambassador to France, is included here, as well as letters from Philip II and Cardinal Pole.