ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea of communication by non-verbal, sensory, and material means, of things as a lingua franca used between precisely the sort of diplomatic parties Swift imagined, in the early modern Italian republic of Genoa. Genoa was internationally famous for its rich silk fabrics, velvet in particular. The city used the prized textiles as part of their symbolic capital: they adorned the bodies of the officials in the solemn welcome parties and distinguished between spectators and attendants. Textiles therefore featured prominently in state hospitality. The chapter examines state hospitality by focussing on the visits to Genoa of three important personages namely: Spanish Infante Philip, Christine of Lorraine and Margaret of Austria. As Christine of Lorraine took her departure, she thanked her hosts and promised to tell her husband the Grand duke of her excellent reception, in the hope of being able to show 'some sign of reciprocal exchange'.
