ABSTRACT
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries conicts dragging on between the two most powerful empires of early modern age, that is, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, determined the political development of this region. Nonetheless, to the “lords and potentates” of this area, not only the issue of the Ottoman threat and expansion mattered: of great importance were other tensions such as struggles between central powers and estates or religious conicts. e rulers always needed the latest news “in peace as well as in wartime”4 on a regular basis and not only from their home regions but from other parts of Europe and from the known world. It was crucial to be well informed about the actual events of the European political scene.
