The project sets out to investigate the spaces and borders of knowledge circulation between Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, during the decades leading up to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War and witnessing the growth of confessional antagonisms (1590-1648). Major aim is to chart the texture of such a complex cultural space. The result will be a highly composite picture, strongly influenced by the dynamics of power which articulated in Europe, as well as beyond it. The project conceives in fact the relationships between Rome and the German world as hardly bilateral. On the contrary, the research strategy intends to encompass and fully investigate the maze of connections shaping the global dimension of knowledge circulating across the Alps. Engaging with a differentiate scholarships, the project argues for a more sophisticated understanding of circulation as the very ‘site’ of knowledge making. The approach to cultural exchange will be therefore sharpen up, focusing on the continuous reshaping of knowledge through mobility. Such a research agenda requires the project to deal with a complex spatial configuration, arguing for the need of a stronger geopolitical sensibility. Facing macro-scale issues, the project sets the investigation at a more empirical level of analysis, by concentrating on social actors and practises. Cultural brokers will be regarded as a valuable entry-point. In relation to them, the project proposes a dual-track inquiry focusing 1. on the role as go-betweens played by Germans who settled in Rome, as well as by intellectuals and practitioners fostering contacts between their German courts and urban cultural milieus and the city of the pope. 2 on ‘German’ Jesuits. The project plans to deal with different forms of cultural communication, paying specific attention to circulation of natural knowledge.