Prerogative di Stato e confitti giurisdizionali dalle carte di Giuseppe Bonechi, console toscano a Napoli (1765-1796)

Giuseppe Bonechi was the consul who, with the bless of the Austrian emperor and, lately, of the great duke of Florence, represented in a very peculiar way the commercial and diplomatic interests of Tuscany in the kingdom of Naples. A controversial figure, and not without shadows, Bonechi developed a career of ups and downs, and accumulated as many admirers as enemies, unfolded in parallel with a contradictory relationship with the minister Bernardo Tanucci. The article examines to what extent the reforms introduced during the Eighties of the 18th century changed the role of foreign consuls assigned at the Court of Naples. Documentation from several archives also allows to appreciate how the irregularity of Bonechi's profile enhanced his consular functions. As a consul, in fact, he dealt with commercial relations between Tuscany and the Bourbon Kingdom, conducted espionage and police investigations, and favored relations among many players of the political and cultural life of his time.