These editions of reports sent back by Venetian ambassadors to the Great Council of the Republic in the sixteenth century were edited by Eugenio Albèri (1807–78) and published between 1839 and 1863. As Albèri notes in his preface, a law of 1296 decreed that all embassies should submit a written report to the Council at the end of their mission, and the surviving records provide an invaluable resource for both political and economic historians. The fifteen volumes are divided into three series, on relations with European states outside Italy; with other Italian states; and with the Ottoman Empire. Volume 8 (Volume 3 of the first series), published in 1853, contains reports dating from 1531 to 1559, with an appendix on Spain in 1853. An account of England includes an admiring description of Queen Catherine, at the time when Henry VIII was already attempting to have their marriage annulled.