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Corneto-Tarquinia and the Italian Mercantile Republics: The Earliest Evidence1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

David Abulafia
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Extract

On balance far more is known of trade in luxury goods during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than of trade in essential foodstuffs and minerals such as wheat and salt. This is surprising in a way, because the sources that refer to commodity movements, such as commercial treaties, are often far more eloquent on vital topics such as grain than they are on the myriad luxury items that passed through Acre, Messina and other great ports of the late twelfth century. Partly this emphasis on high-class goods has been the responsibility of recent historians, who saw in the spasms of Mediterranean trade the key to European economic development; partly it is the fault of the treaties and privileges that survive, for there is no knowing whether, say, two hundred salmae of wheat that a monastery was allowed to export free of tolls represented all its export capacity, part of that capacity, or an amount normally well above that capacity—a purely notional figure.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 42 , November 1974 , pp. 224 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1974

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References

Notes

2. Most of the Genoese treaties have been published by C. Imperiale di Sant'Angelo, in the Codice diplomatico delta Repubblica di Genova, 3 vols. (Rome, 1936–1942)Google Scholar, hereafter CDG.

3. Most notably Henri Pirenne.

4. A real example: Caspar, E.. Roger II. (Innsbruck, 1904)Google Scholar, Regesten, § 95, a privilege of 1134 for the monastery of S. Salvatore, Messina.

5. For a brief bibliography, see Bach, E., La Cité de Gênes au XIIe siecle (Copenhagen, 1955), 169–70Google Scholar; a detailed study of trade in Sicily has, however, fallen to my lot.

6. Corneto and ancient Tarquinii are on separate but neighbouring hills The site of the Etruscan city is commonly supposed to have been evacuated during the ninth or tenth century as a result of Saracen attacks. For a brief history of the site, see Hencken, H., Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins (London, 1968), 17–20Google Scholar.

7. Chiaudano, M. and della Rocca, R. Morozzo, eds., Oberto Scriba de Mercato, 1190 (Notai liguri del sec. XII, i) (Genoa, 1938), § 146Google Scholar, ‘Romam et per terram regis’. This volume is cited hereafter as OSM (1190). Of course, merchants were expected to move from named ports into the interior should this prove worthwhile–e.g. to inland wheat estates.

8. The article by Supino, P., ‘Corneto precomunale e comunale’, Bullettino del Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, lxxix (1968), 114–47Google Scholar, is the only substantial analysis of the political development of Corneto; the articles by Dilcher, G. in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken xlii (1963), 1–12Google Scholar, and in Atti e Memorie della Deputazione di Storia Patria per le antiche provincie Modenesi, ser. ix, iii (1963), 432–43Google Scholar, do not discuss the twelfth century at all adequately. Aldobrandeschi: Supino, 144.

9. Muratori, L., Antiquitates Italicae Medii Aevi, tom. IV, coll. 401–2; 1174Google Scholar, stile pisano is 1173 by modern reckoning. Printed also by Dasti, L. in his patriotic Notizie storiche ed archeologiche di Tarquinia e Corneto (Rome, 1878), 459–62Google Scholar, from Muratori.

10. CDG ii § 108, 19 June 1177, at Corneto.

11. Marangone, B., Annales Pisani, ed. Pertz, K., Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, vol. XIX, 260, 262Google Scholar.

12. CDG ii, § 108, 239.

13. von Pflugk-Harttung, M., Iter Italicum (Stuttgart, 1883)Google Scholar, ‘Regesten der wichtigeren Urkunden zur Geschichte von Corneto vom X bis XIV Jahrunderte’ mitgeteilt von Th. Wüstenfeld, 534.

14. Pflugk-Harttung and Wüstenfeld, 533–6: a rather chaotic document.

15. A measure, modius, was denned in histories of the Third Crusade as the amount a man can carry under his arm—‘mensura modica quam videlicet quis facile portaret sub ascella’–Morgan, M. P., The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre (Oxford, 1973), 69–70Google Scholar.

16. Muratori, loc. cit: ‘si nostrae (Pisanae) galeae vel homines nostri invenerint navigia Cornietanorum Januam euntia…’.

17. Supino, P., ed., La Margarita Cornetana, Regesta dei Documenti (Miscellanea della Societa Romana di Storia Patria, xxii) (Rome, 1969), § 318, 240–1Google Scholar. Peter was also lord of Montpellier and other parts of Languedoc, old targets of Genoese commerce and attractive to Corneto.

18. Pflugk-Harttung and Wüstenfeld, 534; Supino, art. cit., 140–1 note 3.

19. Chiaudano, M. and Moresco, M., eds,, II Cartolare di Giovanni Scriba, 2 vols, (Rome-Turin, 1935)Google Scholar.

20. My calculation from Archivio di Stato, Genoa, Cartulary 2, f. 1–34.

21. Archivio di Stato, Genoa, Cartulary 2, f. 183, f. 144–153, f. 184–193, f. 154, f. 81–7, f. 127–43; Cart. 1, f. 180 r.

22. C. Jona, ed., Oberto Scriba de Mercato, 1186 (Notai liguri del Sec. XII, iv) (Genoa, 1940)Google Scholar. The title page carries only the name of M. Chiaudano, General Editor of the series, owing to the Fascist race laws. Hereafter OSM (1186).

23. OSM (1190), cit.

24. Bognetti, G. P., Per l'edizione dei notai liguri del sec. XII (Genoa, 1938), 103–4Google Scholar. Although M. Moresco's name also appears on the title page, he did not in fact write the text, but acted as General Editor of the volume.

25. Bach, 63, and passim.

26. E.g. nearly £2000 invested in Sicily, January to April 1190, OSM (1190) (passim).

27. Bognetti, 24.

28. OSM (1186), § 241.

29. de Roover, R., ‘The Cambium Maritimum contract according to the Genoese notarial records of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’, in Herlihy, D., Lopez, R., Slessarev, V., eds., Economy, Society and Government in Medieval Italy, essays in memory of Robert L. Reynolds (Kent, Ohio, 1969), 15–33Google Scholar.

30. G. de Castelleto: if he is the same as Giovanni di Castello, a member of the leading viscontile clan of Genoa, he invested also in Sicilian trade: Hall, M., Krueger, H., Reynolds, R., Giovanni Cassinese (Notai liguri del sec. XII, ii) (Genoa, 1938), i, § 38Google Scholar.

31. De Roover, 25–7 analyses documents of this type. Also 28, for the phrase ‘tot (or tantos) januinos’.

32. OSM (1186), § 240. ‘Domosancta’ is a name that rings no bells. Sardinia?

33. OSM (1190), § 261.

34. OSM (1190), § 600.

35. Cf. de Roover, 22.

36. OSM (1190), § 601.

37. OSM (1190), § 85—£29 only. Bach, 83.

38. G. Cassinese, ii, § 1354. Cf. a person named ‘Bonacursa’ in OSM (1186), § 240, cit., and G. de Castelleto, ibid.

39. There was an Etruscan linen industry at Tarquinii, but it was in decline by Pliny's day: Heurgon, J., Daily Life of the Etruscans (London, 1964), 101, 112Google Scholar.

40. Especially common in Giovanni Scriba's cartulary.

41. Hall-Cole, M., Krueger, H., Reinert, R., Reynolds, R., eds., Giovanni di Guiberto (Notai liguri del sec. XII, v), 2 vols. (Genoa, 1939–1940), i, § 227Google Scholar. This notary was pupil of G. Cassinese: Bognetti, 109.

42. G. Guiberto, ii, § 1427.

43. Cf. Abulafia, D., ‘Henry Count of Malta and his Mediterranean Activities, 1203–32’, in Luttrell, A. T., ed., Medieval Maltese Studies (London, British School at Rome, 1975), 111–2Google Scholar.

44. G. Guiberto, ii, § 1492

45. E.g. the Pisan consul, Gajetanus filius Burgundii, signatory to the Pisan-Cornetan treaty: Muratori, loc. cit.

46. G. Guiberto, ii, § 1615.

47. The domestic use of slaves is at least a common assumption—C. Verlinden, ‘Medieval “Slavers”’, in Economy, Society and Government, cit., 1.

48. G. Guiberto, ii, § 1624.

49. For a list, see Ministero dell' Interno, Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato, xxii and xli, Archivio di Stato di Genova, Cartolari notarili genovesi (Rome, 1956 and 1961)Google Scholar. This comprises (a) a folio-by-folio analysis of the cartularies; (b) a name-by-name index to fragments of the notaries' work; (c) a year-by-year list of material available. I report no results from Cart. 56 or MS. Diversorum 102 (both unpublished).

50. Krueger, H., Reynolds, R., eds., Lanfranco (Notai liguri del sec. XII e del XIII), 3 vols. (Genoa, 1951–1953) ii, § 1408Google Scholar.

51. Pflugk-Harttung and Wüstenfeld, 534. Counts and viscounts: Supino, art. cit., 142–3.

52. Lanfranco, ii, § 1502.

53. Lanfranco, ii, § 1509.

54. Lanfranco, ii, § 1533.

55. Lanfranco, ii, § 1750. Cf. G. Guiberto, § 1492, cit.

56. Ferretto, A., ‘Liber Magistri Salmonis, 1222–26, Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, xxxvi (1906), 576Google Scholar.

57. Even in second-rank colonies such as Crete these were often granted at the insistence of mercantile communes—Abulafia, ‘Henry Count of Malta’, 117.

58. My conclusion from a study of the Sicilian contracts preserved in Genoa; discussed so far only in my Fellowship dissertation, ‘The Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the North Italian Mercantile Republics’, 238–9.

59. CDG § 8, § 9, § 12, § 13, esp. pages 25, 32, 37.

60. Cit. supra note 17.

61. Belgrano, G., ed., Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de' suoi continuatori, vol. ii (Rome, 1901), 57Google Scholar.

62. Note by Belgrano, loc. cit.

63. This observation results from an attempt to locate Corneto's port on the ground.

64. Lanfranco, § 1502, cit.

65. Partner, P., The Lands of St. Peter (London, 1972), 248Google Scholar.

66. Partner, op. cit., 426; Partner, , The Papal State under Martin V, (London, British School at Rome, 1958), 143Google Scholar.

67. Egidi, P., ‘L'Archivio della Cattedrale di Viterbo’, Bullettino dell' Istituto Storico Italiano, xxvii (1906), 116–8Google Scholar, § 107–8, a reference I owe to Dr. Peter Partner. On usury, de Roover, loc. cit.; also Nelson, B., ‘Blancardo (the Jew?) of Genoa and the restitution of usury in medieval Italy’, Studi in onore di Gino Luzzatto, vol. i (Milan, 1949), 96–116Google Scholar.

68. Supino, ‘Corneto precomunale e comunale’, 146, Supino states, 143, that the ‘floridezza economica’ of Corneto ‘è innanzitutto il riflesso di questa incipiente autonomia’. This image can reasonably be reversed: the strength of the commune lay in the economic growth of southern Etruria.