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The Merchants of Messina: Levant Trade and Domestic Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

David Abulafia
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I mercanti di messina

Nella storiografia tradizionale, i mercanti di Messina appariscono come l'unico caso di cittadini dell'Italia meridonale nel tardo medioevo attivi sulla rete commerciale del Mediterraneo. L'articolo tenta di identificare un gruppo di Messinesi del tardo Duecento e dei primi anni del Trecento chi possedevano investimenti nel commercio levantino; il punto di partenza è la collezione di contratti commerciali lasciati dal notaio genovese Lamberto di Sambuceto, ed alcuni contratti messinesi e documenti pubblici del governo aragonese. Infatti esisteva uno stretto nesso fra commercianti e risorse Messinesi: il vino della Sicilia orientale era venduto ad Acri dai messinesi; la presenza di Genovesi, Pisani ed altri, basati in Messina ed attivi nel commercio di Cipro e dell' Armenia, è documentata. I mercanti messinesi, sebbene sotto una tutela settentrionale, avevano un ruolo permanente nel commercio del Mediterraneo nel tardo medioevo, un ruolo che riflette la nuova importanza della città come punto centrale nella rete mediterranea dopo la conquista normanna.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 54 , November 1986 , pp. 196 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1986

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References

1 For the debate about Messina see Pispisa, E., Messina nel Trecento: Politica, Economia, Società (Messina, 1980)Google Scholar, which provides an excellent survey of the city's history; some useful additional comments (focussed on the fifteenth century) in Tramontana, S., Antonello e la sua città (Palermo, 1981)Google Scholar. Ashtor, E., Levant Trade in the later Middle Ages (Princeton, 1983)Google Scholar, contains many references to Messina and its merchants. On the wider Sicilian setting, see especially Petino, A., La politica commerciale di Pietro III d'Aragona in Sicila (Italiae Historia Oeconomica, xi, Messina, 1944), especially 18–22Google Scholar; Petino, A., ‘Aspetti del commercio marittimo della Sicilia nell'età aragonese’, Bollettino storico catanese, già Archivio storico per la Sicilia orientale, xi/xii (1946/1947), 5–16Google Scholar, where (much more emphatically than Pispisa) ‘aetate celtibera Siciliae portus non solum transitus fuisse, ut legimus apud Doren, sed eosdem cum maximis Mediterranei maris cmporiis commercia explicavisse, auctor fontium notarum et ignotarum auxilio demonstrat’ (p. 16). Trasselli, C., Note per la storia dei banchi in Sicilia nel XIV secolo (Banco di Sicilia, Fondazione per l'Incremento economico culturale e turistico della Sicilia ‘Ignazio Mormino’, Quaderno i, Palermo, 1958)Google Scholar concentrates more on western than eastern Sicily.

2 del Treppo, M., Leone, A., Amalfi medioevale (Naples, 1977)Google Scholar.

3 On which, Giardina, C., Capitoli e Privilegi de Messina (Palermo, 1937)Google Scholar; Trasselli, C., I Privilegi di Messina e di Trapani, 1160–1355 (Palermo, 1949)Google Scholar; Petino, Politica commerciale, 18–22.

4 Abulafia, David, The Two Italies: economic relations between the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the norther communes (Cambridge, 1977), 42–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar, remarking that ‘Messina was a Norman phenomenon and a phenomenon of the crusades’.

5 The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, ed. Adler, M. N. (London, 1907), 2, 76Google Scholar; cf. The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, ed. and transl. Broadhurst, R. J. C. (London, 1952), 338, 348Google Scholar; Messina is described by Ibn Jubayr as ‘the main mart of the merchant infidels’, in 1184/5.

6 Goitein, S. D., ‘Sicily and southern Italy in the Cairo Geniza documents’, Archivio storico per la Sicilia orientale, lxvii (1971), 12, 13Google Scholar; Abulafia, Two Italies, 44.

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10 Abulafia, ‘Crown and the economy’, 11–13.

11 Abulafia, Two Italics, 62–4; I no longer believe there must have been a Latin original; it seems more likely the Greek text was the original, for production of Latin documents at the early Norman court was slight.

12 Abulafia, Two Italics, 92.

13 Giardina, Capitoli e Privilegi, 15–16; Trasselli, , Privilegi, 13, 16Google Scholar; Abulafia, Two Italics, 117–21, and also 134–6 for Paganus of Messina, a Messinese merchant of this period who is documented both at Venice and at Genoa.

14 Pispisa, Messina, 11–22, 108–112, 137–9, 141–6.

13 Blancard, A., ed., Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille au moyen âge, 2 vols. (Marseilles, 1880–1881), i, 3–5Google Scholar, doc. 1; cf. Tatlock, J. M., ‘Un privilegio di dogana conceduto da Federico II di Svevia ai Provenzali nel 1200’, Archivio storico siciliano, n.s., li (1931), 354–9Google Scholar.

16 Pispisa, 22.

17 Cusa, S., ed., I diplomi greci e arabi di Sicilia, 2 vols. (Palermo, 1860–1882), ii. 502–4; 719Google Scholar; Trovato, G., Sopravvivenze arabe in Sicilia: documenti arabo-siculi del periodo normanno (Monreale, 1949), 73–6Google Scholar, for a defective translation. Dr J.Johns proposes to re-edit the document and he and I propose to supply a commentary to it.

18 Their problems with Frederick II are outlined in Chone, H., Die Handelsbeziehungen Kaiser Friedrichs II. zu den Seestädten Venedig, Pisa, Genua (Berlin, 1902)Google Scholar and di Sant'Angelo, C. Imperiale, Genova e le sue relaxioni con Federico II (Venice, 1923)Google Scholar; for Syracuse, Abulafia, David, ‘Henry Count of Malta and his Mediterranean activities: 1203–1230’, Medieval Malta: studies on Malta before the Knights, ed. Luttrell, A. T. (London, 1975), 110–4, 118–9Google Scholar.

19 Menager, L-R., ed., Les actes latins de S. Maria di Messina (1103–1250), (Testi e monumenti dell'Istituto siciliano di studi bizantini e neoellenici, vol. ix, Palermo, 1963), 150–8Google Scholar.

20 Boccaccio, Decameron, Day 4, novella 5; cf. Abulafia, David, ‘The reputation of a Norman king in Angevin Naples’, Journal of Medieval History, v (1979), 135–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the discussion infra of the Armenian embassy.

21 Intersimone, Maria Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene dell'Archivio di Stato di Messina provenienti dal Museo Nazionale (1225–1770)’, Rassegna degli Archivi di Stato, xxxii (1972), 501Google Scholar, no. 124; Alibrandi, Maria, ‘Messinesi in Levante nel Medioevo’, Archivio storico siciliano, ser.3, xxi/xxii (1971/1972), 97–110Google Scholar, especially 100–103.

22 Alibrandi, ‘Messinesi in Levante’, 102–3, insists on the importance of Sicilian agricultural goods in the trade from Messina to Acre; cf. Pispisa, 12, 14.

23 Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 501, no. 125.

24 Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 501, no. 128.

25 Silvestri, G., ed., De rebus regni Siciliae (9 settembre 1282–26 agosto 1283) (Palermo, 1881), 190Google Scholar.

26 De rebus, 260.

27 De rebus, 481–2.

28 Abulafia, David, ‘Crocuses and Crusaders: San Gimignano, Pisa and the Kingdom of Jerusalem’, Outremer: studies in the history of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem presented to Joshua Prawer, ed. Kedar, B. Z., Mayer, H. E., Smail, R. C. (Jerusalem, 1982), 227–43Google Scholar.

29 De rebus, 267–71.

30 Goitein, ‘Sicily and southern Italy’, 15 (cheese from Messina and Syracuse to Alexandria, 1241 and 1243).

31 De rebus, 482–3.

32 De rebus, 453–4.

33 Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 501, no. 124.

34 Archivio di Stato, Genoa, Cart. Not. 122, c. 137r–143v (January to March, 1298, Messina); ibid., c. 166r–172v (April-May, 1298, Messina); the notary worked at the loggia of the Genoese in Messina. He was in Naples from September to November 1297: Cart. Not. 69, c. 159r–169v. For further details of Nicolas de Camulio, see Archivio di Stato di Genova: Cartolari notarili genovesi (Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato, vols. xxii and xli, Rome 1956–1961Google Scholar).

35 For Bonifacio see now Brown, Rosalind, ‘Social development and economic dependence: northern Sardinia, c. 1100–1300’, Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis (1985)Google Scholar.

36 An introduction to this notary's picture of the Mediterranean is given in Balard, M., ‘L'activité commerciale en Chypre en l'an 1300’, in Crusade and Settlement: papers read at the first conference of the Society for the study of the crusades and the Latin east and presented to R. C. Smail, ed. Edbury, P. W. (Cardiff, 1985), 251–63Google Scholar; see also the excellent article of Jacoby, D., ‘The rise of a new emporium in the eastern Mediterranean: Famagusta in the late thirteenth century’, Μέλεται καὶ Ύπομνήματα (Ἲδρυμα Άρχιεπισκόπου Μακαρίου Γ , Nicosia, 1984), i. 145–79. i. 145–79Google Scholar.

37 Balard, M., ed., Gênes el l'Outremer, i. Les Actes de Caffa du notaire Lamberto di Sambuceto 1289–1290 (Documents et Recherches sur l'économie des pays byzantins, islamiques et slaves et leurs relations commerciales au Moyen Age, xii, Paris–The Hague, 1973)Google Scholar; Bratianu, G. I., Actes des notaires génois de Péra et de Caffa de la fin du XIIIe siècle (1281–1290) (Académie roumaine, Etudes et Recherches, ii, Bucharest, 1927)Google Scholar. Cf. Pispisa, 13.

38 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 82.

39 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 321.

40 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 670.

41 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 333.

42 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 55.

43 Bowsky, W. M., A medieval Italian commune: Siena under the Nine, 1287–1355 (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1981), 232–46Google Scholar.

44 On the status of these colonies, see Balard, M., ‘Les Génois en Crimée aux XIIIe-XIVe siècles’, Άρχείον πόντου xxv, Άνακοινώσεις Συμποσίου Birmingham Μ. Βρεταννίας μέ θέμα Ή Μαύρη Θάλασσα, (Athens, 1979), 205–6Google Scholar, making the important point that the Tatars, not the Byzantines, decided whether the Genoese could settle at Caffa. But Byzantium had an impressively long memory of past glories.

45 On which see Geanakoplos, D., Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1258–1282 (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 81–91Google Scholar.

46 Pavoni, no. 108 (for the ful l reference to this collection, see n. 50 infra).

47 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 392.

48 Balard, Actes de Caffa, no. 559.

49 Chiaudano, M., Lombardo, A., eds., Leonardo Marcello, notaio in Candia 1278–1281 (Fonti per la storia di Venezia, sez. iii, Archivi notarili, Venice, 1960), nos. 12, 303Google Scholar. This Marcus is described as ‘habitator in Castro Temallo’. Another Marcus de Missina ‘habitator Castri Themeni’ appears in a document from Crete of 1352: Lombardo, A., ed., Zaccaria de Freda, notaio in Candia 1352–1357 (Fonti per la storia di Venezia, sez. iii, Venice, 1968)Google Scholar, no. 62. Many of the acts of the Venetian notary Pietro Pizolo, in Crete, were witnessed by Nicolaus de Misina in 1300: Carbone, S., ed., Pietro Pizolo, notaio in Candia, vol. i, (1300) (Fonti per la storia di Venezia, sez. iii, Venice, 1978)Google Scholar, docs. 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 12, etc.

50 da Piazza, Michele, Cronaca, 1336–1361, ed. Giuffrida, A. (Fonti per la storia di Sicilia, ed. Giunta, F., Palermo-São Paulo, 1980), cap. xxvii, 82–3Google Scholar; also Tramontana, S., Michele da Piazza e il potere baroniale in Sicilia (Messina-Florence, 1963)Google Scholar.

51 Balard, M., Notai genovesi in Oltremare. Atti rogati a Cipro da Lamberto di Sambuceto (11 Ottobre 1296–23 Giugno 1299), (Collana storica di fonti e studi, xxxix, Genoa, 1983)Google Scholar; Polonio, V., Notai genovesi in Oltremare. Atti rogati a Cipro da Lamberto di Sambuceto (3 Luglio 1300–3 Agosto 1301), (Collana storica di fonti e studi, xxi, Genoa, 1982)Google Scholar; Pavoni, R., Notai genovesi in Oltremare. Atti rogati a Cipro da Lamberto di Sambuceto (6 Luglio–27 Ottobre 1301), (Collana storica di fonti e studi xxxii, Genoa, 1982)Google Scholar.

52 Balard, Cipro, no. 36.

53 Pavoni, no. 125.

54 Pavoni, no. 125.

55 Polonio, no. 65.

56 Polonio, no. 197. But there were de Castellos at Messina too: Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 501, no. 124.

57 Polonio, no. 128.

58 Polonio, nos. 268, 321. For the Bulgaro family, see Origone, S., ‘La famiglia “de Bulgaro” a Genova (secc. XII–XV)’, in Genova e la Bulgaria nel Medioevo (Collana storica di fonti e studi, xlii, Genoa, 1984), 125–47Google Scholar, especially 140.

59 Polonio, no. 72.

60 Polonio, no. 135. ‘Chianterius’ and ‘Zanterius’ are variant spellings of one name.

61 Polonio, no. 197.

62 Polonio, nos. 231, 317, 346.

63 Polonio, no. 359.

64 Polonio, no. 175.

65 Polonio, no. 339—and compare the note at the end of no. 175.

66 Balard, Cipro, no. 155.

67 Balard, Cipro, no. 108.

68 Polonio, no. 204.

69 Balard, Cipro, no. 34.

70 Balard, Cipro, no. 17. Antonio de Milio of Messana is mentioned in the grain export permits of Charles of Anjou, in 1276: Nicolini, N., Codice diplomatico sui rapporti veneto-napoletani durante d regno di Carlo I di Angiò (Regesta Chartarum Italiae, Rome, 1965Google Scholar [original print date 1942]), 143, 155; a number of other Messinesi also appear.

71 Polonio, no. 9.

72 Polonio, no. 71.

73 Polonio, no. 28; for him as an Amalfitan, see also no. 24; for him as a Messinese, nos. 62, 63, 71.

74 Pispisa, 6, 9, 311.

75 Polonio, nos. 62, 63; cf. no. 66.

76 Tolonio, nos. 220, 224, 224a; cf. also nos. 222, 222a.

77 Balard, Cipro, no. 96.

78 E.g. Polonio, nos. 79, 185, 328, 412; Pavoni, nos. 113, 127.

79 Balard, Cipro, no. 14; one witness is Nicoleta nepos Nicolai de Malta—Nicolaus de Malta indulged in pawn-broking, to judge from Polonio, no. 165, had houses in Famagusta (Pavoni, nos. 84, 115) but was also a Ianuensis (Pavoni, no. 115). He appears also in Pavoni, no. 126, as neighbour of a Genoese who makes his will, and as a witness in Balard, Cipro, no. 13. Possibly he was not from Malta, but a descendant of the Genoese pirate, Henry of Malta, whose son, active in the 1230s, was also called Nicholas: Abulafia, ‘Henry Count of Malta’, 124.

80 Pegolotti, Francesco Balducci, La Pratica della Mercatura, ed. Evans, A. (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), 84Google Scholar. For Messina itself, see 107–111; for a comparison of Messinese or Sicilian weights and measures with Armenian ones, 60, 63. For Ancona, see Abulafia, D. S. H., ‘The Anconitan privileges in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Levant trade of Ancona’, in Kedar, B. Z. and Airaldi, G., eds., I comuni italiani nel regno crociato di Gerusalemme (Genoa, 1986)Google Scholar; for Narbonne, D. S. H. Abulafia, ‘Narbonne, les pays de la couronne d'Aragon et le commerce du Levant, 1187–1400’, Actes du XIIIe Congrès de la Couronne d'Aragon, Montpellier, 1985 (forthcoming).

81 La Mantia, G., Codice diplomatico dei re aragonesi di Sicilia Pietro I, Giacomo, Federico II, Pietro II e Ludovico, dalla rivoluzione siciliana del 1282 sino al 1355, i (1282–1290) (Palermo, 1917), 168–9, 204–7Google Scholar, indicating separate warehouses for Sicilians and Catalans; 299–306, indicating that the Sicilian consul in Tunis was to be a separate individual to the Catalan consul, and to be a Messinese.

82 Langlois, V., ed., Le Trésor des Chartes d'Arménie ou Cartulaire de la Chancellerie Royale des Roupéniens (Venice, 1863), 186–90Google Scholar, doc. xxxviii (Armenian text with French translation); Trasselli, C., ‘Sugli europei in Armenia. A proposito di un privilegio trecentesco e di una novella del Boccaccio’, Archivio storico Italiano, cxxii (1964), 471–91Google Scholar, for the Latin text, which is on display in the Museum of the Armenian monastery (Padri Mechitaristi) on the island of San Lazzaro, Venice.

83 Trasselli, ‘Europei in Armenia’, 481–91; Princess Constance had links with Cyprus too—she was wife of King Henry II from 1317 to 1324. Cf. Bertrand, R-O., ‘Jean XXII et le mariage de Constance de Chypre avec l'infant Pierre d'Aragon’, Annales du Midi, lxiii (1951), 5–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 29.

84 Langlois, 163, doc. xxxviii (Catalans, 1293); 166–9; doc. xxxi (Venetians, 1307); 176–7, doc. xxxiii bis (Venetians, 1307); 178, doc. xxxiv (Montpellier, 1314); 182–4 (Venetians, 1321); 185–6, doc. xxxvii (Montpellier, 1321), etc.; Trasselli, ‘Europei in Armenia’, 489.

85 Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 503, no. 140; Alibrandi, ‘Messinesi in Levante’, 103–4.

86 Alibrandi, ‘Pergamene’, 504, no. 143; Alibrandi, ‘Messinesi in Levante’, 105–6.

87 Lombardo, A., ed., Nicola de Boateriis, notaio in Famagosta e Venezia 1355–1365 (Fonti per la storia di Venezia, sez. iii, Venice, 1973)Google Scholar, nos. 21, 22, 23 (Cyprus to Venice); no. 84 (Cyprus to Crete).

88 My warm thanks are due to Dr Enrico Pispisa (Messina) and to Dr Pietro Corrao (Palermo and Oxford) for their help.