Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

ITALY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
Amalfi, Naples, Gaeta, Bari and Salerno, began to decline relatively in the twelfth
century. Too remote from the main new centres o f activity in the North, they
were absorbed pohtically in to the Norman kingdom whose enmity with the
Eastern Empire excluded them from the valuable privileges o f trading in that
sphere. Amalfi, crippled by a Pisan attack (1135), was finally laid low by the great
storm and earthquake o f 1343. Ravenna had succumbed to the Franks and was
steadily silting up. Even Palermo was no longer so well placed now that the
commercial centre o f gravity o f Europe had shifted northwards. The future lay
with Pisa, Genoa and Venice.
In the tenth century the Western Basin o f the Mediterranean was almost a
Muslim lake. Spain south o f Barcelona, all North Africa, Sicily and most o f
Sardinia and Corsica, and even Garde Fresnet on the Provence coast, were still
in the hands o f the Infidel. N ot that the Muslims were united, nor was trade
with the Christians entirely at a standstill, but in the eleventh century a radical
change in the situation was accomplished which was to end with the restoration
of all but the African coast to the Christian powers. In this revolution Pisa and
Genoa were the most powerful agencies.
Pisa, unlike its early rival Amalfi, had not enjoyed the benefit o f Byzantine
connections, and in the tenth century was almost entirely agricultural. As late as
1004 the Saracens had sacked the town, yet within sixty years o f that event Pisa
and her ally, Genoa, had driven the Muslims from Corsica and Sardinia, attacked
the Tunisian corsair base o f Mehdia, and assisted the Norman conquest o f Sicily
by capturing Palermo. These operations were followed by trading ventures in the
Levant and as a result o f the First Crusade (1095) Pisa secured trading quarters
in Constantinople, Laodicea, Sidon, Alexandria and Cairo whence came the
riches which built the city’s architectural glories. Unfortunately this splendid
prosperity was insecure. A traditional Ghibelline stronghold, she was prevented
from fully exploiting the natural advantages o f her position by the jealous eiunity
of Guelf Lucca and Florence. Overseas, after crushing Amalfi (c. 1135) she lost
ground to Genoa and the defeat o f the Pisan fleet at Meloria (1282) was decisive.^
Florence became increasingly implacable, and in 1406 bought and developed
Leghorn as the natural outlet o f Tuscany.
Genoa possessed an excellent deep-water harbour, was sheltered to some
extent by the Apennines, through which the low Giovi and Bocchetta passes gave
access to the rich Po basin, and, unhke Pisa, had no rival within the immediate
environs. Unfortvmately medieval Genoa did not have the unhindered communications
with central Europe and the Rhinelands which the modern city
enjoys. Some Genoese traffic did use the M t Cenis and St Bernard passes to
Champagne when pohtical conditions were favourable in Piedmont, but tolls
made the route increasingly expensive, while the central Alpine routes were
monopolized for Milan’s benefit. Furthermore, Genoa’s position in relation to
* The danger of silting on the lower Amo was increased by the action of the Genoese in
dropping stone blocks at the mouth.
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