Rivalry with Pisa and Spolia As Plunder of War in Medieval Genoa

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chapter 4 Rivalry with Pisa and Spolia as Plunder of War in Medieval Genoa

Introduction

Of all the maritime republics it was Genoa that experienced the most profound watershed moment as a result of the First Crusade. The city established a com- munal government whose actions were recorded in civic chronicles written by Caffaro di Caschifellone. Genoa sent both privately funded and state sponsored fleets to the Holy Land and its warriors were protagonists in some of the most important battles of the First Crusade. Genoa’s Mediterranean tr ajectory differed from that of the other maritime republics in its late entrance into economic networks, the diverse nature of its commercial and political con- nections, and steadfast commitment to crusade ventures. The Ligurian city only began to assert its presence along the sea in the twelfth century and faced stiff competition in every lucrative market as a result. Such challenging economic circumstances may have fostered an expansive approach to mercantile endeavors, where Genoa cast its commercial net widely and did not concen- trate its interests in one territory. This competitive environment may also have encouraged the Genoese to define their Mediterranean identity in terms of adherence to crusade, distinguishing them from their Italian rivals who strove to maintain an equilibrium between conflict and commerce. The visual culture of Genoa reflected the city’s transformation as a new and aggressive participant in Mediterranean affairs with the construction of several urban churches in the first half of the twelfth century. These religious structures displayed an aesthetic of appropriation that highlighted crusading against and competition with political and commercial rivals through the display of war plunder, laudatory inscriptions, narrative imagery, and ancient Roman and Islamic spolia. The distinctive aspect of the Genoese spoliate aesthetic was the overwhelmingly bellicose nature of the imagery that initially celebrated the triumph over Muslim enemies. The multivalence of spolia, however, allowed for their reinscription with new meanings that referenced Genoa’s conflict with another potent adversary and commercial rival—the republic of Pisa. The spoliate decoration on Genoese civic monuments was insistently contemporary, alluding to both Muslim and Christian enemies as Pisan military aggression and commercial competition threatened Genoa

Rivalry with Pisa and Spolia as Plunder of War 157 far more than any offensives from Muslim territories in the twelfth century. In their interaction with both of these adversaries, the Genoese displayed a combination of military antagonism and cultural admiration that resembled Venice’s relationship with Byzantium and that of Pisa with the Islamic territories of the western Mediterranean. The conflation of spolia and spoils of war, however, necessitated knowledge of the culture from which the objects were appropriated. Thus, the symbolic resonance of Genoa’s spoliate decoration relied on recognition of appropriated styles, objects, and relics as originating in Pisa, al-Andalus, or the Holy Land.

Crusade Campaigns and Commercial Compensation

The Genoese were already active in the Mediterranean in the early eleventh century, collaborating with Pisa to expel Mujāhid, the ruler of Denia, from Sardinia in 1015 and to attack the cities of al-Mahdiyya and Zawila in North Africa in 1087. However, Genoa truly emerged as a Mediterranean power at the turn of the twelfth century with its participation in the First Crusade.1 The first state-sponsored fleet departed Genoa for the Holy Land in 1100, but an earlier private expedition led by the Embriaco family played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. Genoa continued to send fleets to the Levant in the first decade of the twelfth century but, by the 1120s, Genoese military concerns in the Mediterranean had turned to the west, where they remained for most of the century. The city’s last great holy war was the set of expeditions against the Andalusi cities of Minorca, Almería, and Tortosa in 1146–8.2 Genoa initially achieved substantial victories in these campaigns that reaped great rewards in the form of treasure and captives. By 1148, however, the benefits derived from the attacks on Andalusi territories

1 Luigi Belgrano, ed. Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’ suoi continuatori dal mxcix al mccxciii (Genoa, 1890), p. 5; Martin Hall and Jonathan Phillips, Caffaro, Genoa and the Twelfth-century Crusades (Farnham, 2013), pp. 49–56; John Dotson, “The Genoese Civic Annals: Caffaro and his Continuators,” in Chronicling History: Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, eds. Sharon Dale, Alison Williams Lewin, and Duane Osheim (University Park, PA, 2007), pp. 55–85, pp. 58–59. 2 Belgrano, Annali genovesi, pp. 33–36; Hall and Phillips, Caffaro, Genoa, pp. 69–71. For the crusading motivations of the Genoese on this campaign, see John Bryan Williams, “The Making of a Crusade: The Genoese anti-Muslim attacks in Spain, 1146–1148,” Journal of Medieval History 23, no. 1 (1997), 29–53, at pp. 44–46; Jonathan Phillips, The Second Crusade: Extend- ing the Frontiers of Christendom (New Haven, 2007), pp. 252–66; William Purkis, Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c.1095–c.1187 (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 94–96, 172–77.