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The Struggle for Sardinia in the Twelfth Century: Textual and Architectural Evidence from Genoa and Pisa

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The Struggle for Sardinia in the Twelfth Century: Textual and Architectural Evidence from Genoa and Pisa CHAPTER 8 The Struggle for Sardinia in the Twelfth Century: Textual and Architectural Evidence from Genoa and Pisa Henrike Haug In 1166, Genoese and Pisan ambassadors met at the court of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa to hold negotiations about their respective rights to Sardinia.1 The two maritime republics, once allies against the Saracens in the eleventh century, became involved in an intense rivalry for markets and zones of influ- ence in the western Mediterranean from 1119 onwards.2 Sardinia was one of the main points of contention between them. Following the expulsion of the Arabs from the island in 1015/1016 by a joint Genoese and Pisan fleet, hostilities between the two city-states over possession of Sardinia became increasingly frequent over the course of the twelfth century.3 Each tried to expel the other 1 Enrico Besta, La Sardenga medioevale (Bologna, 1966 [1909]); Geo Pistarino, “Genova e la Sardegna nel secolo XII,” in La Sardegna nel mondo mediterraneo (Sassari, 1978), pp. 33–125; Alberto Boscolo, Sardegna, Pisa e Genova nel Medioevo (Genoa, 1978); and Geo Pistarino and Laura Balletto, “Inizio e sviluppo dei rapporti tra Genova e la Sardegna nel Medioevo,” Studi Genuensi 14 (1997), pp. 1–14. 2 The history of Corsica and Sardinia is largely connected to the history of the struggle be- tween Genoa and Pisa for supremacy on these islands between the tenth and thirteenth cen- turies. See Giuseppe Rossi-Sabatini, L’espansione di Pisa nel Mediterraneo fino alla Melloria (Florence, 1935), pp. 31–42 and Henry Bresc’s chapter in this volume. 3 This joint armada belonged to the early period of the battles waged by the two emerging communes against the Saracens. Muğāhid al-Amiri, ruler of the taifa of Denia since 1014, had attacked Sardinia from the Balearic Islands and, from this location, had threatened maritime trade and Christian settlements on the Italian coast by attacking Pisa in 1011 and Luni in 1016. A critical assessment of an Islamic dominance vs. an Islamic presence in Sardinia in the eleventh century is discussed in Corrado Zedda’s contribution to this volume. According to their historiographical texts, Genoa and Pisa drove the Saracen rulers from the island, but shortly thereafter proceeded to fight among themselves for supremacy. See Bernardo Maragone, Gli Annales Pisani, ed. Michele Lupo Gentile (Bologna, 1936), for the events of 1017 s.p.: “insurrexerunt Ianunenses in Pisanos, et Pisani vicerunt illos et eiecerunt eos de Sardinea (The Genoese rose up against the Pisans, and the Pisans conquered them and expelled them from Sardinia).” See also, Michael Matzke, Daibert von Pisa. Zwischen Pisa, Papst und erstem Kreuzzug (Sigmaringen, 1998), pp. 47–50; and Marc von der Höh, Erinnerungskultur und © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/978900434��4�_0�0 216 Haug from the island using both military and diplomatic means, attempting to con- vince Frederick Barbarossa, not only as emperor but as ostensible feudal lord and key ally, of the justness of their cause. The various concessions that the pope and the emperor made to win over powerful allies on the island, where the Genoese and Pisans waged open warfare from 1165, did not simplify the legal situation.4 For example, just the year before, the Genoese had helped Barisone of Arborea, one of the rulers of Sardinia with the title judex, succeed in being crowned king of Sardinia by Frederick Barbarossa.5 They had accompanied Barisone on his journey to meet the emperor in Pavia, and the detailed account of the coronation in the Annales Ianuenses gives the impression that the Genoese consuls had his crown made in Genoa.6 The Pisans protested vigorously at this unlawful and presumptuous act. An important argument in the dispute was the question of which of the two cities had first expelled the Saracens from Sardinia to recon- quer it on behalf of the empire and the emperor. Both cities inevitably claimed this honor as a way of giving force to their claims for possession. The issue first arises in the Annales Ianuenses in 1164: shortly after the coronation of Barisone, the Pisans complained to Frederick Barbarossa that he had ceded the crown and kingdom of Sardinia—the island that rightly belonged to them—to the judex, who was “their peasant and vassal.”7 The Genoese in turn rejected this legal claim: frühe Kommune. Formen und Funktionen des Umgangs mit der Vergangenheit im hochmittelal- terlichen Pisa (1050–1150) (Berlin, 2006), pp. 336–342. 4 John C. Moore, “Pope Innocent III, Sardinia, and the Papal State,” Speculum 62:1 (1987), pp. 81–101. 5 In “Pope Innocent III” (p. 82), Moore points out that in the twelfth century, some Sardinian judices described themselves as kings without imperial approval, but that the status achieved by Barisone was nevertheless exceptional. See Corrado Zedda in this volume, in particular his recent discussion of the genesis of the Sardinian iudicati, their legal status, and organization. 6 Obertus, Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de’suoi continuatori dal MXCIX al MCCXCII, ed. Luigi Tommaso Belgrano (Genoa, 1890), p. 161: “et post paucos dies consules fecerunt coronam, que facta fuerat Ianue, imponere capiti regis, et hoc in ecclesia sancti Syri papiensis cum multi- bus decoribus (and after a few days the consuls caused the crown, which had been made in Genoa, to be placed upon the head of the king in the church of St. Syrus of Pavia with many honors).” On the agreements between the judex and the commune of Genoa, see also Dino Puncuh, ed., I Libri Iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 5 vols (Rome, 1992–1999), vol. 2, nos. 382, 383, 384, 385, 386. 7 Obertus, Annali Genovesi, p. 161: “Datis enim isti nostro rustico et nostro homini coronam et reg- num; et certe non est persona, cui tanta dignitas conveniat. Iniuste enim, si placet, factitis, quia Sardinia nostra est (For you have given the crown and the kingdom to our peasant and our .
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