Grain Distribution and the Emergence of Popular Institutions in Medieval Genoa

GRANUM BONUM: GRAIN DISTRIBUTION AND THE EMERGENCE OF POPULAR INSTITUTIONS IN MEDIEVAL GENOA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY JOHN ANDREW MANKE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ADVISOR, DR. KATHRYN REYERSON DECEMBER, 2019 Copyright Ó John Andrew Manke, December 2019 AcknowledgementS There are many people to thank for thiS diSSertation. First and foremost, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my adviSer, Dr. Kathryn Reyerson, whose tireleSS help waS invaluable. Without her advice, encouragement, and many editS, thiS diSSertation would not have been posSible. Many thanks to my committee: Dr. Giancarlo CaSale, Dr. Michael Lower, Dr. Oliver NicholSon, and Dr. JameS Tracy I would like to thank my parentS who Supported me throughout thiS experience in a number of ways. Of course, I mUSt thank the Staff at the Archivio di Stato for their patience with my broken Italian. I would have never been SucceSSful in my SearcheS without the guidance of Dr. Emily Sohmer-Tai and Dr. Antonio MUSarra, who provided me with advice and paleographic experience. For emotional Support, I thank my colleagueS in the graduate office, eSpecially WeSley LummUS, Brooke Depenbusch, Gabrielle Payne, and MeliSSa Hampton. I extend my SincereSt thanks to Anahita Mehta, who actually read thiS work and provided grammatical advice. And finally, thank you Luna, you have been a source of constant support. i Granum Bonum: Grain diStribution and the emergence of popular institutions in medieval Genoa Table of ContentS LiSt of TableS………………………………………………………………………………V LiSt of FigureS…………………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: SourceS and HiStoriography…………………………………………………..11 1.1: UnpubliShed manuscriptS……………………………………………………11 1.2: PubliShed SourceS…………………………………………………………...15 1.3: Secondary SourceS…………………………………………………………..19 1.3.1: Secondary Scholarship on Genoa…………………………………..19 1.3.2: Scholarship on the Italian Commune………………………………23 1.3.3: Scholarship on the evolution of law and Ius Comune in medieval Italy………………………………………………..……………………..29 1.3.4: Scholarship on the emergence of State debt………………………………………………………..……………...34 Chapter 2: Genoa—itS character and inhabitantS………………………………………....37 2.1: Genoa and Liguria………………………………………………………...…37 2.2: Demography……………………………………………………………..…..43 2.3: ConclUSions………………………………………………………….………46 .. Chapter 3: The GenoeSe State Structure………………………………………………..….65 3.1: Argument……………………………………………………………….…...65 ii 3.2: The GenoeSe commune, the composition of the ruling claSS (ordo nobiliorum), and the church………...……………………………………………………...…..66 3.3: State Debt……………………………………………………….…………...77 3.4: The GenoeSe commune—the Structure of the compagna……………..……...91 3.5: The GenoeSe commune—the pact(s) of concordia…………………………..98 3.6: ConclUSions……………………………………………………...…………100 Chapter 4: The development of Ius Comune and the emergence of GenoeSe popolo institutions………………………………………………………………………………102 4.1: Argument……………………………………………………………...…...102 4.2: ProceSS one—the development of medieval Italian juriSprudence…….……103 4.2.1: Stage one—the origins of medieval Italian juriSprudential thought at the palace of the Lombard kings………………...………………………103 4.2.2: Stage two—the emergence of Ius Comune among the medieval Italian juriSprudential network………………...…………………………..…...109 4.2.3: Stage three—the Bartolan age and the development of theorieS of popolo governance………………………………………….…………..120 4.3: ProceSS two—the emergence of popolo politicS in Genoa………………….122 4.3.1: Stage one—the creation of popolo institutions in Genoa…………122 4.3.2: Stage two—the deScent of Frederick II aS the catalyst for Sociopolitical change in Genoa and Italy………………………………..132 4.4: Two proceSSeS converge—the foundation of the dogate of Genoa…………141 4.5: The Boccanegra regime and State debt……………………………….……..151 4.6: ConclUSions………………………………………………………….……..161 Chapter 5: Boccanegra and the institutionalization of grain diStribution at Genoa……...163 5.1: Argument…………………………………………………………….…….163 5.2: Boccanegra and the nobilis eStabliShment until 1345……………………....163 iii 5.3: ProblemS of the nobilis interregnum—the Plague…………………….……172 5.4: ProblemS of the nobilis interregnum—wars in the Mediterranean………….175 5.5: The return of Boccanegra………………………………………………......185 5.6: ConclUSion……………………………………….………………………...190 Chapter 6: The records of the victualium and the Ghibelline popolo………………..…..192 6.1: Argument…………………………………………………….…………….192 6.2: The new popolo Search for concordia and consensUS………………………193 6.3: Old factionaliSm with a new face, Cappellazzi violence……………………205 6.4: The 1378 victualium regiSters and the importation of grain into Genoa…….214 6.5: The victualium in the aftermath of the War of Chioggia……………….…...226 6.6: Antoniotto Adorno and the victualium…………………………………...…234 6.7: The regulation of grain diStribution and production…………...……………240 6.8: ConclUSions………………………………………………….……………..245 ConclUSion: bread diStribution and definitions of modernity…………………...……….247 Comprehensive Bibliography………………………………………….……...………...251 Appendix 1: Maps………………………………………………………………………261 Appendix 2:Table of dateS…………………………..…………………………………..262 Appendix 3: GlosSary…………………………………….……………………………..265 iv LiSt of TableS Table 1…………………………………………………………………………………..221 Table 2…………………………………………………………………………………..236 V LiSt of FigureS Figure 1…………………………………………………………………………………..37 Figure 2…………………………………………………………………………………..54 Figure 3…………………………………………………………………………………..55 Figure 4…………………………………………………………………………………129 Figure 5…………………………………………………………………………………218 Figure 6…………………………………………………………………………………219 Figure 7…………………………………………………………………………………222 Figure 8…………………………………………………………………………………222 Figure 9…………………………………………………………………………………238 Figure 10………………………………………………………………………………..238 Figure 11.……………………………………………….………………………………243 vi Introduction ThiS diSSertation iS an exploration of GenoeSe institutionaliSm that demonstrateS the way grain and grain diStribution were intertwined with State debt and public Spending in the exerciSe of political power in the medieval urban republic under the fourteenth-century government of Simone Boccanegra (r. 1339–1363) and hiS SucceSSors. While the diScUSSion of the institutionalization of grain diStribution iS focUSed on the fourteenth century, thiS diSSertation takeS a long view, deScribing how the fourteenth century government of Genoa eStabliShed itSelf within the context of the evolution of the GenoeSe state and the development of law in medieval Italy. InstitutionaliSm in Genoa iS a faScinating topic but an understudied one. For a city with Such a rich “modern” hiStoriography that StretcheS back to the nineteenth century and earlier, few Scholars have Sought to explore the functions of the State in the republic. There is a common aSSumption that the GenoeSe consciously created a weak State becaUSe loyalty to one’s family clan and the ability to be an independent merchant were more important than a controlling State. Even in my initial trip to the Archivio di Stato, after explaining my intereSt in the fourteenth-century GenoeSe State, one of the archiviStS beSt acquainted with the medieval materialS told me that the commune waS not that important, invoking the old compariSon with Venice again. Too often hiStorians are diStracted by Genoa’s activitieS in the wider Mediterranean and not at home in Liguria. But the GenoeSe State, weak or otherwiSe, iS what forced a group of petty, SelfiSh nobleS and merchantS to enter into a Social compact that had far reaching implications. It waS not a State of anarchy that allowed thiS group to engage in the overseaS activitieS that 1 intereSt Scholars of the Middle AgeS—to colonize Corsica, Sardinia, and the Crimea, eStabliSh commercial enclaveS in the Levant and Egypt, and eStabliSh extensive trade networks in the Low CountrieS and Britain. RegardleSS of the relative extent of the GenoeSe State, it iS worthy of study for itS influence on the reSt of the medieval world. ThiS diSSertation doeS not neceSSarily conteSt that the GenoeSe State was “limited” from a modern perspective, but that doeS not make it any leSS worthy of Study. After a diScUSSion of the SourceS and relevant hiStoriography (chapter 1) and of the city and itS region (chapter 2), chapter 3 reconstructS the political configuration of the GenoeSe city- state from itS extrication from imperial authority in the ninth century to itS “complete” form at the apogee of GenoeSe commercial reach in the thirteenth century. Although medieval Italian city-StateS were generally known aS comuni (sing. comune), the GenoeSe USed the term compagna to deScribe their Social arrangement. ThiS chapter preSentS the compagna as an arrangement of institutions that were informally constituted together (my term). AS we Shall See, thiS Structure waS informal by deSign and waS meant to exclude certain individualS from acceSSing political power. AS elSewhere in Italy, there waS a Stark contraSt between the elite order and everyone elSe. ThiS diSSertation haS adopted the term nobilis (pl. nobiles), or the nobilis order to deScribe thiS elite group becaUSe it reflectS the nomenclature USed in our SourceS from the period.1 EliteS in other Italian citieS are referred to USing different termS; in the caSe of Florence, for example, thiS group waS known aS the grandi. AS we Shall See in chapter 1, though medieval Italian urban SocietieS were divided between eliteS and non- 1 ThiS diSSertation USeS order in the SenSe of a Latin

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