Procrastination Device

Posted by Daily Medieval

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/genoa-versus-venice-part-1.html

Four times between 1258 and 1381, the rivalry between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice reached a tipping point that turned into military action. Both had extensive trade operations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and were largely equal in power, until 1204.

In 1204, the events of the Fourth Crusade led to Venice having significant political influence in Constantinople, and therefore the Byzantine Empire. Although the Venetians were driven from Constainople, it still took several decades for the intense competition between the two republics to turn into a war.

There was land in the coastal city of Acre—owned by the Abbey of Saint Sabas (illustration)—that was claimed by both Venice and Genoa. In 1257, a Venetian admiral broke through the Acre harbor chain (strung to prevent unwanted ships) and destroyed several Genoese ships that were harbored there. Genoa had a fortification at Acre, and their crossbowmen fired at the attackers. Venice had siege engines, which they brought to bear, blockading Acre for more than a year.

The Genoese had the support of the Knights Hospitaller in the city, as well as the Byzantine Empire (Michael Paleologos had just driven out the Venetians). Venice meanwhile had the Knights Templar on its side. Both sides hired Muslim mercenaries; these were frequently Turcopoles, "sons of Turks," who were light cavalry often employed by Byzantine states. Genoa made an alliance with Baibars, the sultan of the Egyptian Mamluks, but his promised fleet never appeared. Genoa also approached Michael Paleologos, who was happy to provide support against the Venetians.

Efforts to mediate the conflict by a local lord failed, and a naval battle took place. The Genoese navy of about 50 ships was overrun by the Venetian navy. The Genoese abandoned Acre and retreated to Tyre, a city from which the Venetians had been evicted in 1256.

The War of Saint Sabas (1256 - 1270) annoyed the pope, who feared a Mongol or Muslim attack that would be successful because too many Christian resources were being wasted fighting each other. Pope Gregory X, along with France and Sicily, pressured the two republics to agree to the Peace of Cremona in 1270, although Genoa did not get their part of Acre back until 1288.

The Venetians came out ahead in this war. A generation later, however, Genoa got the upper hand. I'll explain tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/genoa-versus-venice-part-1.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/genoa.html

We've touched on Genoa and the possible origin of its name before.

Genoa is on the far northwestern coast of Italy, and archaeological evidence suggests the area has been inhabited since at least the 4th millennium BCE. The original inhabitants were the Ligures, who traded with Etruscans and Greeks, showing that they already had maritime trade. The waters between the Genoese coast and Corsica are called the Ligurian Sea after these early inhabitants.

Despite occasional setbacks, like being destroyed by Carthage during the Second Punic War (218 - 201 BCE), Genoa grew in population and power.

Genoa was "in the news" frequently during the early Middle Ages. It was occupied by the Ostrogoths after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The Byzantines made it the seat of their vicar when they defeated the Goths. The invasion of the Lombards into Italy in 568 saw the bishop of Milan fleeing to Genoa for safety. After Augustine of Hippo died, his body was transported to Genoa in 725. Genoa was annexed by the Franks when they conquered the Lombards. It was thoroughly destroyed in 934-35 by a Fatimid fleet. In 1098, supposedly the ashes of John the Baptist were brought to Genoa, who considered him their patron saint.

By 1100 it was growing fast and establishing itself as an independent city-state on the Italian peninsula. The bishop of Genoa was its head, with the pope as the ultimate ruler, but administrative power was actually wielded by local consuls.

Involvement in the Crusades allowed Genoa to create trading posts in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and in Northern Africa. In Genoa Cathedral is a flat dish made of green glass that was brought back from the Levant after the Crusades. It is claimed to be the Holy Grail, the dish used by Jesus during the Last Supper.

It began to spread its influence as a maritime merchant town. Along with Amalfi, Pisa, Venice, and others, Genoa was known as a "Maritime Republic." An old saying—Genuensis ergo mercator ("A Genoese therefore a merchant")—indicated that Genoa was synonymous with maritime trade.

In fact, it was one of the most powerful maritime republic from the 11th century up until 1800CE. Tomorrow we'll look at some of its trade deals, and what it exported, including something that almost everyone wears to this day.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/genoa.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/mongol-partners.html

There was a surprising amount of connection between the Mongol Empire and culture and the people of Western Europe. Part of this was because of the traditional Mongol tolerance for other religions and cultures. It did not hurt that the Mongol Empire saw Islam as a threat and was willing to form an alliance with the Christian West to hold back the spread of Muslims.

Although a permanent alliance was never formed, there was plenty of collaboration. We've recently looked at the merchant brothers, the Polos. Let's talk about some of the men who worked with Ghazan of the Ilkhanate.

A letter from Pope Boniface VIII to the Archbishop of Nicosia refers to Isol the Pisan as "Vicar of Syria and the Holy Land for Ghazan the Emperor of the Tartars." Isol seems to have been at the court of Ghazan for several years, rising to be Ghazan's ambassador to Cyprus. (It was not uncommon for the Khans to employ outsiders to various positions; Marco Polo is an example.) Isol had been around for a while in Persia: when Ghazan's younger brother Öljaitü was baptized a Christian, Isol stood as godfather. (Öljaitü did not stay Christian: after succeeding Ghazan, he changed in 1310 to Shi'a Islam.) (Ghazan and Öljaitü  are together in the illustration.) 

A man from Genoa served as ambassador to Europe from 1289 to 1305, working for Öljaitü, his brother Ghazan, and before them their father Arghun. Buscarello de Ghizolfi traveled back to Europe on Arghun's behalf to try to form an alliance. Buscarello carried messages for Philip IV of France and Edward I of England saying that, were they to bring their armies to his aid, Arghun would meet them with 20,000 to 30,000 horses and supplies to help retake the Holy Land. If Egypt could be conquered, Arghun would deliver Jerusalem to the West.

Edward agreed, but did not commit to a firm date for the endeavor. Buscarello returned to Persia with an English ambassador, Sir Geoffrey de Langley. A second attempt a few years later by Öljaitü to invite France and England to join him amounted to nothing.

Still, the commerce between Europeans and lands to the East brought many innovations such as gunpowder and paper currency, silk, different foods and spice, etc.

I want to talk a little more about Buscarello and his family tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/mongol-partners.html

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A direct descendant of Genghis Khan, Ghazan Khan ruled the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate (southwestern part of the empire, what now is Iran) and lived from 1271 to 11 May 1304. No, he did not have a long life, or a long reign, but he accomplished a lot out of necessity.

He had, as was customary for Mongol Khans, several wives, but he first came up in this blog in yesterday's post when we learn that he married a princess, Kököchin, who had been chosen for Ghazan's father by Kublai Khan himself. Kököchin's journey took so long that her intended, Arghun Khan, was dead by the time she arrived, and Ghazan married her himself. (It probably pleased her that Ghazan was the same age as she.)

On the death of his father in 1291, rule of the Ilkhanate went to Ghazan's uncle, Gaykhatu. One of the innovations during Gaykhatu's reign was the introduction of paper money to the Ilkhanate, but Ghazan rejected the idea in his territory of Khorasan, because the humidity of the region made the paper unfeasible.

Gaykhatu was killed in 1295, probably by the same people who killed Ghazan's father in order to put Gaykhatu in charge. That faction chose Ghazan's cousin Baydu to take over and be a figurehead. Ghazan marched on Baydu, who after some battles offered co-rulership to Ghazan. Ghazan rejected this, but was concerned because Baydu had a much larger army.

A powerful noble named Nowruz urged Ghazan to continue to attack Baydu and become ruler. Nowruz pledged his support, but with a condition: Ghazan had to convert to Islam. The Mongol attitude toward religion was one of curiosity and tolerance. Ghazan had been raised as an Eastern Christian, and had also been tutored by a Chinese Buddhist monk. Ghazan did not hold religion as high a priority as politics, so he made the change. Their political bid was successful, and Ghazan (seen on a horse in the illustration) became the next Khan of the Ilkhanate.

The traditional Mongol tolerance for other religions went out the window. Nowruz led persecutions against Buddhists and Christians. Churches were looted and destroyed. Despite this, Ghazan was willing to work with Western Europeans against a common enemy: the Egyptian Mamluks. We will talk about those alliances tomorrow.

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After spending time at the court of Kublai Khan, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo tried to get home to Venice and to deliver a letter from Kublai to the pope. A nice direct route might have been through Constantinople, but the city was hostile to Venetians after the return of Byzantine rule by Michael Paleologus. They went to the Holy Land instead and Acre, capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The papal legate, Teobaldo Visconti, was in Acre for the Ninth Crusade. He made them aware that Pope Clement IV had died while they were in the East. He advised them to go home and wait for an election. They took ship for Venice, where Niccolò got to know his now-teenaged son he had left behind when he started his trip with Maffeo.

What they and the papal legate could not have known was that there would not be a new pope until 1271, when the compromise candidate was elected in absentia. The summons went to none other than Teobaldo Visconti to return home and assume the Chair of Peter! Now Pope Gregory X, he accepted the letter from the Khan.

At his request, the Polo brothers (now along with Niccolò's son) began the return trip to the court of Kublai Khan along with two Dominican friars, Niccolò de Vicence and William of Tripoli. The Polos reached the court of Kublai Khan in 1273, but the Dominicans were no longer with them: they had supposedly reversed course out of fear. (William ultimately went to the Holy Land as a papal diplomat.)

Marco delighted the Khan, who made him an emissary and promoted his travel all over. Marco brought back many stories of the things he had seen. The Polos asked several times for permission to leave court and return home, but Kublai enjoyed their company so much that it was 17 years until he allowed them to depart.

He allowed them to go with one final mission: to escort a Mongol princess to her betrothed. I'll tell you that story tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-polos-and-kublai.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-book-of-marvels.html

When Marco Polo returned to Venice after two decades of traveling in the East, he signed up to join the war between Venice and Genoa. Incarcerated in a Genoese prison, he began talking to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, known for writing romances. The result was Il Milione ("The Million"), also known in English as The Book of the Marvels of the World, or simply The Travels of Marco Polo. It offered details of his travels from 1271 to 1295 and his time at the court of Kublai Khan.

His fantastical stories about what he saw drew amazement and skepticism in equal measure. One theory of the title Il Milione is that it was considered to contain a million lies. Modern scholars are willing to accept that he is interpreting to the best of his ability what he truly saw (or was told) in his travels. We cannot be certain what may have been embellished by Rustichello, although it is clear that he re-used some passages from his previous works (mentioned here).

In 1302 it was translated into Latin as Iter Marci Pauli Veneti, "Travels of the Venetian Marco Polo," by Francesco Pipino, a Dominican archivist. He stood behind what was in the book (although he himself had not raveled widely, only going as far as Constantinople several years later). That Latin edition was popular for years; one edition was owned by Christopher Columbus, whose copy with his notes is shown in the illustration.

Recent research suggests that Pipino's translation was not just a pet project: he might have been given the assignment as an official project of the Dominicans. The Dominican Order wished (as did many orders) to convert all folk everywhere to Christianity, and Polo's writing gave them an itinerary.

Recent communications between the popes and the Mongols were not always friendly, but prior to Marco's trip Kublai Khan had requested of Marco's father and uncle that they carry a letter to the pope requesting missionaries to teach about Roman Christianity. This correspondence also gave fuel to the idea that the East was ready for missionary work. There was even talk of a Christian-Mongol alliance against the spread of Islam.

That alliance did not bear fruit, but trade between Europe and Asia was a welcome idea for everyone, and merchants like Marco's father and uncle made lucrative deals. In fact, the elder Polos are often neglected in stories about Marco and his travels, which makes them—Niccolò and Maffeo by name—excellent subjects for this blog. Let's talk about the men responsible for Marco Polo'd fame next time.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-book-of-marvels.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/chinese-technology.html

Now we approach the part that everyone knows about Kublai Khan even if they don't know anything about Kublai Khan. Kublai was emperor of China when Marco Polo visited the place, traveling with his merchant uncles.

Marco wrote about the wonders that he had seen in China, and those wonders were thanks to Kublai's conquest of the southern Song Dynasty. Let's take a look at some of the technological advancements of the Song that were notable to anyone visiting Kublai's empire.

They had printing presses with movable type long before Gutenberg. Gutenberg's innovation was making type out of metal, while the Chinese used porcelain.

The Song had an astronomical clock tower that was powered hydraulically. The illustration here is from the original 11th-century book describing it, showing the mechanics that run the armillary sphere on top.

Air power was also known to them, since they introduced windmills to China. Water was another place where they innovated, especially in ship-building. The Song had paddle-wheel ships.

Prior to the Song defeat under Kublai, that had successfully defended themselves with weapons powered by gunpowder. They also had flame-throwers, a pumping machine that would spread flaming oil that could not be doused by water. Thy used land mines against the Mongols, and rockets.

Money printed on paper was another marvel noted by Marco Polo, and helped boost the economy. The printing involved employing thousands in mints all over the vast country. The use of paper extended to envelopes, paper bags for tea leaves (for storage, not for steeping), and even toilet paper.

These are some of the sights that were strange to travelers from Western Europe. Let's talk tomorrow about Marco and Kublai, their meeting and their relationship.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/chinese-technology.html