Download PDF | Philip Pandely Argenti - The occupation of Chios by the Genoese and their administration of the island, 1346-1566.-Cambridge University Press (1958).
1737 Pages
PREFACE
Of the many mansions that make up the House of History, that of local history is amongst the most valuable. Our lives are all fundamentally affected by the circumstances of the lands in which they are lived; to understand human nature we must know about its territorial setting. The work of a local historian, whether he writes about a village or a province, can throw beams of light to illuminate many dark patches in the general story of the nations; and when the locality that he studies is situated at one of the cross-roads of the world, all historians must feel a great debt of gratitude to him.
Dr Argenti has devoted himself to the story of his native island of Chios. “‘The History of Scio’’, wrote the French traveller Tournefort, who visited the island in 1701, “‘is too voluminous to be brought into the compass of a Letter”; the many works which Dr Argenti has already published show how true this is. The Aegean Sea has always been one of the world’s great thoroughfares, but most of its islands are barren and poor. Chios, with its orchards and vineyards and terebinth groves, its excellent harbour and the vigour and enterprise of its people, remarkable even among the Greeks, is a key-point in the Aegean. Its history is a vital part of the whole history of the commerce and civilization of the Mediterranean world; and its role was particularly important in the later Middle Ages, at the time of the Genoese commercial empire.
This is the period covered by Dr Argenti’s present work. He makes accessible to us the most important contemporary documents which illustrate the Genoese occupation of the island. They not only show us how its people fared during those years but also explain the system used by a lively if rather turbulent Italian mercantile city to administer and make money out of an important overseas colony. They also throw light on the problems that arose out of the collapse of Byzantium and the rise of Ottoman power, and out of the bitter rivalry between Genoa and Venice. But local history, to be of real value, must be seen in its larger setting. We may therefore be very grateful to Dr Argenti for providing in his introductory volume what 1s, in fact, the first full history of medieval Genoa, as an Italian as well as a Mediterranean power, to appear in English.
All travellers to Greece have their favourite island, and in the competition Chios can count on securing a number of votes. It is not, however, only the lovers of Chios but everyone who is interested in the lands of the Mediterranean and their politics, their trade and their past way of life who will welcome this book, given to us by a Chian whose outlook is international.
STEVEN RUNCIMAN
INTRODUCTION
It may be said that at least from the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204 the lands that today form the kingdom of Greece had no national unity to bind them together, and there is no common theme in their history during the medieval period to give them coherence as a homogeneous group. The histories of the individual geographical regions which made up Romania, or medieval Greece, follow widely divergent courses, with the result that the history of the Greeks in that period cannot be written until the local histories have first been studied separately and then assembled to form the complete picture.
This lack of political unity continued until Greece attained her independence in the first half of the nineteenth century, when a Greek State emerged for the first time since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Greek lands, with a few scattered and sporadic exceptions, did not experience the Renaissance, and, apart from the evolution of certain social classes, the medieval period for Greece may be considered to have continued until 1832, when the independent status of the country was internationally recognized. One result of this is that Greece possesses today no historical archives in the western European sense of the word—no continuous series of contemporary documents treating fully of the course of events in her history. In Athens, it is true, there are several noteworthy collections, but, even if these were amalgamated into a single chronological series, the lacunae would be far more numerous than the documents themselves. Moreover, in Greece, of the extant historical documents a higher percentage than in any other country has been preserved in monasteries, particularly those on Mount Athos, and these records are naturally restricted in their subject-matter to general ecclesiastical and local monastic affairs.
Since history, as distinct from historical fiction, must of its essence originate in, and be confirmed by, reliable, official, contemporary documents, the historian of Greece is compelled to turn for his primary authorities to foreign archives, where they are frequently tinged with prejudice against the Greeks on political or religious grounds. It is, however, fortunate that it should have been Italy—the country that is today the richest in archives— which, because of her geographical proximity and her predominance in the Mediterranean, was the most closely associated with medieval Greece. In the Italian archives are countless documents, relating not only to periods during which Greek lands were in the possession of one or the other of the City States, but to other times also: there are reports by Italian consular agents who at all times were numerous throughout Romania, and other documents seized from their place of origin. For the Genoese periods in the history of Chios—the years 1346-1566 in particular—there 1s a mass of material, housed in the Archivio dt Stato in Genoa.
Foremost, however, amongst the primary sources are four contemporary codices, the most concise being that in the Biblioteca Civica Berio which was acquired by a stroke of fortune in 1935. It contains all the conventions between the Commune of Genoa and the Mahona, the chartered company of Genoese citizens that governed, or rather exploited, Chios, as well as the more important statutory decrees concerning the island. It has been given the name of Codex Berianus Chienss (shortened for convenience of reference to C.B.C.). Photographs and transcriptions have been made from it, and the text is published in full in this work.
The three remaining codices are those which, according to a tradition handed down in the present owner’s family, have remained in the possession of the direct descendants of Mahones: belonging to the Recanelli branch of the Giustiniani families, which left Chios before the Turkish occupation in 1566 and settled in Rome. These codices served as a basis for Carl Hopf’s study of the Giustiniani family of Genoa, to which frequent references are made in the following pages, but unfortunately he neither exploited them to the full nor published the documents in extenso. Only when this work was nearing completion was permission to photograph these codices at last obtained from the present owner, the Marchesa Matilde Negrotto-CambiasoGiustiniani, to whom the author wishes to express his deepest gratitude for her kindness in having made these all-important sources of information accessible to the historians of Chios. They have been given the name Codices Giustiniant Chienses and are referred to hereafter, for convenience, as the Codices Giustiniant, with the separate volumes differentiated by the letters A, B and C.!
These three codices were closely compared with the C.B.C., and were found to have been assembled around a nucleus of documents identical with those contained in the latter, which proved to embody all the essential documentation for the administrative and fiscal history of the period. The Codices Giustiniant, however, being more exhaustive, do supply several documents containing subsidiary matter omitted in the C.B.C. which clarify and corroborate certain points. It is possible, therefore, to deduce that the C.B.C., although not always written in the same hand, was compiled under the successive direction of persons who as shareholders very closely followed the development of the Mahona and its relations with the Commune, and who had official notarial copies made of all the basic official documents.
For this reason it has only been found necessary to collate in footnotes the C.B.C. with the Codices Giustiniant, and to refer in the text to the comparatively few documents in the latter that provide supplementary information. In these combined sources a full account of the Genoese occupation of Chios is preserved.
The text of this work is, therefore, based on the four contemporary codices covering the Genoese occupation of the island ; such a collection of primary sources is perhaps unique for the medieval history of any Greek land.
In addition to these sources there are in the Archivio d: Stato two notable series of official correspondence: the registers and files of the Diversorum Comunis Fanue, and the Litterarum Comunis Fanue.
The series Diversorum contains the minutes of meetings at which decisions affecting Chios were taken by the Genoese government, orders from the government to its representatives in Chios, and letters of appointment of the Podesta and other officials. One of the registers Diversorum is of particular interest, as its sub-title— Diversorum et Litterarum Mahone Chy\—implies, for it deals almost exclusively with the correspondence between the Governors of the Mahona in Genoa and those in Chios.
The series Litterarum contains communications between the Genoese government and its officials on various subjects. These letters are not necessarily formal instructions from the government; they seek, or give, information on various points, criticize policy, make recommendations, and are, in short, very similar to the dispatches which pass between any government and its colonial officials in modern times.
There is also in the same Archivio di Stato a file bearing the press-mark Sezione Segreta. Ortente Scio. Sala 59. Busta No. 2774B, in which there is a miscellaneous collection of documents covering the whole period of the Genoese occupation. Since some of its contents would seem to belong more naturally to the Diversorum or Litterarum, it 1s possible that it was assembled from other files after these two series had been bound. Its value lies in the diversity of the information concerning both public and private life that it contains, principally in dispatches from the Mahonesi in Chios to their colleagues in Genoa.
Furthermore in the Archivio di Stato of Genoa (Sala 38) are the registers of the series Caratorum Sancti Georgi Regisiri, which contain cargo manifests, drawn up by customs officials in order to apply duties, of ships loading and discharging merchandise in, amongst other places, Chios. The manifests record the name of each ship and of its owner, its date of sailing and destination, the quantities of each article of merchandise shipped and the names of the consignors and consignees. The series consists of 543 registers, covering the period 1423-1797. In the early volumes there are some gaps, but from the middle of the fifteenth century there is complete continuity, there being two registers for each year. In the catalogue of the Archives the series is termed Registri Caratorum Veterum and is subdivided further into Caratorum Occtdentis and Caratorum Ortentis, but the contents of the volumes do not correspond very closely to this distinction.
The registers and files of the series San Giorgio in the same Archives might well be examined by a specialist for the involved financial transactions that became necessary after Chios came under the jurisdiction of the Bank of St George. The series Provistonis Romanie, Costantinopoli and Confintum also merit patient study.
The main sources which have been used in this work may, then, be roughly classified by subjects in the following manner:
C.B.C. Statutory instruments.
Codices Giustiniam Statutory instruments.
Diversorum Minutes of meetings, records of decisions, and orders from the Genoese government to the authorities in Chios.
Litterarum Dispatches between the Genoese government and the
authorities in Chios. Diversorum et Letters from the Governors of the Mahona in Genoa Litterarum Mahone to their colleagues in Chios. Chi Busta No. 2774B Letters from the Governors of the Mahona in Chios to their colleagues in Genoa, and miscellaneous documents. Caratorum Sancti Cargo manifests. Georgii Regisiri San Giorgio Financial contracts and agreements.
In addition to these documents in Genoa, others in the Archivio a; Stato in Venice, the rival of Genoa in medieval times, have been consulted, as well as some in the Vatican Archives. The Archivio a: Stato in Florence contains a few documents concerning the commercial relations between Tuscany and Chios, but these are of minor importance and interest.
All these sources deal with what may be termed public life: political, administrative, and fiscal affairs. From them can be drawn little or no information as to how the people of Chios lived and worked during the period of the Genoese occupation. But there is in the Genoese archives a great series of notarial deeds recording the private transactions of the ordinary inhabitants of the island, from which many glimpses into the life of the people may be obtained. Countless deeds are extant for the whole period 1346 to 1566, with some few gaps and sparse periods. The most important, as regards the number and interest of their extant deeds, of the notaries who practised in Chios during this period were: Pellegrino de Bracellis, whose deeds cover the earliest years of the occupation, from 1348 to 1350; Francesco de Roboreto (1360); Tommaso de Recco (1449-54 and 1456-60); Bernardo de Ferrari (1450-61) ; Antonio Foglietta (1460-76) ; and Niccolé Sampietro (1484-1522). A selection from these deeds is published in vol. m of this work. Other notaries who practised in the island and whose deeds repay examination are: Ambrogio de Rapallo (1270-1315); Antonio Fellone (130247); Antonio de Podenzolo (1353-61); Giovanni Bardi (13601400); Donato de Clavaro (1389-1417); Gregorio Panissaro (1403-5); Antonio Fazio Seniore (1408-65); Giovanni Balbi (1413-14); Domenico de Algario (1461-89); Agostino Foglietta (1477-1500); Antonio Pastorino (1485-1526); and Fazio Pantaleone Lomellino (1524-63).1 Here it should be recalled that the Genoese year began on 1 March.
Most of these notarial deeds deal only with the private affairs of men who have left no mark on Chian history; they record everlastingly payments or acknowledgements of debts, appointments of agents, and commercial transactions of little importance. As a result, the task of examining them is a lengthy and laborious one, for much that is of small value must be consulted only to be rejected. The task is complicated by the method—or, more correctly, lack of method—of classification employed in the Genoese State Archives. Some of the deeds are bound into registers and foliated, though not necessarily in their chronological order. But most, after being folded to the same size, are strung together with a lace through the centre; the serial numbers of the deeds are not chronological and the lace often tears the paper, making words and phrases illegible. Faced with this rudimentary filing system, readers often fail to take the trouble to replace the deeds in their serial order. Furthermore, the numbering ‘Filza 1’ does not always mean that there is, in fact, more than one file of the same notary. And finally, notaries often did not spend the whole of their professional life in Chios, with the result that not all the files of a notary who practised there necessarily contain deeds relating to the island.
But the search among the dross is repaid by the occasional flash of gold—a will that gives details of personal jewellery or articles of furniture, a deed for the sale of a house giving details of its construction, a contract from which a point of law may be deduced or an article of trade, and its destination, established. The breadth of interest of the deeds is astounding; they deal with many matters for which it would today rarely be necessary to consult a notary public as well as those for which a notary 1s still employed; they record, for example, receipts, acknowledgements and settlements of debts, powers of attorney, wills, dowries, promises of marriage, sales and manumissions of slaves, appointments of arbitrators and their awards, sales and leases of real estate, and apprenticeship agreements. Information not obtainable from other sources is given on trade and business methods, such as sales in advance, and the value, of the mastic crop; the part-ownership of ships; the market value of Mahona shares; business partnerships; and the insurance of ships and merchandise. For most subjects it is a question of piecing together scraps of information from many deeds into something approaching the complete picture; in this way it is possible to gain an idea of the agriculture and trade of the island, the relations (generally amicable) between the Greek inhabitants and the Latin overlords, the Greek families resident on the island, the make-up of the population, and the system ofslave-holding. The deeds occasionally touch also upon matters of policy; they are, for example, the only evidence of Simone Vignoso’s grants of land in the island to Genoese colonists, and of the defensive towers that were built to provide refuge against raiding parties. The contracts to build these towers, granted by the local authorities to master masons, have come down to us in the form of notarial deeds; from them we can learn exact details of dates, dimensions, and form of construction. The deeds are extant for the towers built in the villages of Chalkids, Cretis (near Snodi), Phyta, Pirama, Varnariti (near Volissés), and Ververaton, and in the place called Phyta near Sanctus Armolus.
Very often, when the contents of a deed are of no interest, the formal attestation with which it concludes contains, rather unexpectedly, information of value. For these attestations invariably mention the place where the deed was drawn up, and prove that the notaries of Chios were itinerant; although they had their offices, they were prepared to draw up a deed for their client in any part of the town or, less frequently, elsewhere on the island. They invariably record the place in some detail, and in this way there can often be gained topographical details otherwise unknown, especially in regard to the districts into which the town was divided, and the position of its churches and more important buildings. There is a great variety in the places in which these deeds were drawn up, and in that fact lies the value of their information. The place of writing had no bearing on the validity of the deed; those drawn up in or near a church, for example, often have no concern with ecclesiastical or church affairs. Generally speaking, they were drawn up in a courtroom or dependency of the law-court, in a church, in a private house or shop, near some prominent building or landmark, elsewhere in the open air, or, finally, in some part of the island outside the town.
The author cannot close this note on the notarial deeds without expressing his most sincere gratitude to the late Professor Raffaele di Tucci, formerly Soverintendente of the Archivio di Stato in Genoa, who generously applied his great palaeographic knowledge to the task of transcribing the deeds of Pellegrino de Bracellis, Francesco de Roboreto, Bernardo de Ferrari and the Unknown Notaries which are published in vol. m of this work.
At the period to which the documents belong there was no recognized orthographical uniformity, in fact occasionally the same word is spelt in a different way in the same document. Consequently, no attempt has been made to impose consistency of spelling throughout the work; this applies particularly to proper names, in which slight variations will be found. For convenience and to avoid unnecessary pedantry, proper names, titles of functionaries and most technical terms have been italianized to be in harmony with the more familiar forms adopted by other writers, most of whom are Italians.
This book is the last of a series whose aim is to provide the chief milestones of Chian history from the twelfth century to 1922, the year of the Asia Minor disaster, with an official, contemporary, documentation. The only remaining event of political importance is the recent German occupation of the island (1941-4), for which ample material exists and has been traced. This work has been devised and undertaken in the conviction that, until the records of all other Greek lands are similarly treated, no history of the Greek people in medieval times based on official contemporary evidence can be written—and history without documents is not history but literature. Like the other volumes of the series, this makes no futile pretensions to complete finality, but it is hoped that it will contribute, in a limited field, to the studies which will eventually result in a medieval history of Greece based—as it must be—upon contemporary documents.
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