Notai genovesi in Oltremare: atti rogati a Laiazzo da Federico di Piazzalunga (1274) e Pietro di Bargone (1277, 1279) (review)

Reviews 133 woman and not to have sexual relations with her is more difficult than to raise the dead'? Sabina Flanagan Department of History University of Adelaide Balletto, Laura, Noted genovesi in Oltremare: atti rogati a Laiazzo da Federico di Piazzalunga (1274) e Pietro di Bargone (1277,1279) (Collana storica di fonti e studi, No. 53) (Genoa, Istituto di medievistica, 1989); paper; pp. 1, 426; 4 plates; R.R.P. ? This is the latest in the extraordinary series of publications of the cartularies of Genoese notaries undertaken by the Institute of Medieval Studies of the University of Genoa. It adds yet another body of important documents to those already published in this series, which now forms one of the major research collections for all historians of the social and economic history of the Mediterranean world in the Middle Ages. This volume, like those which have preceded it since 1969, is a basic acquisition for any self-respecting library. The two notaries in question here, Fredericus de Platea Longa and Petrus de Bargona, both worked in Ayas (Laiazzo), the main port of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia, in the 1270s. Both also made commercial voyages themselves, the former to the Crimea after 11 June 1274 and the latter to Egypt and Syria between 10 April and 15 August 1279. In this period Ayas was increasing in importance as an access terminus to the inland routes of the Middle East as the Crusader States came under increasing pressure from the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. Only three years before Federico di Piazzalunga appeared at Ayas, Marco Polo had passed through the port on his way to China. As is the case with most of the other cartularies of Genoese notaries redacted in the Levant, these of Federico di Piazzalunga and Pietro di Bargone reveal a fascinating and complex world: a cosmopolitan society in the East composed of Westerners from many places either passing through or resident in an Armenian town which was also frequented by Muslims. The major Western presence in Ayas was that of Genoa, which had a resident 'consul and viscount' at the head of its 'colony'. However, w e also meet many other Westerners in the documents. These were the years before Meloria. Pisa and Genoa were not yet at war but nevertheless a state of incessant hostility existed between the two republics. However, at Ayas large numbers of Pisans appeared doing business with Genoese and amongst themselves. A ship called the Sancta Fides belonging to Ansaido Garsia of Savona (then a Genoese possession) docked in 1274 with a crew of six Genoese and ten Pisan sailors. Besides Pisans there are Luccans, a few Venetians, many Piacenzans, Narbonnese, Barcellonese, Anconitans and others from the West as well as Muslims and Armenians. 134 Reviews The contracts are the usual mix of letters of exchange, commende, procurations, manumissions of slaves, sales, quittances, leases of ships, wills receipts, apprenticeships and others, including one extraordinary indenture of concubinage which deserves quotation (Pietro di Bargone, No. 108): 'I Cerasia Ciciliana [the Citician (Armenian)] promise and agree with you Iacobus Porchus, to dwell and to reside with you and in your house and to be a good woman for you in perpetuity, and to dwell as a good woman ought, and not to be with any person from now on in a bad way or to lie with any man or to allow myself to be known carnally by any man, and to remain quiet and content in everything and for all clothing and shoes and food which you may wish to give to me, and to perform well and loyally whatever service for you that you may tell or order m e to do wherever (it is) in the house or outside, and not to abscond from your service. And if by chance I offend in anything of the aforesaid, I wish and from now on give and concede to you full licence that you may cut off m y nose, or hand, or foot at your will, and (promise) in all ways to accept punishment of m y person as it may best please you, and that you may put chains on m y...