Among the Italian cities, Venice, at the extremity of the Adriatic,
Ravenna, at the south of the mouth of the Po, Genoa, at the foot of
the Ligurian mountains, Pisa, towards the mouths of the Arno, Rome,
Gaëta, Naples, Amalphi, and Bari, were either never conquered by the
Lombards, or were in subjection too short a time to have lost many of
their ancient habits and customs. In this way these cities naturally
became the refuge of Roman civilization, at a time when other parts of
Europe were wading through barbarian darkness. The feudal system never
prevailed among them with any force; and several of these and other
cities had important privileges conferred upon them by the German
emperors at a very early period. Sismondi, the historian of Italy,
asserts that Otho I (936) erected some of them into municipal
communities, and permitted them the election of their own magistrates.
It is certain that, in 991, the citizens of Milan rose in tumult,
expelled an archbishop from their city, and were able to establish a
qualified right to interfere in future elections. The after-history of
Milan is eventful and tragical; but we can only give a short account
of it here. In the middle of the twelfth century, Frederick Barbarossa
became engaged with the cities of Lombardy, and particularly with it,
in extensive and destructive wars. In the year 1162 Milan was finally
overcome; the walls and houses were razed from their foundation, and
the suffering inhabitants dispersed over other cities, obtaining
sympathy in their distress, and communicating their enthusiastic love
of freedom in return. The republican form of government was adopted in
every considerable town; and before the end of the thirteenth century,
there was a knowledge, a power, and an enterprise, among these
apparently insignificant republics which all Europe could not match.
The beneficial though unlooked-for effect of the Crusades upon
commerce has already been mentioned. During the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries the commerce of Europe was almost entirely in the hands of
the Italians, more commonly known in those ages by the name of
Lombards. The republic of Pisa was one of the first to make known to
the world the riches and power which a small state might acquire by
the aid of commerce and liberty. Pisa had astonished the shores of the
Mediterranean by the number of vessels and galleys that sailed under
her flag, by the succor she had given the Crusaders, by the fear she
had inspired at Constantinople, and by the conquest of Sardinia and
the Balearic Isles. Immediately preceding this period, those great
structures which still delight the eye of the traveler――the Dome, the
Baptistry, the Leaning Tower, and the Campo Santo of Pisa had all been
raised; and the great architects that spread over Europe in the
thirteenth century, had mostly their education here. But
unfortunately, the ruin of this glorious little republic was soon to
be accomplished. A growing envy had subsisted between it and Genoa
during the last two centuries, and a new war broke out in 1282. It is
difficult to comprehend how two simple cities could put to sea two
such prodigious fleets as those of Pisa and Genoa. Fleets of thirty,
sixty-four, twenty-four, and one hundred and three galleys, were
successively put to sea by Pisa, under the most skillful commanders;
but on every occasion the Genoese were able to oppose them with
superior fleets. In August, 1284, the Pisans were defeated in a naval
engagement before the Isle of Meloria; thirty-five of their vessels
were lost, five thousand persons perished in battle, and eleven
thousand became prisoners of the Genoese. After a few further
ineffectual struggles, Pisa lost its standing.
The greatest commercial, and altogether the most remarkable city of
the Italian republics, was Venice. Secluded from the world, on a
cluster of islands in the Adriatic, the inhabitants of this city had
taken up their abode in the course of the fifth century, and they
boasted themselves to have been independent of all the revolutions
which Europe had been undergoing since the fall of the Roman Empire.
This might be true to a great extent, though for long it was certainly
more the result of their obscurity than their power. By the tenth
century, however, the desendants of those fishermen that had first
taken refuge here, were able to send fleets abroad which could
encounter and overawe both Saracens and Normans. The Venetians had all
along kept up a correspondence with Constantinople during the darkest
periods of the middle ages. This was greatly renewed and extended
about the time of the Crusades. When Constantinople was taken by the
Latins (1204), the Venetians, under their doge, or chief magistrate,
Henry Dandalo, became possessed of three-eighths of that great city
and of the provinces, and Dandalo assumed the singularly accurate
title of Duke of Three-Eighths of the Roman Empire. The Venetians
greatly increased their share of the spoil by making advantageous
purchases from the more needy of the Crusaders. Among the most
important of these was the Isle of Candia, which they retained till
the middle of the seventeenth century. The idea of a bank took its
rise in this city, and an establishment of that nature, simply for the
receipt of deposits, is said to have existed in it as soon as the year
1157. But it was not till about a century later that banking, as the
term is now understood, began at all to be practised. The merchants of
Lombardy and of the south of France began at that time to remit money
by bills of exchange and to make profit upon loans. The Italian clergy
who had benefices beyond the Alps, found the new method of
transmitting money exceedingly convenient; and the system of exacting
usury or interest, after experiencing every obstruction from ignorance
and bigotry, became a legal part of commerce. In the thirteenth
century the government of Venice was entirely republican; but
continued wars with Genoa reduced both cities. These wars were all
conducted on the seas, and the display of naval strength on both sides
seems prodigious, when we reflect on the poor condition of Italy at
the present day. Besides these wars for objects of ambition, there
were continual jealousies which rose above enlightened views of
self-interest, and led to the most disgraceful broils. At the middle
of the fourteenth century a battle took place between the rival
citizens, in which the Genoese were defeated. Their loss was immense,
and in distress and in revenge they gave themselves up to John
Visconti, Lord of Milan, then the richest and among the most ambitious
of the petty tyrants of Italy, hoping that he would give them the
means to reëstablish their fleet and continue the war with the
Venetians. He did so, and in another naval engagement, fought in 1354,
in the Gulf of Sapienza, the Venetians were entirely defeated. But the
Genoese had sacrificed their liberty in their thirst for revenge.
Visconti became their master instead of friend. Venice was able to
rise above its temporary discomfiture, and during the fifteenth
century its fame and power became greater than they had ever been
before. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the Venetians
captured the town of Padua, and gradually lost their empire of the sea
while they acquired possessions on the continent.
Among the most famous of the Italian states at this period was
Florence; and its fame was founded, not on arms, but on literature.
Like the other Italian cities, however, it owed its first elevation to
the commercial industry of its inhabitants. There was a curious
division of the Florentine citizens, subsisting about the beginning of
the thirteenth century, into companies or _arts_. These were at first
twelve――seven called the greater arts, and five the lesser; but the
latter were gradually increased to fourteen. The seven greater arts
were those of lawyers and notaries, of dealers in foreign cloth
(called sometimes _calimala_), of bankers or moneychangers, of
woolen-drapers, of physicians and druggists, or dealers in silk, and
of furriers. The inferior arts were those of retailers of cloth,
butchers, smiths, shoemakers, and builders. It was in the thirteenth
century that Florence became a republic, and it maintained its
independence for two hundred years. In the beginning of the fifteenth
century it became peculiarly distinguished by the revival of Grecian
literature and the cultivation of the fine arts. Cosmo de Medici, who
lived a citizen of Florence at this time, and was known by the name of
the Grand Duke of Tuscany――descended from a long line of ancestors,
whose wealth had been honorably acquired in the prosecution of the
_greater arts_――possessed more riches than any king in Europe, and
laid out more money on works of learning, taste, and charity, than all
the princes of his age. The same liberality and munificence
distinguished his family for several generations.
The commercial success of the states of Italy induced the inhabitants
of northern Europe to attempt similar enterprises. In the thirteenth
century the seaports on the Baltic were trading with France and
Britain, and with the Mediterranean. The commercial laws of Oleron and
Wisbuy (on the Baltic) regulated for many ages the trade of Europe. To
protect their trade from piracy, Lubec, Hamburg, and most of the
northern seaports, joined in a confederacy, under certain general
regulations, termed the _League of the Hanse Towns_; a union so
beneficial in its nature, and so formidable in point of strength, as
to have its alliance courted by the predominant powers of Europe. ‘For
the trade of the Hanse Towns with the southern kingdoms, Bruges on the
coast of Flanders was found a convenient entrepôt, and thither the
Mediterranean merchants brought the commodities of India and the
Levant, to exchange for the produce and manufactures of the north. The
Flemings now began to encourage trade and manufactures, which thence
spread to the Brabanters; but their growth being checked by the
impolitic sovereigns of those provinces, they found a more favorable
field in England, which was destined thence to derive the great source
of its national opulence.’