Page 112 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

112 from Italy to the Canary Islands

in Palestine, in 1258, certainly happened. If these events occurred under
his Magistrature, it is also true that throughout his government he really
strived to put right the state finances with the clear aim of buffering the
domestic economic crisis started in 1255 and caused by the stop to produc-
tion in shipyards and in the wool sector, too. There was therefore a credit
and currency crisis. The sufferers of these were “the common craftsmen,
who had by now decided to seek their rights and not allow the old system
of purchasing public income to carry on, impoverishing the revenue in
favour of the privileged class, directly or indirectly involved in the govern-
ment” (Teofilo Ossian De Negri).
These operations to contain the crisis – we could say “public health”
measures – were met with a conspiracy plotted by the aristocracy, which
was foiled, causing a very strong reaction by the Captain of the People.
If a defeat like the one in Acre can “tarnish”, so to say, a government
(in fact, the skirmishes between Genoa and Venice had started before Boc-
canegra came to power), it is also true that during his Magistrature impor-
tant agreements were reached for Genoa with the Treaty of Nymphaeum
of 1261.
The Acre event, in which the Venetians and the Pisans – Lorenzo
Tiepolo with Andrea Zeno and Lorenzo Barassi against Genoa’s
thirty-five galleys and four ships, led by Rosso della Tur-
ca – defeated the Genoese, could have happened in the
Mediterranean, in the Tyrrhenian and in the
Holy Land (Pisa seemed to have picked itself
up again and appeared to have assumed once
more a bellicose conduct in the Tyrrhenian
Sea) if Guglielmo Boccanegra, in great se-
crecy, had not initiated negotiations with
the Greek of Nicaea.
The Latin Empire, created by
the French and the Venetians
during the fourth crusade
(1202-1204) started to
crack both due to discord
between those who had

Caravel equipped with lateen
sails. Late fifteenth century.