Genoa, Italy, has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean.
Prehistory and antiquity The Genoa area has been inhabited since the fifth or fourth millennium BC.The objects found during the works for the underground had been exposed in the exhibition Archeologia Metropolitana. Piazza Brignole e Acquasola, held at the Ligurian Archeology Museum (30 November 2009 - 14 February 2010) ( ) In ancient times this area was inhabited by Ligures (ancient people after whom Liguria is named). According to excavations carried out in the city between 1898 and 1910, the Ligurian population that lived in Genoa maintained trade relations with the Carthaginians, with later contact with the Etruscans and the Greeks, since several objects from these populations were found from the latter two.Marco Milanese, Scavi nell'oppidum preromano di Genova, L'Erma di Bretschneider, Roma 1987 on-line in GoogleBooks; Piera Melli, Una città portuale del Mediterraneo tra il VII e il III secolo a.C., Genova, Fratelli Frilli ed., 2007. In the fifth century BC the first town, or oppidum, was founded at the top of the hill today called Castello (Castle), which is now inside the medieval old town. The ancient Ligurian city was known as Stalia (Σταλìα), referred to in this way by Artemidorus Ephesius and Pomponius Mela. Stalia had an alliance with Rome through a foedus aequum (equal pact) in the course of the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). The Carthaginians accordingly destroyed it in 209 BC. The town was rebuilt and, after the Carthaginian Wars ended in 146 BC, it received municipal rights. The original castrum then expanded towards the current areas of Santa Maria di Castello and the San Lorenzo promontory. Trade goods included skins, timber, and honey. Goods were moved to and from Genoa's hinterland, including major cities like Tortona and Piacenza. An amphitheater was also found there among other archaeological remains from the Roman period.
The city's modern name may derive from the Latin word meaning "knee" (genu; plural, genua) but there are other theories. It could derive from the god Janus, because Genoa, like him, has two faces: a face that looks at the sea and another turned to the mountains. Or it could come from the Latin word ianua, also related to the name of the God Janus, and meaning "door" or "passage." Besides that, it may refer to its geographical position at the centre of the Ligurian coastal arch, thus akin to the name of Geneva.Giulia Petracco Sicardi, "Genova", in Dizionario di toponomastica, Torino, 1990, p. 355. In Cathedral there is an inscription that says Janus, primus Rex Italiae de progenie gigantum, qui fundavit Genuam temporae Abrahae, in English, "Janus, the first King of Italy, progeny of the giants, who founded Genoa in the days of Abraham."
Another theory traces the name to the Etruscan word Kainua which means "New City". Piera Melli (Genova Preromana, 2007), based on an inscription on a pottery sherd reading Kainua, suggests that the Latin name may be a corruption of an older Etruscan one with an original meaning of "new town". The Latin name, oppidum Genua, is recorded by Pliny the Elder (Nat. Hist. 3.48) as part of the Augustean Regio IX Liguria.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths occupied Genoa. After the Gothic War, the Byzantines made it the seat of their vicar. When the Lombards invaded Italy in 568, Bishop Honoratus of Milan fled and held his seat in Genoa.Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, II.25 Pope Gregory the Great was closely connected to these bishops in exile, for example involving himself in the election of Deusdedit.Gregory I, Registrum Epistolarum, MGH Ep. 2, XI.14, p. 274 The Lombards, under King Rothari, finally captured Genoa and other Ligurian cities in about 643.Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, IV.45 In 725 the remains of Augustine of Hippo arrived in Genoa. In 773 the Lombard Kingdom was annexed by the Frankish Empire; the first Carolingian count of Genoa was Ademarus, who was given the title praefectus civitatis Genuensis. Ademarus died in Corsica while fighting against the Saracens. In this period the Roman walls, destroyed by the Lombards, were rebuilt and extended.
For the following several centuries, Genoa was little more than a small centre, slowly building its merchant fleet, which was to become the leading commercial carrier of the Mediterranean Sea. The town was thoroughly sacked and burned in 934–35 by a Fatimid fleet under Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Tamimi and possibly even abandoned for a few years.
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states established during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was sovereign and the Bishop of Genoa was head of state; however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. Genoa was one of the states known as Repubbliche Marinare along with Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi. Trade, shipbuilding, and banking helped support one of the largest and most powerful navies in the Mediterranean. There is an old saying that says: Genuensis ergo mercator, or "A Genoese therefore a merchant" but the Genoese were skilled sailors and ferocious warriors in addition (see also the Genoese crossbowmen).
In 1098, it is said the ashes of John the Baptist, now the patron saint of the city, arrived in Genoa. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other smaller merchant families all fought for power in this republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth and power in the city. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria, Piedmont, Sardinia (see also Pisan-Genoese expeditions to Sardinia), Corsica, and Nice, and had practically complete control of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Through Genoese participation in the Crusades, colonies were established in the Middle East, the Aegean Sea, Sicily, and Northern Africa. The cronista, or chronicler, of the Genoese vicissitudes was Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone and the hero and military leader was Guglielmo Embriaco called Testadimaglio meaning "mallet head" (see also Siege of Jerusalem (1099)). Genoese Crusaders brought home a green glass goblet from the Levant (see also Holy Chalice), which the Genoese have long regarded as the Holy Grail. In his Golden Legend, the Archbishop of Genoa, Jacobus de Voragine relates the history of the Holy Grail. Not all of Genoa's merchandise was so innocuous, however, as medieval Genoa became a major player in the slave trade.
The Genoese have a claim to the creation of the rough denim cloth then called "Blue Jean", from which derives the modern name of jeans, used by sailors for work and to cover and protect their goods on the docks from the weather. During the Republic of Genoa, Genoese merchants and sailors exported this cloth throughout Europe. The production of Genoese lace was also notable.
The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa's alliance with the Byzantine Empire. As Venice's relations with the Byzantines were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position, taking advantage of the opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the powerful families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola and others, caused much disruption, but in general the republic was run much as a business affair.
In 1218–1220 Genoa was served by the Guelph podestà Rambertino Buvalelli, who probably introduced Occitan literature, which was soon to boast such troubadours as Jacme Grils, Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifaci Calvo, to the city. During this time, 1218–1219, a Genoese fleet under Simone Doria with the famous Genoese pirate Alamanno da Costa participated in the Siege of Damietta; about this period we must also remember the Genoese privateer and pirate, Henry, Count of Malta. The alliance between Byzantines and Genoese suffered after the Battle of Settepozzi, admirably described in the Annales ianuenses.
Genoa's political zenith came with its victory over the Republic of Pisa at the naval Battle of Meloria in 1284, and with a temporary victory over its rival, Venice, at the naval Battle of Curzola in 1298 during the Venetian-Genoese Wars. The Genoese navy was on a par with the Venetian navy and both cities had the power to rule the sea. Notable conflicts between Byzantines and Genoese were the Genoese occupation of Rhodes and the Byzantine-Genoese War.
However, this period of prosperity did not last. The Black Death is said to have been imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse that resulted, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government and was presided over by the Doge of Genoa. The wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia (1378–1381) – during which Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice – ended with Venice's recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390, Genoa initiated the Barbary Crusade, with help from the French, and laid siege to Mahdia, the Fatimid capital of Ifriqiya.
Though not well-studied, Genoa in the 15th century seems to have been tumultuous. The city had a strong tradition of trading goods from the Levant and its financial expertise was recognised all over Europe. After a period of French domination from 1394 to 1409, Genoa came under the rule of the Visconti of Milan (see also Battle of Ponza). Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt, and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Asia Minor colonies to the Ottoman Empire.
In the 15th century two of the earliest banks in the world were founded in Genoa: the Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, which was the oldest chartered bank in the world at its closure in 1805 and the Banca Carige, founded in 1483 as a mount of piety, which still exists.
Genoa was able to stabilise its position as it moved into the 16th century, particularly as a result of the efforts of Doge Andrea Doria, who granted a new constitution in 1528 that made Genoa a satellite of the Spanish Empire (Siege of Coron 1532/34, Battle of Preveza 1538, Battle of Girolata 1540, Battle of Lepanto 1571, Relief of Genoa 1625). Some Genoese enjoyed remarkable careers in the service of the Spanish crown: notably the maritime explorers Juan Bautista Pastene and Leon Pancaldo, the general Ambrogio Spinola, the naval captain Giovanni della Croce Bernardotte and Jorge Burgues. In the period of economic recovery which followed, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini and Serra, amassed tremendous fortunes. According to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean (such as chattel slavery) were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World.
The Genoese Pietro Vesconte, Giovanni da Carignano and Battista Beccario (see Genoese map before the discovery of the Americas) were pioneers in cartography. Christopher Columbus himself was a native of Genoa and donated one-tenth of his income from the discovery of the Americas for Spain to the Bank of Saint George in Genoa for the relief of general taxation on food. Columbus was the culmination of a long tradition of Genoese navigators and explorers such as Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi, Lancelotto Malocello, Luca Tarigo, Antonio de Noli, Antonio Malfante and Antoniotto Usodimare. (It has been suggested that Antoniotto Usodimare and Antonio di Noli may be different names for the same person.) The famous Genoese navigator John Cabot, a contemporary of Columbus, discovered northern parts of North America when sailing under the commission of Henry VII of England.