The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

Placentia and Bonvillano from 1197-8: four ships, mentioned in the cartulary of Bonvillano,
sailed from Genoa directly to Alexandria in 1198. These were the lalna; the Venciguerra and two
newly built ships - the Nova Naulenxium and the Nave Nova de San Pietro de Arena"? The latter
must have been a different ship to the probably (old) San Pietro de Arena which sailed to
Catalonia at the same autumn. 338 This information is interesting because previous cartularies do
not usually mention the name of the vessels. The specification of names in the contracts is a
valuable addition to the analysis of the data. For example, it often enables the determination of
the total number of vessels that sailed to each destination. These numbers serve as useful
indicators for the assessment of the popularity of each market. The inclusion of names makes
clear few other features of the sailing patterns. For example, examining the documents over
period of several years makes it clear that ships were often sent on regular routes to the same
destinations. The lalna or lalna de Finar sailed to Alexandria in 1198 and in 1200. In 1213 the
annals mentions that the lalna returned to Genoa with the Oliva from Alexandria and Ultramare.
The significance of ships' names has more implications which will be discussed in the following
pages.
Not only ships followed routines, merchants did so too. Evidence from the beginning of
the thirteenth century suggests that some merchants returned to Alexandria on an annual basis. As
was often the case in Genoese commerce a family connection with trading centres can be traced
too. The Nepitella family, which was a prominent Genoese family of merchants and shipowners,
appears in all the cartularies examined, from 1179 to 1225. Hilmar Krueger followed their
activities in some detail. In his words, `i Nepitella furono una famiglia di propretari di navi per
vari decenni, sia alla fine del dodicesimo secolo the all'inizio del tredicesimo. '339 The Nepitella
often appear in conjunction with matters that concern trade with Alexandria (see appendix 3). In
1184, a ship owned by Enrico Nepitella sailed to Alexandria and one of the contracts suggests
that Enrico even considered selling his ship in Egypt. 340
A ship that belonged to Enrico Nepitella
is mentioned in a contract from 1191, but the destination of that ship is not specified.
Unfortunately, the lack of ship names in the documents from these years means that it is
impossible to know how many ships were owned by Enrico Nepitella during this period 341 Enrico
was dead by 1200 but there is evidence that his sons Buonovassallo and Oglerio were involved in
337
Bonvillano, nos. 47,66,72,80-84,89,94
338
Bonvillano, no. 94 and nos. 107-109.
339 Hilmar C. Krueger, Navi a proprietä navale a Genova seconda meta del sec. X/!, in ASLSP: Nuova
serie, vol. 25 (99) (Genoa, 1985), p. 132.
340 OS, 1184, cart. 2, p. 142 R3; 143, R 1.
341 GC, 1191, no. 1232, from 15 October 1191.
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