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

eceived concessions in Tripoli and Antioch in the name of the commune of
Genoa. 332
In 1205
and in 1208 the annals mention the mission of Guglielmo Spinola to Egypt, but once more there
is no reference to the terms of the agreements reached in the meetings with the sultan. From the
notarial contracts it is possible to discern that the consuls sent to Alexandria were sent for a
relatively short mission. They did not leave Genoa until the autumn of 1203 and returned one
year later. Ogerio de Insulis made several commercial contracts in September 1203 and registered
a commenda contract for £225 that he took with him to Egypt. 333 The cartularies from that year
contain no contracts that were registered by Ogerio's partner - Belmosto Lercario junior.
However, it is known that the venture in 1203 was not Belmosto's first visit to Alexandria. Two
years previously, in 1201, he was given £100 by Sibilia Embriaco, the wife of Guglielmo
Embriaco maior, to trade with in Alexandria. 334 The members of the Lercario family were not
regular clients of any of the notaries whose cartularies remain in the archives of Genoa today.
This is especially unfortunate, because both father and son were sent simultaneously in 1203 on
two major diplomatic missions which affected Genoa's foreign affairs and global trade. The
important role of Belmosto Lercario the elder, in particular, will be discussed in detail in the
discussion of the Genoese communities and self-government in the kingdom of
Jerusalem. 335
It is only possible to imagine the nature of the truces that were signed with the Egyptian
sultan. The first concession must have been granted to Genoa before 1200 because in August
1200 Genoa is known to have possessed a fondaco and an oven in Alexandria. Like bath-houses
and churches, fondachi and ovens were features which a community could only possess with
special permission from the local authority. A notarial contract in the unpublished cartulary of
Oberto Scriba from 1200 mentions such Genoese possessions in Alexandria. This contract was
signed in Genoa between a baker named Giovanni and his apprentice Zorzio de Castello. Zorzio
promised to join his master for two years in Alexandria ad servicium furni cfe fundico
Ianuensis. 336
The fact that such contract is found in the cartularies implies that despite the strange
disappearance
of the Egyptian privileges from Genoa's archives, it is possible to conclude that the
Genoese preceded their Italian rivals in obtaining concessions in Alexandria. As was already
demonstrated,
there is evidence of Genoese traffic to Alexandria in the cartularies from 1192. A
large number of contracts concerning Levantine trade remain in the cartularies of Oberto de
332 Ann. Ian., vol. 2, p. 92. Note that the Annals mentioned the four as consuls returning from Alexandria,
but this is clearly a mistake. See also note I in the margins of that page in the annals. For an edition of the
charter from 1203 see Reinhold Röhricht, 'Amalrich I., König von Jerusalem (1162-1174)', Mitteilungen
des Instituts fur Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Innsbruck, 1891), p. 489. See more about this
charter in Chapter Five.
333 GG, 691-2, from 21 September 1203.
334 Guglielmo di Sori, MS 102, p.
206, R3.
335 See Chapter Five.
3360S9 1200, cart 4, pp. 239 V6-240 R1; on this case see also Jacoby, `les Italiens en Egypte', p. 81.
98