L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano O nly last week, our Prime Min- ister Mario Draghi, dur- ing his inter- vention at the Verso Sud fo- rum, held in Sorrento to discuss the role of our South- ern regions in the future de- velopment of Italy, empha- sized the importance of the Mediterranean in our econ- omy, and how we should re- turn to focus on it as we used to do throughout our history. Needless to say, he must have thought about ancient Rome, which was so dearly attached to the Mediterranean to call it mare nostrum, "our sea," but he certainly also had our Repubbliche Marinare (Maritime Re- publics) in mind which, dur- ing three hundred years, be- tween the 10th and the 13th century, dominated trade across the Mediterranean and brought prosperity to their people. In school, we all learned about them, especially the m a i n f o u r : G e n o v a , Venezia, Pisa and Amal- fi, but other similar realities also had a great influence on t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f m a r - i t i m e t r a d e , l i k e N o l i , Ravenna, Gaeta, Palermo, and Ragusa (in Croatia), the latter today considered a "fifth" Maritime Republic at all effects, because of the magnitude of its commercial power in those centuries. But for non-Italian born, or p e o p l e w h o d i d n ' t g o t o school in Italy, our Repub- bliche Marinare may be a bit more of a mystery. T h e R e p u b l i c s w e r e a maritime commerce-orient- ed version of the Medieval comuni, or city-states, mod- ern institutional realities, deeply trade-oriented, and home to some of the first citizenship rights legisla- tion. Their proximity to the s e a m e a n t t h a t t r a d e b y water was key, and that's why they were at the fore- f r o n t o f n a v a l a d v a n c e - m e n t s , b u t a l s o o f n e w a c c o u n t i n g a n d f i n a n c i a l s y s t e m s . T h e M a r i t i m e Republics were known, of course, for their commercial fleet, but they also had a pretty strong military navy, thanks to which they had managed, starting from the 10th century, to overcome other Mediterranean naval powers – first among them the Arabs – to secure their sea trade routes for them- selves. Historically, Amalfi is considered the first Repub- blica Marinara. In the 10th century, they managed to outsmart the Arabs com- mercially in the Mediter- r a n e a n , c r e a t i n g s e v e r a l trade hotspots in Southern I t a l y , E g y p t , S y r i a , a n d Turkey. It is in those early years of sea domination that Amalfi created the Tavole Amalfitane, known as the first maritime law codex we know. Unfortunately for the Amalfitans, their power was s h o r t - l i v e d , b e c a u s e t h e Normans first, in 1076, and t h e i r r i v a l P i s a , i n 1 1 3 5 , brought the city to its knees economically. Amalfi ceased to exist as an independent republic in the early decades of the 11th century. Pisa, which most of us know for its famous leaning tower, was the second mar- itime republic to emerge. J u s t l i k e A m a l f i , P i s a i s known for its naval battles, both military and commer- cial, against the Arabs who had conquered the shores of Sardinia and Corsica. When Pisa managed to set foot and engage commercially with the near East, it also entered i n t o c o n f l i c t w i t h G e n o a , another Repubblica Mari- nara, a commercial and mili- tary battle that went on for the good part of 200 years, until 1284, when Pisa was vanquished in the Battle of Meloria. Genova began its reign on the seas in the 10th cen- t u r y , w h e n i t c r e a t e d the Compagna Communis, an association of traders and seafarers in charge of the c i t y . A f t e r t h e b a t t l e o f Meloria, which we have just m e n t i o n e d , l a Superba became the sole, u n c h a l l e n g e d n a v a l a n d c o m m e r c i a l p o w e r o f t h e T y r r h e n i a n a n d W e s t Mediterranean seas. But the rising power of our fourth Republic, Venezia, was to mark the end of this domin- ion. Indeed, la Serenissima was to be the most powerful and the longest-lasting of all Repubbliche Marinare. The city was part of the Eastern Roman Empire until the 8th century when the Venetians managed to free themselves and created an oligarchic form of government. Thanks t o i t s s t r a t e g i c p o s i t i o n b e t w e e n E a s t a n d W e s t , Venice always enjoyed an e s s e n t i a l r o l e i n t r a d i n g between Asia and Europe, a position that she maintained w e l l i n t o t h e m o d e r n e r a until the Republic was con- quered by Napoleon. T h e s e w e r e t h e f o u r , c a n o n i c R e p u b b l i c h e Marinare we learned about in school but, as we men- tioned earlier in this article, there were other important cities along the Italian coast and also in Croatia, which held an important role, for centuries, in maritime trade. A b o v e t h e m a l l was Ragusa, today on the shores of Croatia, which is i n f a c t c o n s i d e r e d a s t h e f i f t h M a r i t i m e R e p u b l i c today. The five of them are c o n s i d e r e d p a r t o f t h e UNESCO World Heritage in name of their shared history and the role they had in the devel opment of essential cultural ties between differ- ent areas of the Mediter- ranean. Besides them, we should also remember the important role in Mediter- ranean trading of Ancona ( M a r c h e ) , G a e t a ( L a z i o ) , and Noli (Liguria). Their position, albeit not as strong as that of the main five, was nevertheless pivotal in the history of the Mediterranean and of Europe. FRANCESCA BEZZONE An Italian flag showing the coats of arms of the four Repubbliche Marinare (Photo: Dario Lo Presti/Dreamstime) What do you know about the Repubbliche Marinare? HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS A view of Dubrovnik, known in Italian as Ragusa, the "fifth" Repubblica Marinara (Photo: Emicristea/Dreamstime)

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