Slide of a lecture I should teke at St. Louis University but I missed beacouse of the flight was cancelled :-(

1. Enrica Salvatori - University of Pisa
The Idea of Crusade in Pisan
Sources before and just after
the First Crusade
September 21, 2018
St. Louis University

2. Innacurate terms:
Crusades and pre-Crusades
❖ The term “Crusade” is an inaccurate name for the armed
pilgrimage of 1099 —> but convenient!
❖ It is even more inaccurate to use the word “Pre-
Crusade” to capture some of the manifestations of
European anti-Islamic sentiments in the XI Century —>
including the non-systematic presence of rites, gestures
and symbols that later become "typical" of the Crusades.
❖ but again, it is convenient to have the overarching
taxonomy, as false as it may be

3. The Pisan Enterprises
❖ 970 —> support for Otto I in
Reggio Calabria against the
Muslims of Sicily and North
Africa
❖ 1005 —> Reggio Calabria and
Messina: Response to an attack
❖ 1015-1016 —> Sardinia -
Mughaid. Pisa & Genoa; Pope
Benedict VIII’s Support;
Response to the attack on Luni
❖ 1034 Bona (north Africa) poorly
documented
❖ 1064 Palermo, ordered by Pope
Alexander II & Beatrice of
Tuscany in competition with
the Norman Aims on Sicily
❖ 1087 al-Mahdiya e Zawila ,
"international" Expedition,
various political and economic
motivations
❖ 1098 Leucata (First Crusade)
❖ 1113-1115 Balearic Islands

5. The Pisa Expeditions
❖ Different enterprises with their own modalities,
framework, and motivations
❖ Re-interpreted by the ruling class of the city in a unified
tale at the turn of the 12th Century
❖ How do current historians read them? What questions
have they tried to answer?

6. Pisa in the 10th Century
❖ Pisa, between late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, kept
a fleet and valuable expertise in the navigation businesses
❖ This ability was used by the Roman Popes, the Dukes of
Lombardy, the Kings of Italy and the Marquis of Tuscia to:
❖ defend the coasts,
❖ recover raw materials,
❖ and maintain links with Corsica and Sardinia
❖ The business network, evidenced by the ceramic Basins,
indicates relations mainly with Iberian Peninsula and Sicily

7. The Importance of Business
❖ Pisan Merchants were
present in some Muslim
trading centers in the 10th
century
❖ 1063 in al-Mahdya and
Alexandria are attested
Pisan currencies
❖ Islamic ceramic Basins from
Majorca and Sicily, 10th-11th
Century in Pisa Churches

8. Questions
❖ Was their purpose driven by religious motivation? Were
they pervaded by a Spirit of “pre-crusade”?
❖ What weight did the idea of “Just War” have in the
sources that document them? And in the following
chronicles?
❖ When we find a clear ideological position, are they
manifestations of a common mentality or do they came
out from a specific cultural environment (the urban
Clergy and the Bishop's Curia, or the pontifical Curia)

9. Historians
❖ Franco Cardini: Pisan Expeditions were neither holy or just
Wars officially recognized by the ecclesiastical Authorities
❖ Giovanna Petti Balbi: the fight against the infidels often
concealed economic interests
❖ Max Seidel: all of the sources relating to the Pisan
Expeditions reflect the ideology of the Crusades.
❖ Marco Tangheroni: we must look at every event in its
individual, precise context before labeling that expedition
as political, religious or purely economic

10. Pisa and the Papacy
❖ Recent studies have highlighted the growing interest of the
Papacy in controlling the “Tyrrhenian Corridor” from the first
half of the XI Century
❖ This interest merged with the political Aims of Pisa (city and
bishop);
❖ Bishop Daibert was the right-hand Man of Urbain II in
preparation for the Crusade, “Treasurer" of the crusade, ductor
and rector of the Pisan Expedition, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
❖ The fight against the infidels was a recurring theme of the
reformed Church

11. How the 12th cent. Pisa reads its History
❖ In the first half of XII century Pisa reconsidered its
“Enterprises” in order to characterize its history, its
identity, and its own political program
❖ The citizens had no trouble in discovering the common
Theme - the Fight against the Infidels - BUT not as an
ideological opposition neither for an implausible Design
of Dominion —> Motivation and Support for a
dominant political Position alongside the Empire and
the Church

12. Our Main Sources
❖ 2 small Chronicles:
❖ the Annales Pisani Antiquissimi
❖ the Chronicon Pisanum (half of the XII Century)
❖ 2 Epigraphs in verse on the Facade of the Cathedral (before
1087 or around 1120)
❖ Carmen in victoria, Poem celebrating the Expedition against
al-Mahdiya and Zawila (just after 1087 - 1120)
❖ Liber maiorichinus (just after 1115)

13. Holy War - Just War
❖ Annales - Chronicon —> NO, but
❖ short Texts, poor Rhetoric, the Mentality perceivable
from the List of Events itself (mix of victories - gratia
Dei - and defeats)
❖ Epigraphs —> NO, but
❖ only a List of Victories that build the Fame of Pisa as
“second Rome”
❖ Not only words..

15. Epigraphs
❖ ex voto (Max Seidel)
❖ Expression of the cultural environment (Giuseppe Scalia)
❖ Political Manifesto (Chiara Frugoni, Mauro Ronzani, Rossetti); more
than one message: civic pride, Pisa second Rome, fight against the
enemies of the faith
❖ No real distinction between the town and its church; the bishop was
the spiritual, political and military leader of the city's ruling class
❖ The Expeditions gave Pisa a leading role in the Mediterranean scene
and the town wanted this role to be recognized by imperial
privileges and papal concessions

16. The Epigraphs

17. Foundation Epigraph
1064 The Pisans, with a large Fleet to Sicily, reached Palermo. Once in the Port,
after breaking the Chains, they seize six large Ships loaded with all possible Wealth
(with one of them, they raised the Cathedral). After leaving the Port, they repelled
the Attack of the Saracens and pursue them to the Gates, making a great Massacre.
After having devastated everything around, they went back to the Sea and to Pisa
safe and triumphant.

18. Carmen in Victoria (just after 1087)
❖ Civic Pride, Heritage of Rome
❖ God’s Will: « Destruxerunt, occiderunt, sicut Deus voluit
❖ Soldiers just like the Apostles who forget the World: Non
curant de vita mundi nec de suis filiis, pro amore Redemptoris se
donant periculis
❖ the Sign of the Cross is on their Sacks, St. Peter fights
alongside them, maybe pictured on the Banners: Altera ex
parte Petrus cum cruce et gladio Genuenses et Pisanos
confortabat animo, et conduxerat huc princeps cetum
apostolicum: nam videbat signum sui in scarsellis positum

19. Carmen in Victoria (just after 1087)
❖ Penance and Eucharist before the Fight: Offerunt corde devoto deo
Penitentiam et communicant vicissim Christi eucharistiam
❖ The Death in Battle is equal to Martyrdom
❖ Official Support of the Papacy: His accesit Roma potens potenti auxilio ;
❖ The Insult to the Enemy: the Saracens are an impious People who
trouble the World by their Perfidy, sunt quasi bestia; their Leader is
like the Antichrist, a cruel Dragon
❖ a ferocious violence is unleashed by Christians on the Saracen
population: Occiduntur mulieres virgines et vidue et infantes alliduntur,
ut non possit vivere

20. Carmen in Victoria: Author?
❖ Author not known but was a witness of the events
❖ Clerk of the City, maybe even of the Cathedral
❖ Witness of the First Crusade
❖ Well acquainted with the ideological and doctrinal
Apparatus developed in the Pope's Entourage about
the Fight against the Infidels (Gregory VII - Urban II)
❖ He had the ideological and cultural tools to transform
the Expedition of 1087 into a “pre-crusade”

21. Balearic Island 1113-1115
❖ Similarities between the previous Enterprise.
❖ Pisa is Leader of an international Coalition for the stated purpose to
free thousands of Christian prisoners
❖ The Pope gives to the Fleet the crucem romanaque signa.
❖ The spiritual and military leaders are members of the Church: the
Bishop of Pisa, the Ambassador of the Pope
❖ Same aims: to obtain the support of the papacy for the control of the
Tyrrenian Islands.
❖ The Author of the Liber Maiorichinus is a Clerk with a strong
Adhesion to the Holy War Idea

22. Balearic Island 1113-1115
Unlike the before, the soldiers and their leaders are not as unanimous and
ideologically motivated:
❖ They have greater difficulty with being so far from home
❖ They fear that losses will be greater than earnings
❖ When a rebellion arises in the Christian camp, the Pisan Bishop or
papal Ambassador reminds the soldiers their true and holy aim
❖ We see sometimes in action "men of dialogue”. Peter Albizzone, near
to the Emperor et to the Balearic dynasty. His Ancestors took care of
the Mudjahid’s Son after the Expedition in Sardinia (1015), brought
him to the Emperor e then they returned him to his family . He was
welcomed at Balearic kingdom and called in order to organize their
Defeat

23. Balearic Island 1113-1115:
the other Side
The Balearic Rulers try to negotiate by all Means:
Treasure
Release of Prisoners
Acknowledgement of the defeat in change of warranties
The Chiefs of the Coalition ask the Pisans for Explanations: Why do they
refuse to listen to the Saracen Proposals? Why are they not happy to receive
the Prisoners and a Compensation? Why do they accept Orders from
clerks?
Because they act in Accordance with the Oath given to the Pope and to
the Christ.

24. Balearic Island 1113-1115
❖ We can recognize another Vision, a Vision without Cantors and never
expressed in a clear and conscious Way. Peter Albizzone’s line was a lost
one in the Poem.
❖ Vision driven by the Practice of Commerce: mandatory dialogue.
❖ Used to write agreements with the Saracens all over the Mediterranean
Sea, before and mainly after the First Crusade.
❖ The ruling Class is, of course, the same: military Enterprises and political /
commercial Agreements are both practical solutions
❖ Maybe the true “Ideology”- if we really can recognize one - it is the
greatness of the city itself, that chooses to use war or diplomacy to improve
its glory

25. Two Authors
Liber Maiolichinus
Carmen in Victoria

26. The Name of the Enemies
https://voyant-tools.org

27. The Enemies - Relative frequency
❖ Paga* (paganus):
❖ LM: 277 - CV 2.289
❖ Barb* (barbarus):
❖ LM 1.247 - CV 0
❖ Maur*
❖ LM 2.863 - CV 0
❖ Sarac*
❖ LM 231 - CV 5.473
❖ Host*
❖ LM 4.479 - CV 2.189

28. After the Balearic expedition
After the Balearic expedition (the islands were conquered again by
Almoravid Dinasty on 1115) Pisa ended any Initiative “against” the Islamic
World
❖ Because of the political scenario ? Depleted hope to obtain the complete
ecclesiastical Control of Sardinia and Corsica by the Pope
❖ Economic gain?
❖ The warfare was expensive and not very profitable in a quieter
Mediterranean Sea
❖ The web set by Pisa with Islamic kingdoms since the beginning of
the XII Century was enormously more useful
❖ But the Glory of the City stands!

29. Other sources
❖ Bernardo Maragone, chronicler (XII century): no condemnation
neither reproaches towards the Saracens
❖ 1154 -1162, the Pisan sailor-corsair Trapelicino, who killed
Egyptian merchants on his ship, athwart the political official
agreement between Pisa and the Sultan of Egypt, was banned
from the City forever. His terrible action damaged the entire
town and its well known role in the Mediterranean network
❖ The gap between the Enterprises and their texts and
Maragone/Trapelicino is obviously only apparent, but it must
be explained by a better analysis of the texts