Boni amici et vicini

Enrica Salvatori has spent her scholarly life focusing on the demography and anthroponomy of Pisa in the middle ages. She is an active member of the GISEM (the Gruppo Interuniversitario per la Storia dell’ Europa Mediterranea, publisher of the present book) and her involvement in the group led to this volume dedicated to the rapports between the cities of the French Midi and Pisa, from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Her title does not do justice to the area she covers. She gives ample information on Pisa but also on its rival Genoa, contrasting both cities' political and economic approach. Genoa often chose dominion and monopoly while Pisa preferred diplomatic means and commerce. An extremely useful narrative introduces readers to the history of the relations that connected Pisa and Genoa to the most active cities of the Midi (principally Marseilles, Montpellier, Narbonne, Saint-Gilles, Arles, and Nice); it is followed by a transcription of some 56 documents illustrating her topic. The documents range from 1113 to 1304. By choosing to transcribe both public and private drafts, the author engages with the past historiography that often reached sometimes erroneous conclusions based on a narrowly defined selection of texts. For example, a large number of the public documents that emanated from the communal archives of both Pisa and Genoa dealt with the cities of the Midi, leading researchers to suggest close-knit relations. But private notarial acts show only sporadic associations between the merchants at both ends of the Mediterranean, and forces a rethinking of the question. The volume ends with a thorough bibliography from an author in absolute command of the historiography, be it in Italian, French, British or Spanish; two simple maps locating the areas discussed; and a chronology pertaining to the original documents included, as well as an index of names and places. Salvatori initiates her discussion with the documentation that signalled the appearance of Pisa on the economic market and ends it with the city's perceived economic demise by the middle of the thirteenth century, though adding a note of caution. Further research is needed to gauge the rapport between Pisa and the Avignon papacy; only then will historians truly appreciate whether the city in fact disappeared from the international economic scene. The book covers the origin of the commercial development and expansion throughout the Mediterranean of Pisa and Genoa; the role Provence and Languedoc played in the circulation of merchandise, men, and ideas throughout the Mediterranean; and the diverse strategies followed by both Tyrrhenian cities. As the title of the book indicates, this is a story of ‘good relations’ between fierce competitors. The author pointedly argues that, as mercantile traffic increased so did cultural exchanges, unifying to a certain extent the northern Mediterranean with a similar vocabulary of constitutional models, judicial norms, experience, ideas and knowledge. Similar officials such as consuls and podestà, appeared everywhere, and officials and merchants defined and used uniformly a jurisdictional language that codified a series of norms that led to international laws. As is often the case, commercial enterprises led to political involvement. The fight in Provence and Languedoc between the houses of Toulouse and its allies against Aquitaine, Barcelona and Narbonne, led to a division that placed Genoa on the side of Toulouse while Pisa sided with Narbonne and Barcelona. Always pragmatic, both Pisa and Genoa came to the help of William of Montpellier to quell a revolt of his co-citizens in 1143, increasing thereby their influence through rewarding favourable treaties. In the end, it was the rivalry between Pisa and Genoa and a protracted war over the control of Sardigna (1165–1175) that gave autonomy to the cities of the Midi and allowed them a freer range of motion. This work is noteworthy for its discussion of the spread and diffusion of the Italian concepts of ‘commune’, ‘consuls’ and ‘nations’ to the cities of the Midi. In response to an historiography that tends to see the communes as an Italian import, the author argues that the exact passage from one geographical area to the other is difficult to discern among the commercial contracts and diplomatic treaties that already favoured a common vocabulary. She is uneasy to conclude that the Midi copied or digested the Italian model, and is more interested in their mode and mechanism of diffusion. Regarding the creation of ‘consulates’ or ‘nations’ as permanent organisms of defence for groups of foreigners in a foreign land (only Pisa had a consul in Montpellier), she suggests that the stable and durable rapports that united Pisa and Genoa to the Midi rendered permanent representation unnecessary. This book should interest both economic and social historians for the clarity of its discussion and the novelty of the documents it presents

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