History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

CHAPTER XV.

Prohibition to trade with infidels—Its futility—Commercial policy of the Italian republics—Genoa—Genoese fleets and treaties with the Venetians—The Genoese restore the Greek dynasty, and secure a more permanent footing at Constantinople—Galata—Kaffa—Genoese vessels—Details of contract with the ship-builders—Its inaccuracies—Napier’s description of a large Genoese ship of the fifteenth century—Evident mistakes in the account—First great improvement in the Genoese ships—Genoese carrack—Their corsairs and pirates—The most daring of the pirates; their terrible fate—Corsairs—Bologna and Ancona—Importance of Pisa—Her trade with the Saracens, about A.D. 1100; and ships—Her first great misfortune—Mode of conducting her trade—Florence—The Florentines ship goods from a port of Pisa—Sale and transfer of Leghorn, A.D. 1421—First expeditions to Egypt, Constantinople, and Majorca—Freedom of commercial intercourse amongst the Florentines—Their frugality, contrasted with their magnificent public displays—Duties and powers of the board of the “six consuls of the sea”—Their public vessels, and trade in which they were employed—Consular agents—Extent of the Florentine commerce, and cause of its decline—The smaller states—Decorations and traditionary emblems of ships—Signals—Manners and customs of seamen—Their legends—Punishments for gambling and swearing—Superstitions—Manners and morals, A.D. 1420—General severity of punishments—Impaling, flogging, &c.—Branding.

Prohibition to trade with infidels.

While the Popes favoured the trade and influence of the Italian republics in places beyond the seas, with a view to the extension of the authority of the Church, they prohibited all dealings with the Muhammedans. The Bull of Alexander III. even went so far as to confiscate the property, and condemn to slavery every person who furnished the Saracens with arms, iron, or timber for shipping. But though the powers of the Church often struck down remorselessly those who dared to resist the edicts of the successor of St. Peter, the desire of gain and the daring character of the maritime nations often counteracted the most dreadful anathemas of the Vatican. Venice was by far the greatest delinquent; her proud and rapacious merchants, on various occasions, openly resented this interference with their commercial pursuits, and evaded whenever it suited their purpose the observance of the Bulls. The trade with the Levant was too valuable to be relinquished on threats of temporal or even of eternal punishment, and this, too, when urged by an authority often too weak to carry into effect its threats. Hence, while other and weaker nations had occasionally to submit, the Venetians, conscious of their power, resisted with such success the Papal edicts that they at last obtained licences to trade with whomsoever they pleased, and even with the hated followers of Muhammed.

Its futility.

It is curious now to reflect upon the bitter animosity which prevailed among the Christians against the followers of the Crescent, and on the extreme though vain measures adopted to prevent commercial intercourse with them. When, in 1288, the famous Raymund Lully propounded his scheme for the reduction of the Holy Land, he insisted on a prohibition of all dealings with Egypt, and asserted that in six years only of such abstention from trade the Egyptians would become so impoverished as to be easily vanquished; he also urged the expediency of direct journeys to Baghdad and India, to obtain thence the productions of the East instead of from Alexandria. But abstract philosophy, however supported by fanaticism and hatred, will not prevail against material profit; and Lully failed to make converts of merchants and ship-owners to doctrines which would have impoverished them quite as much as the enemies of their faith.

Nor did the efforts of other enthusiasts, with the view of stopping the slave trade and of cutting off the supply of Mamluks for the Sultan’s army, prove more successful; nor did even the project of maintaining a Christian fleet in the Mediterranean to prevent all intercourse with Egypt answer the plan of its proposers. Where one country produces articles which cannot be obtained elsewhere, nothing but an absolute blockade of the ports of trans-shipment can prevent their exportation; and, even then, though the price may be greatly enhanced, such articles will find their way by circuitous routes to those who are willing to purchase them regardless of the cost. The consumer invariably suffers by all such attempts at prohibition; but the producer is rarely injured. As the trade in Indian goods was the most profitable of all, neither spiritual authority nor philosophical reasoning availed to restrain the merchants of Europe from joining in it; moreover, the religious prejudices of the age did not demand a total abstinence from Eastern luxuries. The Venetians, indeed, on more than one occasion, boldly defied the terrors of the Inquisition, and maintained that the offence of trafficking in distant seas was only cognizable by the civil tribunals.

Commercial policy of the Italian republics.

The stern, selfish policy of the Venetian republic and its conflicting measures of protection and of freedom are to this day marvels of success. During many centuries a small isolated community held their own amid the revolutions of surrounding nations, and maintained their high position till the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope gave the first serious blow to their commercial supremacy. Venice, however, in her rise and progress had some powerful competitors, and, of these, the Genoese were the most conspicuous.

Genoa.

A.D. 1206.

Situated on the western, or opposite shore of Italy to Venice, the Genoese had long beheld with envy the superior wealth and power of Venice, and had resolved, if possible, to acquire such strength as would enable them to compete at sea with the Venetians whenever a favourable opportunity might arise for the trial of their strength. Hence, Genoa was early alive to the importance of securing a fleet which would be at least sufficient to protect her own distant trade. Indeed, before Venice rose to great power, Genoa had had commercial establishments in the Levant, with factories along the coasts of Asia and Africa, requiring from their great importance a protecting fleet. Cruisers, under Venetian colours, too frequently molested her traders with those settlements. But the Genoese had also their marauders; and, strange to say, the hostilities between the rival republics commenced with the capture of a celebrated Genoese pirate who had for a considerable space of time infested the Mediterranean. The attack and defeat of the first regular fleet of the Genoese quickly followed, and the island of Candia (Crete) was captured by the superior forces of the Venetians. To the rivalry between the Genoese and the Venetians in the market of Constantinople, and to the long wars thence ensuing, we have already referred.

Genoese fleets and treaties with the Venetians.

The Genoese restore the Greek dynasty, and secure a more permanent footing at Constantinople.

But Genoa, though defeated, persevered in her determination to curtail, if she could not grasp, the whole maritime commerce of her rival, and while protecting her own vessels, to secure a portion of those branches of trade the merchants of Venice had long monopolised. In the bloody war for the possession of Chioggia in the Adriatic, Genoa put to sea with eighty-four galleys, thirteen large ships, and one hundred and thirteen transports; and in 1293 equipped one hundred and twenty galleys, each manned by two hundred and twenty combatants. Hence, a commercial treaty in 1298 was made between the two republics, by which it was stipulated that, during thirteen years, no Venetian vessel should navigate the Black Sea or pass beyond Constantinople. The Genoese, however, though supported by a treaty with the emperor which secured to them the monopoly of the Black Sea, were not able to maintain that with Venice for the stipulated period. Repeated quarrels arose; and the Genoese, continued for more than a century the most powerful commercial rivals of the Venetians in all parts of the East. Being masters of Galata, they interrupted the landing of the Venetian ships at Constantinople, and forced the Venetian podesta resident in that city to seek another anchorage for the merchant traders of his city. But not content with this aggressive policy, they resolved to overthrow the throne of the Latins; to reinstate the Greek dynasty, then fugitive at Nicæa in Asia; and to demand as their reward the entire command of the commerce of the empire, with an exclusive monopoly of the trade of the Black Sea. Nothing could well have surpassed the audacity of this enterprise. If Genoa failed, her commerce in Greece, at least, would be extinguished; while if she succeeded, she was certain to bring down upon herself the thunders of the Latin Church, the hatred of the Franks, and the vengeance of the Venetians. But the Genoese only thought of humiliating Venice, and of securing for themselves fresh monopolies; and they were for a time completely successful. Their navy brought back the Greek dynasty to Constantinople, and they themselves, armed with an imperial diploma, converted the suburbs of that city into a fortress for their own protection.

Galata.

Kaffa.

Having made Galata (now Pera) a place of great strength, their port soon became the entrepôt of commerce with the North and East. With vessels especially adapted for the navigation of the Black Sea, the Genoese, unlike the Greeks, did not intermit their voyages during even the most inclement months of winter; and Kaffa, through their enterprise and influence, thus became a place of great commercial importance as the factory for the receipt of the productions of the north of Persia and of India, which came thither by way of Astracan and the Caspian Sea. The Genoese, however, like the Venetians, were but too frequently harsh and imperious masters, forbidding foreigners to make purchases or sales among themselves, and requiring that every transaction should pass through the hands of their own people. These restrictive laws necessarily diminished the value of their trade.

Genoese vessels.

Details of contract, with the ship-builders.

Although there are no drawings extant of the vessels of the Genoese during the thirteenth century on which any reliance can be placed, they were as skilful and even more daring in the management of them than the Venetians; and that they were equally conversant with the art of ship-building is certain, from the fact that, in 1268, when Louis IX. king of France contracted with the Venetians for some ships, he also contracted with the Genoese for some others. Of these, two are thus described by Mr. F. Steinitz, from the contracts given at length in the work of M. Jal.[685] “These,” he says, “were alike.” They were each, by the condition of the contract, “to have thirty-one cubits of keel, and fifty cubits of extreme length, with 40½ palms of beam. The depth of the hold was 17½ palms; of the first deck, nine; of the second, eight; and of the parisade, five palms. Each ship had a large boat, two barges, and a gondola, or small boat, and two rudders (one on each side), nine palms long; the fore-mast was fifty-one cubits in length, and 12¾ palms in circumference. The main-mast was forty-seven cubits long, and 11¾ palms in circumference. The fore-yard, which was made of three pieces of different lengths, seems to have exceeded one hundred cubits; and the main-yard, which was made of two pieces, to have been four cubits shorter. There was also a separate yard, of the same length as the main-yard, for the ‘velon,’ a large sail, the nature of which has not been exactly ascertained; but as it had a separate yard, it may have been used when going before the wind as an additional sail. It seems to have been hoisted only on the fore-mast. Four thousand ells of spun hemp to supply cordage, &c., was allowed to every ship, and they had six cotton sails of the following dimensions: viz., for the foresail, sixty-six cubits; for the ‘terrasole,’ sixty-one cubits; another sail of fifty-six cubits, and another of fifty-two cubits. The mainsail was fifty-eight cubits, and another sail was fifty-two cubits. Two of these sails, namely, a ‘terrasole’ for the fore-mast, and a ‘velon’ also for the fore-mast, were to be made of Marseilles cotton. Each ship had twenty-six iron anchors, twenty of which weighed eight cantares, and the other ten cantares each, and casks for two thousand ‘mencaroles’ of water. The two ships were to be furnished with stabling to carry one hundred horses between them; and they had fourteen hawsers for fastenings, or moorings in port. The cost of these two ships, with all their stores, was fourteen thousand livres tournois.”

The other ship, the Paradise, seems to have cost only three thousand seven hundred and fifty livres tournois, and consequently must have been smaller. Her dimensions are not given, but her fore-mast is described as being fifty cubits in length, and 12½ palms in circumference, and her main-mast somewhat smaller. She had seven sails, some of which were, no doubt, duplicate or spare sails; twenty-five anchors, twelve of which had buoys; three cables, thirty-one hawsers, and “four mooring ropes at the bows.” She had a barge of fifty-two oars, and two anchors; a boat of thirty-two, another of thirty-four, and a gondola of twelve oars, the smallest of which could hardly have been carried on her deck, and must, with the others, have followed her at sea and attended upon her in harbour. In the contract, the most minute details are given of her stores, in which are comprised a sounding lead, three grapnels with chains, six lanterns, one being of glass, hatchets, nails, hammers, scales, pitch kettles, and so forth.

Its inaccuracies.

There must, however, be various extraordinary inaccuracies in the dimensions of these vessels, as supplied by Steinitz and other historians. The cubit, as known to the Romans and Greeks, was about a foot and a half. It was divided by the Romans into six breadths, or palms, of three inches each; and such were, no doubt, the dimensions of the cubit and palm as known to the Italian republics, and as understood in our own time. If this be so, it follows that each of the larger vessels was seventy-five feet extreme length, and only ten feet beam; four and a half feet depth of hold, with a fore-mast seventy-seven feet in length, of three feet in circumference, and a yard no less than one hundred and fifty feet long. No doubt the yards of the vessels of that period were of enormous length, as may be seen in the “lateen” rigged craft of the present day, and far in excess of the yards of modern ships as compared to the size and length of these vessels; but it would be absurd to suppose that a vessel of only ten feet in width, and under five feet deep, could carry a mast seventy-seven feet long, much less a yard of double that length; nor could a vessel of the dimensions supplied have stabling for fifty horses, or room to hold the spare spars, sails, etc., named in the inventory. Nor is the matter mended if we suppose the palm to have been nine inches; for then the mast would be nine feet in circumference, or equal to that of a first-class modern line-of-battle ship.

However imperfect the drawings which have been preserved, the reader will by these form a more accurate idea of what the vessels were than can be obtained from the few records we have of their dimensions. If, therefore, the following representations, given by M. Jal, from the MS. Virgil in the Riccardi library are examined, and an allowance made for imperfection of the drawings, we may form a tolerable idea of the ships of that period.

Throughout the whole of the middle ages, and even until the seventeenth century, every vessel was provided with trumpets and bugles, which were played during fêtes and battles or used in foggy weather as signals: such instruments are very distinctly represented on the Corporation seal of Dover.

Napier’s description of a large Genoese ship of the fifteenth century.

Nor, indeed, do writers of nautical experience, who describe the vessels of the Genoese even so late as the fifteenth century, supply information on which reliance can be placed. For instance, Napier, in his “Florentine History,” furnishes[686] the following description of one of the largest vessels of the period. “The vessels built during this century for commercial purposes,” he remarks, “were large in size, but it would be difficult to ascertain their exact capacity; and by the description of one belonging to the Genoese family of Doria, which anchored at Porto Pisano in 1452, this was quite unequal to their outward dimensions. Her burden was said to be three hundred “botti,” or about two hundred and seventy English tons[687]; her length, on the upper deck, one hundred and seventy-nine feet; the mast, thirty-eight feet in circumference at the lowest and thickest part, and one hundred and eighty-four feet high; the height of her poop from the keel, seventy-seven feet nearly, without the after-castle; that of her bow nearly sixty-one, independent of the forecastle; her sail, and she seems to have carried but one, was more than a hundred and fifty-three feet broad, and ninety-six high. She was heavily rigged with so many shrouds, says Cambi, that they alone were worth a treasure; her anchors were numerous, and weighed about twenty-five hundred-weight each; she had seventy cabins; her cables were twenty-three inches round, and eighty fathoms long; she was fitted with ovens, cisterns, and stalls for horses; her long boat carried nearly seventy-two tons, and six hundred souls were embarked in her. This was the largest vessel that had been seen in a Florentine port for a long time, and no ordinary seamanship must have been necessary to manage so unwieldy a sail as she seems to have carried.”

Evident mistakes in the accounts.

We should rather have expected a Post-Captain in the British Navy to have remarked that no such sail could have been carried on the vessel he names, for its spread would have been equal to close upon fifteen thousand square feet of canvas; dimensions, compared with which the largest sail in the Great Eastern, of somewhere about twenty-four thousand tons register, would be insignificant, and whose mainmast is a walking stick in comparison with the mast of one hundred and eighty-four feet high, and thirty-eight feet in circumference, of which Captain Napier has furnished a description. Nor are we disposed to place any more confidence in the account of her height which he furnishes; and we are sure that he would not have considered it safe to have commanded in rough weather a ship of the height he describes in proportion to her length (the breadth is not given), much less would he have attempted to hoist upon her deck a “long boat” which carried “nearly seventy-two tons.”

There is no way of accounting for these numerous palpable mistakes than by supposing that they arose “from a mistake in copying the MSS., or from typographical errors;” but how they should have arisen in so many cases is perplexing. Moreover, it is wholly unaccountable why historians, especially men with the experience and practical knowledge of Napier, should not have directed special attention to errors so glaring.

It may, however, from all the information we have been able to collect, be affirmed that, previously to the fifteenth century, practical or professed writers upon shipping were unknown; while those who incidentally refer to it are so inaccurate, that their works have little, if any, real value. Almost everything relating to shipping, and especially to merchant shipping, before that time is, therefore, in a great degree matter for conjecture. Nay, we are even inclined to think that, on the whole, we possess more accurate accounts of the ships of antiquity.

First great improvement in the Genoese ships.

Various causes and circumstances rendered the middle of the fifteenth century a remarkable epoch in the annals of marine architecture, and not the least of these was the competition for maritime supremacy between the great Italian republics. But when Genoa and Venice wisely gave up quarrelling, there was a still more marked improvement in the form and equipment of their vessels. The rivalry of commerce took the place of those foolish contentions which invariably resulted in war. Each nation then strove to produce, not the best fighting ship, but the one most suited to yield remunerative returns. From that period the improvement steadily increased, until vessels not unlike those of our own time were constructed towards the middle of the sixteenth century.

Genoese carrack.

The Genoese, though inferior in, perhaps, all other respects to the Venetians, then surpassed them in the art of ship-building; and they were, so far as can now be traced, the first to construct a ship approaching to the modern form and rig, of which any account and drawing has been preserved. The following, copied from Charnock,[688] affords an excellent and, we believe, accurate illustration of the large Genoese merchant carrack of the first half of the sixteenth century,[689] some of which are said to have been of no less than from fifteen hundred to two thousand tons burden.

A GENOESE CARRACK, 1542.

Their corsairs and pirates.

The most daring of the pirates, their terrible fate.

The Genoese, more especially in the early part of their history, had, as we have seen, their lawless cruisers as well as their peaceable traders. But her corsairs, once so renowned, must not be confounded with her pirates. The former resembled in many respects the privateers of our own time; while their pirates were chiefly under the control of men who had been banished from the republic either for some delinquency against the laws or for political offences. A number of these political exiles, belonging to what was known as the “Guelph faction,” having been banished from the republic in 1323, fitted out ten galleys armed as cruisers and infested the Mediterranean, pillaging indiscriminately the ships and the coasts of Genoa as well as those of other nations. In one cruise alone they took booty estimated at three hundred thousand golden florins. Their success, however, proved the means of their destruction. Pursued by a squadron of Genoese ships of war as far as the Black Sea, they sought shelter in Sinope, then under a Turcoman ruler, who, quickly learning the wealth they had on board their vessels, took short and effective means to secure it for himself. Inviting the pirate chiefs with their crews to a banquet, he surrounded them in the height of their revelry with his troops and massacred nearly all of them. No fewer than fifteen hundred persons, among whom were forty nobles, perished by this one deed of treachery, and only three galleys succeeded in making good their escape.

Corsairs.

The corsairs, on the other hand, were armed as privateers, if not with the express approbation, at least with the tacit acquiescence of the government, and professed to wage war only with the enemies of their own republic. The corsairs also performed the duties of the men-of-war of more modern times, by searching the vessels of neutral and friendly powers to ascertain if they had on board provisions, arms, or merchandise destined for the enemy. The booty thus acquired was divided among the commanders and cruisers, in conformity with the ancient maritime regulations preserved in the “Consulado de la Mer.”[690]

Bologna and Ancona.

The successful resistance of Genoa to the growing power of Venice had, however, another result, in that it encouraged other states inferior in power to either of them to resist as far as they could the commands of these imperious masters. Bologna and Ancona,[691] the first to make the attempt, signally failed; nor did the latter meet with better success when she joined the Istrians in their revolt against Venice, though her ships had the audacity to commit various depredations on the commerce of that state, while she refused to pay the duty required by the Venetians from all vessels which entered that part of the Adriatic acknowledged to be within their dominion.

Importance of Pisa.

Her trade with the Saracens, about A.D. 1100; and ships.

Amalfi, long before Venice or Genoa, the possessor, as we have seen, of a large and valuable commerce with the East, had now passed away as a place of commercial importance; but Pisa, one of the most ancient cities of Tuscany and the chief pillager of Amalfi,[692] still maintained a high position, and proved, in some respects, a formidable rival to the Venetian and Genoese traders. Despising, in their commercial operations, the narrow dictates of religious bigotry, the Pisans, in frequent voyages to Palermo about the middle of the eleventh century, successfully traded with the Saracen inhabitants. They also traded to the coast of Africa, and, on one occasion, in revenge for a supposed injury, captured and held the royal city of Tunis until they obtained redress. They now played a leading and brilliant part in the maritime commerce of the Mediterranean. Pisa, in the twelfth century, contained two hundred thousand inhabitants, and many beautiful monuments still attest its former greatness and splendour.[693] Among the most conspicuous may still be seen its leaning tower, from which has been copied the following representation of one of its ships, sculptured so far back as the year 1178.

Her first great misfortune.

Besides different sorts of merchant vessels bearing a common resemblance to those of the Venetians, the Pisans constructed ships of war with towers of wood, and machines for attacking an enemy, which they managed with a skill that rendered them most formidable opponents. Their expeditions against the Moors of the Balearic Islands, and their conquests in Corsica and Sardinia conferred on them a high military as well as naval reputation. But the Pisans were not without their share of the calamities of the times. In the year 1120, their city was almost laid in ashes and their islands of Sardinia and Corsica taken from them by the Saracens.[694] They, however, assisted by the Genoese, soon after recovered these islands; but the division of the conquest, and probably the exasperation created by commercial jealousy, immediately kindled a war between the allies, in which the Genoese, with a fleet of eighty galleys and four great ships, carrying warlike engines, besieged their harbour, and obliged the Pisans to submit to their pleasure respecting Corsica. The peace that followed was again soon broken; and a sanguinary war, frequently interrupted by insincere pacifications or truces, continued to distress the two neighbouring and rival republics for almost two centuries.

Mode of conducting her trade.

The Pisans seem to have carried on their trade in a great measure by companies, half laymen, half monastic, not altogether unlike some still existing in the ports of Italy. By such means, also, the commerce with their settlements at Tyre, Tripoli, Antioch, and St. Jean d’Acre, was chiefly conducted; and when, in 1171, they gained a position at Constantinople, owing to the quarrel between the Emperor Manuel and the Venetians, they profited greatly by the working of their commercial associations.[695] In less than a hundred years from this time, they had become so powerful that the Venetians found it prudent to enter into amicable arrangements with them, granting, among other favours to the Pisan merchants, the privilege of trading to all their ports of the Levant, Adriatic, and Archipelago, on the payment of only one-fourth of the ordinary customs on the merchandise in which they dealt.

Florence, A.D. 1250.

By this time Tuscany had become one of the most distinguished commercial states of Italy, the merchants of Florence having established relations or branch-houses in other parts of Italy, and even in distant foreign countries; while many of them, who had accumulated larger capital than could be conveniently employed in trade, became dealers in money by exchange. By borrowing and lending on interest at home, and by working their spare capital by means of their podestas, or agents abroad, they for a time, in some measure, monopolized the business of foreign exchange, realising immense fortunes to themselves, while rendering a vast boon to every person who had dealings with distant nations. The merchants of the other cities of Italy soon followed the example of the Florentines (who, it may be remarked, had risen from obscurity during the maritime wars of Pisa, their neighbouring city) in dealing in money as well as merchandise. The Florentines also established houses in France and in England, though, as we have seen, Henry III. passed a law[696] forbidding his people to borrow money from any foreign merchants. Having, together with the Lombards,[697] establishments throughout Europe, they became very useful to the Popes, who constantly employed them to receive and remit the large sums they extracted from different nations in virtue of their ecclesiastical supremacy. They were also doubtless useful in lending on interest the vast fortunes the Popes then possessed—“sowing their money to make it profitable,” as is happily expressed by one of the most quaint and intelligent writers of the period.[698]

The Florentines ship goods from a port of Pisa.

Sale and transfer of Leghorn, A.D. 1421.

During one of those intervals of peace and goodwill of such rare occurrence among these great commercial rivals in Italy, the Florentines obtained permission to deposit and ship their goods from a port of Pisa; but this good understanding proved of short duration. The Pisans repented having made any concessions to their enterprising and industrious neighbours, and soon afterwards the Florentines were obliged to withdraw from Pisa. Further bickerings took place between them, till at length, after holding for a short time an insignificant port belonging to the people of Siena, Pisa had to mourn the success of her rival, who purchased from Genoa the port of Leghorn, for one hundred thousand florins.[699]

First expeditions to Egypt, Constantinople, and Majorca.

The acquisition of so convenient and valuable a port rendered Florence, already a city of great wealth and influence, one of the richest of Italy. Aspiring to possess a navy, she created a board known as the “Six consuls of the sea,” to manage her naval affairs; but the Florentine genius was more banking and commercial than maritime, and her navy, even under the care of the Medicean princes and knights of Stefano, never rose to much importance. She, however, soon obtained merchant vessels sufficient to carry on her trade with the Muhammedans, and to restore the factories which Pisa had formerly established in the East. Her request to obtain, as successor to the Pisans, the advantages they had formerly enjoyed, having been granted by the Sultan of Egypt, the despatch of their first commercial galley to Alexandria was a day of extraordinary exultation. That day inaugurated a new era in the commerce of the now flourishing republic; a new outlet had been opened for Florentine industry and enterprise; a new maritime power had unfurled its flag on the blue waters of the Mediterranean, and it was fitting that so auspicious an event should be opened with great public rejoicings and solemn religious processions.[700]

Nor is it surprising that this day should have been one of exceeding joy to the people of Florence. Though rivalling all other states in the excellence of her manufactures and of her system of banking, she had hitherto failed in establishing a maritime commerce, having, in her earnest endeavours to gain such a position, been on all occasions almost as strenuously opposed by the Venetians and Genoese as by her more immediate neighbours, the Pisans. These obstacles had now been overcome. The departure, therefore, of her own ships from her own port was a matter to call forth something more than the ordinary tokens of joy. The Florentine Argo destined to re-open the valuable trade with Egypt and the far East contained, among its crew of two hundred and fifty persons, twelve young men of the principal families of Florence,[701] sent on board to acquire a knowledge of the trade of the Levant and of maritime affairs. To facilitate, also, commercial intercourse, knowing how difficult it is to reconcile people to a strange coinage and reckoning, the Florentines coined golden florins of the same value as those of Venice, called the “Galley florins,” which they sent in large quantities with the expedition to secure an easy currency at the foreign ports and to facilitate their commercial transactions.[702]

Ambassadors were at the same time despatched to Egypt, with full powers to treat on all commercial affairs; a second embassy obtained mercantile concessions in Syria, Constantinople, and the Morea; while a third proceeded to Majorca, to make the Florentine flag known and respected in that part of the Mediterranean.

Freedom of commercial intercourse among the Florentines.

From this time the commerce of Florence increased so as to rival, if not surpass that of Venice. Her merchants were indeed princes. The trade with the East, opened in a measure by Cosimo de Medici, was greatly extended and improved by his grandson Lorenzo. So highly was this illustrious merchant esteemed by the Sultan of Egypt, that he sent an embassy to him (a mark of respect seldom bestowed by Muhammedan princes even on the most powerful Christian sovereigns) with magnificent presents, including fine cotton cloths of various kinds, and other rich Oriental manufactures, large vases of beautiful porcelain, balsams and spices, and an Arabian horse of great value and beauty.[703] Under this princely merchant, and heartily co-operating with him in his wise administration, Florence reached the zenith of her prosperity. Relieved from wars and tumults, the inhabitants exerted their active spirit in commerce and manufactures. Besides developing the intercourse with India, by way of Egypt, to an extent unknown since the best days of the Roman empire, Florence opened up a large trade with Spain and England, and became the chief buyer of their wools for the supply of her vast manufactures. It was then that the English were allowed to resort freely to the territories of Florence, and to carry thither every kind of merchandise, whether the produce of their own or other countries, not even excepting countries which were at war with the republic. They might there buy and sell, with the Florentines or any other people, all goods not already prohibited, or might carry even prohibited goods through the Florentine territories to any country, whether friendly or hostile, so that the policy of Florence, in her desire to make all nations her merchants, and to centre within herself, as far as possible, the trade of the world, resembled in many respects that of Tyre, and was far more liberal than Venice.[704]

The fleets of Florence, though small compared to those of Venice, were equipped and navigated under regulations similar to those of the proud city of the Adriatic. Her state galleys, destined for the long voyages, were in like manner conceded to the highest bidders. With the intention of securing an abundant supply of raw materials for her manufactures, Florence established agencies in Flanders and in France, under arrangements akin to those she had opened in Spain and in England. Her great commerce, numerous manufactures, and wide-spread banking, created a large and constant flow of specie into the capital; and, in the public and private buildings, of the architecture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which still adorn that beautiful city, may be seen abundant proofs of the then enormous wealth of Florence.

Their frugality, contrasted with their magnificent public displays.

But while no means were omitted by the Florentines to encourage commerce and manufactures, they were themselves frugal in their habits and discouraged all extravagance and wasteful luxury. The whole force of the state was directed to keeping the market abundantly supplied with food and to preventing its export in order that the manufacturing population should live cheap, and the merchants, in consequence, be able to undersell, with a profit to themselves, all other nations.

Warned by the example of Rome, the Florentines, while they spared no expense in public works, carried their frugality to such an extent, that laws were passed to prevent excess in personal indulgences. The ornaments permitted and forbidden were defined and described by law, and the quality of woollen cloth (the use of silk stuffs being prohibited) was minutely specified. Statutory enactments even regulated the fashion of dress for both sexes, the expense of nuptials, and the number and quality of the viands allowed on such occasions, “in order to avoid any appearance of luxury and extravagance in a people depending on their own industry alone for their national greatness and prosperity;” indeed, the enactments went so far as to forbid retail dealings in some of the more costly descriptions of cloth, in order to prevent their being worn by the citizens.[705]

Duties and powers of the board of the “Six consuls of the sea.”

The influential and important board of the “Six consuls of the sea,” which regulated the naval affairs of Florence, made all the commercial agreements with foreign states, fixed the quantity and quality of merchandise to be embarked in the public galleys destined for any new and direct trade with the Levant, and kept minute accounts of these voyages. Its members were responsible for their economical management. With them also rested the appointment of the consuls in foreign states; a general superintendence of commerce, with exclusive jurisdiction in maritime causes; and the care of the woods, buildings, chases, and fisheries, besides various other duties totally unconnected with either ships or commerce. Nor did their multifarious duties, as multifarious as those of a modern English Board of Trade, end here. They had power to impose on certain classes of foreign goods and manufactures high and, in some cases, prohibitory duties, “for the encouragement of native industry in those spots where local circumstances, and the natural bent of the people, promised successful competition.”[706]

Their public vessels and trade in which they were employed.

The public navy of Florence, consisting originally of only two galleys, had been now increased to eleven, besides fifteen “Fuste,” or smaller vessels.[707] Though manned and armed as ships of war, they were principally employed in the conveyance of merchandise to all places beyond Rome on the one side, and Genoa on the other, trading eastward with Constantinople, Kaffa, Trebizond, Alexandria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Sicily; and westward with Minorca, Majorca, Bona, and the western coast of Barbary, as well as with Catalonia, England, and Flanders. These voyages were timed so as not to interfere with each other. When there were no private bidders for the public galleys put up to auction for hire, which seldom happened, the voyage was made on account of the government. The sea-consuls settled the number of the crew and the armament of each galley, and nominated the captain, supercargo, and other officers, none of whom were allowed to be in any way connected with the consuls, or to own any part of the cargo: the consuls, too, were not permitted to share in this trade, except when the vessels were freighted on account of the government. The galleys bound westward sailed in September, and those for the Levant in February.

“On the day of sailing,” remarks Napier,[708] “the various ports at which the galleys were to touch, the period of their stay at each, their ultimate destination, the rates of freight, the names of the officers, and the number of the crews were duly published, except for the voyages to Catalonia and Sicily, which were kept secret for fear of pirates, by whom these coasts were particularly infested. A loan of seven thousand five hundred florins was advanced to the conductor for his expenses, but on good security; and the hire of a galley for the Levant, in 1458, amounted to one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight florins, all charges being paid by the conductor. A hundred and thirty men formed the crew and combatants of one galley, and the conductors of those in the Levant trade were bound to present a carpet, worth not less than fifteen florins, to the seignory on their return, also to carry public ambassadors, and those young men who were sent abroad to learn the art of trading.”

Under the rule, however, of the enlightened Lorenzo, the privileges conferred on these public galleys in their trading operations were entirely abolished, and the public permitted to build, freight, and sail such vessels as they pleased. Under his rule, also, the commercial relations with England were firmly established, and fresh treaties, more liberal in their character than even those of 1385, were made in 1490 and 1491.

Consular agents.

So far back as 1339, the Consulates of Florence, established in various European countries, are mentioned as old and widely-extended institutions. The appointment of the consul was for three years only; and he had to see that treaties were strictly observed, to administer justice, maintain order and reputable conduct amongst the merchants, and, besides other miscellaneous duties, to prevent “gambling and swearing.” Every Eastern consul was allowed a secretary at four florins a month, two attendants, three horses, and a dragoman, with an annual salary of four thousand aspers.[709] He was strictly prohibited from carrying on trade of any kind on his own account, and was not allowed, under a heavy penalty, to act as consul for other nations or advocate the cause of strangers.

Extent of the Florentine commerce, and cause of its decline.

In London, the Florentine consul received by way of remuneration one-twelfth of a penny for every pound sterling of exchange; a penny and half-penny on every pound sterling value of merchandize bought and sold; a penny and half-farthing on every pound sterling of securities; and ten pounds sterling on the cargo of any Florentine galley that arrived in England, on board of which the merchants were compelled to embark their goods, or were subject to the freight if they did not do so.[710] Similar privileges were granted to the consuls at Lyons and in Flanders: in Bruges they were even more specially favoured, as there the Florentine establishments, as we have seen, had flourished since the commencement of the thirteenth century, and her merchants were the most wealthy, and probably also the most numerous and influential in the city. Indeed, so powerful had the Florentine merchants and bankers become in foreign ports that, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they held a large portion of the trade of Europe in their hands. The whole of the banking of France was then monopolised by them, and a considerable part of her commerce. Spain, Portugal, Flanders, England, and even Venice, her proud competitor, were full of them. The Medici alone had at one time no fewer than sixteen banking establishments in different parts of Europe; and such was the extent and consequent credit of the Florentines, that many of the European mints, towards the close of the thirteenth century, including that of Edward I. of England, were mainly under their control.

Although the western nations, towards the close of the fifteenth century, resolved to direct more attention than they had hitherto done to commercial and maritime pursuits, their opposition would have produced little effect in depriving the Italian republics of those valuable branches of trade, of which they had long held almost an exclusive monopoly, had not the discoveries of the Portuguese, and the consequent alteration of the route of the trade with India, given to them an advantage, against which the Italians, with all their wealth, skill, and knowledge were unable to compete.

Nor were there wanting other causes beyond the discovery of a new route to India to bring about the decline and, at last, the annihilation of the once great republics of Italy. In spite of legislative enactments in favour of frugality, the Florentines, as they increased in wealth, became proud and haughty. There seems, indeed, to be a point in the career of nations as well as of prosperous individuals, when every move is attended with danger. Wealth, though a source of power, is fraught with evil. It as often makes men as nations, vain, presumptuous, and arrogant. Wealth is then no longer an instrument for its increase by the development of new sources of trade and commerce, or of the natural resources of a nation, but is made subservient to individual vanity in the erection of magnificent houses, in luxurious entertainments, or in other modes of extravagance prejudicial to the interests of the state.

Purse-proud men consider wealth essential to their greatness, and its lavish expenditure necessary to the maintenance of their position. They vie with each other in their houses, equipages, dress, dinners, and fêtes of every kind. As it is with individuals so it is with nations; and such was essentially the case with the Italian republics in their career after the fifteenth century. Each of the great cities then claimed for herself the honour of being the foremost in wealth, in power, and in splendour. Independent of each other, they became rivals, not merely for ascendancy, but in empty show. Trifling matters of etiquette were too frequently magnified into national insults. The most frivolous individual complaints were dealt with as matters requiring the serious consideration of the respective states. These petty animosities, the offsprings of overgrown wealth, and of its too frequent accompaniments, arrogance and vanity, imperceptibly increased in time into national jealousies and into a political rivalry, of a character dangerous to the well-being of all the republics. Their differences, craftily fermented by their more military neighbours, made them at last an easy prey to the despotism of an overwhelming German potentate, under whom the people of that rich and sunny land were held in subjection until the sympathies of the free states of Europe and the arms of a near and powerful nation were able in our own time to restore Italy to independence.

The smaller states.

Reference has already been made to Amalfi,[711] Bologna, and Ancona, and to the part they took during the Middle Ages in the commerce of the Mediterranean. Though their trade, and that of Naples, Sicily, and Milan, was insignificant when compared to the trade of Venice, Pisa, Genoa, or Florence, it contributed essentially to the employment of merchant shipping. Naples and Sicily, for instance, furnished large quantities of grain, oil, cotton, sugar, and wines, requiring export to distant parts where they were in demand. Bologna was famous for its cloths and silks; Florence received a considerable portion of its Indian produce through Ancona; and Milan, towards the close of the Middle Ages, was an inland entrepôt of no mean commercial importance. Before the close of the fifteenth century the maritime commerce of Spain and Portugal had risen to a position second only to that of Venice, which was destined soon to be eclipsed by the still greater maritime discoveries of that period. But before taking a glance at the progress of these nations during the Middle Ages, or referring to those interesting episodes in their history, whereby they became the instruments of discovering America, and of establishing a fresh route to India, events which changed the seats and centres of commerce and gave an astounding impetus to shipping, it may be desirable to furnish an outline of the character of the sea-faring population at the period to which we now refer, their customs and superstitions, and their love for display in the decoration of their vessels.

Decorations and traditionary emblems of ships.

To cover the unsightly appearance of the resin and pitch necessary to render their vessels tight and to preserve them from decay, pigments were used of various colours, among which white, red lead, and vermilion were long in the highest favour. Green, from its resemblance to sea water, was adopted by piratical cruisers and explorers, to avoid observation. Princes, and other opulent personages, frequently decorated their ships in purple, richly gilt, with highly ornamented poops and sterns, and figure-heads of the most beautiful devices their artists could conceive. In these decorations the taste of the Middle Ages appears to have adhered to the traditionary emblems of the ancients. About the middle of the thirteenth century the Genoese, who, in their encounters with the Pisans, had previously painted their vessels green, assumed the colour of white, dotted with vermilion crosses—the cross gules upon a silver ground being the shield of St. George, the knight both of England and Genoa. In the sixteenth century, red had become the prevailing colour, though frequently black and white were intermingled in foliage, in varied lines or in capricious zigzags; and, sometimes, the ground was entirely black, the ornaments alone being of a dazzling vermilion. Except, however, on special occasions, the colour of mourning, unrelieved by any other, seldom shed its saddening influence over the vessels of the Middle Ages, as it does almost invariably over those of our own time. Then its use was almost exclusively confined to the bearers of death or of other disastrous news. The galleys which conveyed to Manfred the intelligence of the death of his brother Conrad were painted black, and their sails and pendants of a similar colour. In 1525, when Francis I. was captured at the battle of Pavia and carried captive to Barcelona, the six galleys which conveyed the captive monarch and his suite were painted in that sombre colour, from the topmasts down to the water-lines. The sails, banners, pendants, awnings, and oars were all black, and the knights of St. Stephen adopted the same colour when one of their captains was made prisoner by the Turks, vowing never to wear any other until victory should restore him to their country.

Although the ships of the ancients were frequently adorned with purple and gold beyond the decorations to the hull already described, they were surpassed in display by those of the Middle Ages, and, especially, by the ships of the nobles of the Italian republics. Ornaments, emblems, devices, and allegorical subjects with armorial bearings were lavishly engraved or painted on the hulls; while alternate stripes or squares of variegated colours decorated the sails. In the case of the more ordinary vessels of the merchant or of the fisherman, the image of a saint, of the Virgin Mary, or of some sacramental or cabalistic charm, were common devices to ward off malignant influences.

Signals.

Signals were made by means of figured and painted sails, streamers, or flags, and by the use of the ensigns. Indeed, nothing was wanting that could render a ship “magnificent,” according to the prevailing tastes of the period.

Manners and customs of seamen.

Having clung to the ancient mythological taste in the decorations of the exterior of their vessels for so many ages, the ship-owners now carried their pious zeal to the extremity of saintly image-worship, which continued until the Reformation, then in its turn relapsing again into pagan heresies. But the manners and habits of the seamen continued almost unchanged. Throughout the whole of the Middle Ages they were the same superstitious mortals, and as much addicted to the marvellous as ever they had been. Prior to the Reformation, they, like the rest of Europe, were of one catholic faith. They believed in God, adored the Virgin Mary, and prayed to every saint in heaven supposed to have any connection with the sea. They had, however, a great fear of a priest, chiefly on account of his black gown; and in bad weather, if peradventure any priest were on board, he would have risked being pitched into the sea, if the master, as was often the case, happened to be as superstitious and ignorant as his crew.

Their legends.

Punishments for gambling, and swearing.

Fantastic shapes and beings of another world, while they awed, pleased their imagination, for they, too, had their sirens, of which their poets sang. Nor were they without their sea-serpent. More marvellous and tantalizing than even that of modern times, which matter-of-fact men are always disputing, the sea-serpent of the dark ages was adorned with a mitre on its head and had a dalmatic robe across its shoulders. Indeed, many of the credulous world on shore believed as firmly in the bishop-fish monster as the sailors themselves, especially since a learned Jesuit confirmed the actual existence of this prodigy of the ocean. But the sea monsters of the Middle Ages, unlike those of our own day, were happily at times instruments of good. One of them, and the statement is attested by a whole boat’s crew of seamen, actually swallowed an unbelieving sailor who had been playing at dice, and who, while at play, had wickedly defied the Virgin Mary. So thoroughly were the authorities convinced that this marvellous story was a fact, that to prevent any more sailors from being thus summarily disposed of, the playing of dice was afterwards strictly forbidden on board ship. This happy change appears to have extended to the ships of England, for when Richard I. repaired to the Holy Land he enforced a regulation, that if any seaman played at dice, or any other game of a similar character, without licence, he should be plunged into the sea three mornings successively by way of punishment.

Seamen of all ages would seem to have been grievously addicted to swearing;[712] and, although the Church and State of every nation have endeavoured to control this wicked and foolish practice, it still prevails to a large extent on board of merchant ships, and is only now curtailed or stifled in ships of war by the strict discipline maintained in them. It was almost universal in the Middle Ages. The French and Mediterranean sailor swore by his bread, by his wine, and by his salt, in the same way that King Richard[713] swore by the “very eyes of God.” The Church of Rome reproved in the strongest terms the sailor’s oath, alleging that, under an apparently simple expression, it covered one decidedly sinful. In the opinion of the Holy Father, bread, wine, and salt were the bases of their daily food; they were also the sacramental elements; they were the symbols of life itself here and hereafter; to swear, therefore, by bread, wine, and salt, was to commit indirectly, in their judgment, an act of horrible atrocity. Accordingly, by a decree of 1543, the most severe penalties are inflicted upon this most “damnable custom;” and these are renewed in a later decree of 1582.[714]

Sailors have ever been a cosmopolitan race. As citizens of the world, they have had almost a common language as well as a common religion. The song which they still sing in lifting the anchor or in hoisting the sails, of “Ye-ho, cheerily, men!” or some such words, for we have never seen them in print, is the song, or at least the same tune sung a thousand years ago by the Venetian sailors, and resembling, we dare say, that lively and invigorating air re-echoed along the shores of Syria from the ships of the ancient Phœnicians as they manned their oars or spread their sails for sea.

Superstitions.

Their superstitions were universal. These may have varied in name and form, but from a very early period even until now sailors have considered Friday to be an unlucky day, and one on which no vessel ought to take her departure from a safe harbour. In the Middle Ages it was dreaded by seamen as the day of all days of ill-omen or misfortune: again, salt being spilt horrified them, and knives placed across were, in their opinion, the prognostications of calamity. Divination, sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy, were then practised by even “thinking minds.” What, then, could have been expected from the thoughtless sailor, who, to obtain a fair wind, invariably had recourse to prayers and incantations? In the midst of the gale he invoked a return of fair weather by various superstitious practices. The Greeks of the Mediterranean during a storm threw small loaves into the sea, which they called the loaves of “St. Nicholas.” The Russians, to appease the evil spirit which stirs up the boiling waves, and charms the mountain which the sea cannot pass, offered in humility a cake made of flour and butter. The Portuguese, when in imminent peril, fixed to the mast of the ship an image of St. Anthony, and to this idol prayed until the wind changed to his liking.

Nor were these superstitions confined to the sailors of Europe. Some of the Indians, when in danger on the ocean, supplicated the protection of their prince of evil spirits, who was one of their gods, and drank the blood of a cock, swallowing with it a small piece of burning coal, the heat of which they did not feel in the excitement of their insane delirium. When a waterspout was discovered ahead of the ship, the practice prevailed, especially in the Mediterranean, for a sailor to pull out his knife and make the sign of the cross or triple triangle in the air, as representing the Trinity, uttering in his despair some mystical or cabalistic words. If the handle of his knife turned black the water spirit would not reach the ship, and they were safe; but if the danger increased, two sailors resorted to a more powerful charm, a practice which in some measure still prevails in the Levant. They drew their swords and struck them against each other, taking especial care that the weapons formed the figure of a cross every time they clashed. This remedy, in their judgment, was sure to succeed. Some misbelieving sailors would fire a gun against the waterspout in order to disperse it, but these practical fellows, who had no faith in necromancy, deserved to be drowned.

The sailors of the latter portion of the Middle Ages were, however, though superstitious enough, not so superstitious as some of their forefathers had been. They no longer believed that to cut their nails or their hair during fine weather was unlucky, and that such necessary and homely operations inevitably brought on a gale; but they thought, as many sailors still do, that to whistle in a calm would bring wind, and that to continue whistling when the wind came would arouse the anger of the gods and create a storm. They rejected as an idle fable the notion, that if a sailor heard a sneezing from the left hand when going on board ship, it was a fatal omen to which he ought to yield obedience; or, on the contrary, that the voyage would be propitious if the sneezing sound came from the right. But they still implicitly believed it to be a most unlucky sign if, at the moment when they were shipping provisions, the vessel gave a list to starboard. They believed devoutly in a goblin, and considered it a very mischievous imp, which delighted in tormenting sailors during the night by opening their knives, tangling their hair, tearing their bedding, and which, in some of its freaks, would be bold enough to attack the ship herself, tying the ropes into knots so that they would not run through the blocks, carrying away the anchors in a calm, and tearing holes in the sails when they were closely reefed.

Manners and morals, A.D. 1420.

General severity of punishments.

The laws regulating the manners and morals of seamen were frequently very severe. Moncenigo,[715] in 1420, punished with flogging every man guilty of blasphemy, or even of swearing, and inflicted a penalty of one hundred sous on any sailor of the poop, any steersman, officer, or gentleman, who was guilty of the like offence. The Norman code ordered the sailor guilty of robbery to have his head shaved, and then to be tarred and feathered. In this state he was made to pass through the crew ranged in two files, and each man struck him a blow with a stick or a stone, after which he was dismissed the ship.

In conformity with the earlier laws, Peter III., of Aragon, passed in 1354 an ordinance condemning every man to run the gauntlet who gambled with his effects. In certain cases the admiral of a fleet could cut the delinquent’s ears off for a similar offence; and he had even the power also to cut out his tongue, if, for example, any unhappy culprit should insult or menace the master or captain. In the commencement of the fourteenth century, the Catalonian law inflicted the punishment of chopping off the hand of any man who cut the cable of the ship malignantly. In 1397, at Ancona, any sailor who abandoned a ship when wrecked, before she was stranded, lost his right hand.

But when the mutilation of members was found to be injudicious, for “afterwards a man was good for nothing,” this punishment was removed from the law of Catalonia passed in the year 1354. The ordinance, however, inflicting the loss of the tongue and the ears, and running the gauntlet of sticks and stones along the deck, was not abrogated for some centuries, whilst hanging a man at the yard-arm was for the first time introduced. The laws of the North, terribly severe in the case of a sailor who struck with a knife at the master of a ship, or who merely raised any arms against him, enacted that the offender should have his hand fastened to the mast with the knife which he had used, so that he could only liberate himself by tearing away his own hand by main force, leaving a portion of the member adhering to the mast. Any quarrels among the sailors at Genoa which led to loss of life were rigorously punished, and almost invariably with death. Pilots were most severely dealt with. If any one of them had engaged to carry a vessel into a harbour on the penalty of losing his head, he was decapitated if he failed to do so; in the case of shipwreck he was liable to a similar punishment, unless, indeed, he was rich enough to pay for the loss occasioned by his ignorance and carelessness. Sometimes a man, who cut the cable maliciously so as to cause the loss of the ship confided to his care, was punished by being impaled.[716]

Impaling, flogging, &c.

But the pale, the whip, the cat-o’-nine tails, the mutilation of members, the cutting out the tongue, the death by the axe or by a punishment like the gibbet, were not the only chastisements inflicted on mariners who were guilty of crime. Immersion in the water, repeated three times successively, was one more commonly inflicted than any other; and when, in the twelfth century, it was first used by the English, it received the name of keel-hauling; and cale (keel) by the French, who inflicted it upon any sailor who used his knife in an assault. At Marseilles three sailors were punished with keel-hauling, who, in a joke, swore by the name of God or by that of any of the saints.[717] Wreckers were punished with great severity by most, if not all, the Mediterranean nations during the Middle Ages. If any person, instead of aiding a ship in peril on a coast, endeavoured to plunder her, and killed or wounded any one on board with a view to robbery, the offenders were upon discovery hurled into the sea, and when taken out half dead were stoned to death, “just as a wolf should be stoned to death.”

Branding.

The brand was one of the most ignominious punishments which Venice applied in the thirteenth century. By an enactment of 1232, any seaman who had received advances on any part of his wages whatever by anticipation, and did not fulfil his engagement, was enjoined forthwith to reimburse twice the amount he had received, and was liable to be flogged and branded on his forehead; while a law of the Hanseatic League, renewed in 1418, 1447, and 1597, inflicted the punishment of slitting the ears of any sailor who deserted the master of his ship in time of danger.[718]

The penal statutes of the Christian countries of the Mediterranean forbade, as already explained, any sale of arms or of ships to the Saracens. Persons who violated this enactment were sometimes “hung by the throat,” in the terms of the law of Jerusalem. The most lenient punishment, the dispossession of everything the delinquent had in the world and his exposure on the staircase of the tribunal to the public execration,[719] allowed for selling a ship to the infidels, and thereby “wronging the republics two-fold,” was by the statute of Venice of 1232 adopted in principle, if not in all its details, by other Christian countries. But in spite of these stringent laws the Venetians, as already shown, if they did not sell ships or arms to the Saracens, traded with them in other merchandise whenever it suited their purpose. A similar humiliating exposure was inflicted on any pilot or steersman, who, through negligence, had caused the ship under his charge to be boarded, and thus to sustain serious damage or loss. In this case, however, instead of being exposed upon the staircase of the tribunal, the unfortunate offender was obliged, after the confiscation of his property, to sit for six hours upon a cask in a public thoroughfare, in the short dress worn by culprits, with his feet naked, and holding in his hands a helm, amidst the laughter and scorn of the populace.