FOOTNOTES:
[647] One of the most remarkable deeds of daring in the early history of Venice was the carrying away the body of St. Mark from his previous resting-place at Alexandria. This robbery is said to have been committed by the crews of ten Venetian galleys in the year A.D. 827. See Smedley, “Sketches of Venet. Hist.” i. p. 15.
[648] See, for all that is known of the early mediæval commerce of Marseilles, De Ruffi, Hist. de la Ville de Marseille, 2 vols. fol. 1696; and Fabre, Hist. de Marseille, 2 vols. 8vo. 1829. It was owing to the lead which the French took in the early Crusades, that Orientals came to designate first the Western, and then all Christians by the name of “Franks.”
[649] It is almost impossible now to determine the relative values mentioned in records so old as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Moreover, research only shows that there was the greatest confusion both as to the names and as to the values of the weights and measures of that period. The Bezant (or Byzant), taking its name unquestionably from the City of Byzantium, was a common term for gold money in Western Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Thus Dunstan bought Hendon of King Edgar for two hundred Byzants (Camden’s “Remains concerning Britain”), and Wyclif, in his translation of the Bible, uses “besauntis” for the ten pieces of money in the parable. These Byzants were not always of the same weight or purity, but it is generally believed that, in the time of Constantine, seventy-two were coined to the pound, and that therefore they were worth about the same as the ducat (with which they are often confounded), viz., 9s. (Savile Script. Dec. post Bedam, fol. 76, 6. Ducange Gloss. in voce.) Those of Alex. Comnenus, A.D. 1081-1118, weigh about seventy grains English.
[650] One of the most atrocious massacres of the Jews on record is that which broke out on the departure of Richard I. (who had protected them) for the Holy Land in A.D. 1190. (William of Newbury, iv. c. 1. Matthew Paris, p. 157.)
[651] See full details of the course of the trade of Marseilles in Pardessus, i. pp. 62-5; ii. p. 6, &c. Ruffi, Hist. de Marseille, 2 vols. fol. 1696; and Fabre, Hist. de Marseille, i. p. 301, &c.
[652] Pardessus, ii. p. 66. Capmany, “Memorias,” vol. ii.
[653] Barcelona was indebted to the French for ridding it of the Saracen rule, and subsequently to the wise rule of Raymond Berenger. Pardessus, vol. ii.
[654] Pardessus observes that in reading the history of the period of the Crusades, any one would suppose that the great maritime cities of the Mediterranean imagined that these expeditions were made merely to promote and extend their commerce. In vol. ii. p. 39, he gives a remarkable list of the various privileges conceded to Marseilles, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, with the view of securing their aid (or at least their neutrality) during these expeditions. See also Smedley, “Sketches of Venet. Hist.,” i. p. 25-45, for details of exactions made by the Venetians from the leaders of the Crusades.
[655] Vol. i. pp. 34-5.
[656] History of Venice, Universal History, xxiii. p. 414, and E. Smedley, “Sketches of Venetian History,” i. p. 72.
[657] Though much has been written on the subject, no satisfactory derivation has been given for this remarkable name.
[658] Smedley, “Sketches of Venetian History,” p. 74.
[659] History of Charles V. i. p. 94.
[660] Sanuto mentions, so early as A.D. 1171, the establishment of a bank at Venice. On this occasion, the Doge Vitale enforced a loan from the wealthiest citizens, and for this purpose established a “Chamber of Loans” (Camera degl’ imprestiti). The contributors to the loan were to receive interest at four per cent. (Vita de’ Duchi, p. 502.)
[661] This remarkable oration, necessarily condensed in the text, is given at great length in Daru. Hist. de la Rép. de Venise, ii. pp. 293-308; cf. also Sanuto, Vita de’ Duchi. Ap. Muratori, Antiq. xx. Rendered into English money (reckoning the ducat at 9s. 6d.), the following amounts are (for the year)—
| Ducats. | Pounds sterling. | |
| 1. From the northern towns | 1,794,000 = | 852,150 |
| 2. Imports of cloth | 900,000 = | 427,500 |
| 3. Spices, &c. | 1,871,000 = | 888,725 |
| 4. From all sources | 28,800,000 = | 13,680,000 |
| 5. Debt due by Milan | 1,600,000 = | 850,000 |
These amounts, however, do not represent the exact sums which flowed into the Venetian exchequer, as we are ignorant of the relative value of gold and silver at the period.
[662] M. Jal has given, in his work on Naval Architecture, a drawing of one of these galleys, but of a much later period—A.D. 1620.
[663] It is stated by Cinnamis (p. 165) in his life of Manuel Comnenus, that this vessel was built by a private Venetian noble, then sold by the builder to his own republic, and then presented to Manuel. Nicetas adds, that this vessel was in the arsenal at Constantinople in 1172, when the emperor tried to imprison all the Venetians there; and that they took it and made their escape in it, in spite of the fire-ships immediately sent after it. M. Jal (ii. pp. 142-152) has given very interesting extracts on the subject of this great vessel from the treatises of Marino and Filiasi. Smedley shows that the Venetians had owned another enormous ship at the siege of Ancona in 1157, which was called from its magnitude “Il Mondo”—“The World.”—Sketches of Venet. Hist. pp. 63, 64.
[664] Dandolo. Chron. Venet.
[665] Cinnam. Vit. Manuel Comnen.
[666] St. Louis returned from the Holy Land in a “Nef,” which carried eight hundred persons. See M. Jal, “Mémoire sur les vaisseaux ronds de Saint Louis,” ii. pp. 347-446, where all the passages are collected which bear on this subject.
[667] Statut. Marseill. i. c. xxxiv.
[668] Ville-Hardouin, p. 154 (ed. 1657).
[669] Jal, ii. p. 377.
[670] See, also, “The Ship: its origin and progress,” 4to, 1849, by F. Steinitz, p. 94, wherein the engravings and measurements of M. Jal are reproduced.
[671] This name occurs spelt in various different ways. It is the same as the English “Cog,” first noticed in the reign of King John (Spelman in voce). Sir H. Nicolas, “Hist. Royal Navy,” i. p. 128.
[672] Admiral W. H. Smyth describes the galliot as a small Dutch or Flemish merchant vessel.—Sailors’ Word-book, p. 332.
[673] These and the following vessels appear under various spellings, the most correct form of which it is now scarcely possible to determine. Smedley, in his excellent “Sketches of Venetian History,” i. p. 87, adopts Palander. Uissier, from Uis, a door, was a flat-bottomed vessel. Cf. also Gibbon, c. lx. A.D. 1203. For further details of the names of vessels during the Middle Ages, see the works of Mr. Steinitz, M. Jal, and of Sir H. Nicolas.
[674] Napier gives the names of most of these vessels, with some remarks on their proportions and uses.—Hist. of Florence, iv. pp. 36-38.
[675] The words Nefs and Nés occur in many of the Norman descriptions of the marine of those days. “La Blanche Nef” was the name of the ship in which Prince William, the son of Henry I., was drowned, in Nov. A.D. 1120, while crossing from Normandy to England.
[676] An Italian who, in 1758, wrote a small book on certain arts in use amongst the ancient Venetians, which was republished in 1841.
[677] A practice somewhat similar was adopted in later times by the East India Company.
[678] A similar custom is mentioned at Florence, sub an. 1422. See Napier’s “Flor. Hist.” iii. p. 56.
[679] MS. quoted by Filiasi, Memorie Storiche de Venet.
[680] The whole history of these consuls, with their duties, &c., has been published by Pardessus, ii. pp. 49-420, under the title of “Droit maritime connu sur le nom de Consulat de la Mer.” Capmany has published the same as “Codigo de las costumbras maritimas.”
[681] Commentators have not settled where the “paradise” cabins were situated, but they, no doubt, occupied the best part of what is known as the poop in modern vessels.
[682] It is not possible now to determine how much these sums amount to in present English money, the more so that the denier is sometimes used for gold coin. The denier tournois was one-fourth less than the denier Parisis.—Le Blanc, “Monnoies de France,” d. 1690. See also Fabre, “Hist. de Marseille,” vol. i.
[683] Chronicles of the Crusades, p. 391, Bohn’s edition.
[684] The actual laws of the states were founded on a remembrance of the codex of Justinian, previously to its re-discovery at Amalfi. This codex embodied much of the previous Roman law, and with this whatever the Roman jurists had borrowed from the Rhodians. The whole of this question has been fully and carefully examined by Pardessus.