Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1100-1550

This third volume by David Abulafia looks at the interactions between territories, peoples and religions across the Mediterranean, and at the influence of the Mediterranean economy on the world beyond. Topics addressed are trade across the Christian-Muslim frontier; the relative importance of local and long distance trade in economic development; the policies of Frederick II and his successors towards the Jews and Muslims; and the complex political relationships within the western and central Mediterranean in the aftermath of the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers. Attention is also paid to Italian merchants and bankers as far afield as London and Southampton, and to the business affairs of Lorenzo de'Medici. Taken together, these papers present an original, Mediterranean, perspective on the economy, society and politics of central and late medieval Europe.

Contents: Trade across the Christian-Muslim frontier: The role of trade in Muslim-Christian contact during the Middle Ages; Trade and crusade, 1050-1250; Gli inizi del commercio genovese a Maiorca e il patto maiorchino-genovese del 1160; East and West: comments on the commerce of the city of Ancona in the Middle Ages; Industrial products: the Middle Ages; The Mediterranean economy and western Europe: The impact of Italian banking in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 1300-1500; Cittadino e denizen: mercanti mediterranei a Southampton e Londra; L'economia mercantile nel Mediterraneo occidentale (1390ca-1460ca): commercio locale e a lunga distanza nell'età di Alfonso il Magnanimo; Grain traffic out of the Apulian ports on behalf of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1486-7; Politics, religion and economy in the era of Frederick II: Lo Stato e la vita economica; The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades; Ethnic variety and its implications: Frederick II's relations with Jews and Muslims; Jews and Muslims under Anjou and Aragon: Monarchs and minorities in the Christian Western Mediterranean around 1300: Lucera and its analogues; Le attività economiche degli Ebrei siciliani attorno al 1300; Die Verfolgung der Juden in SÃ-ditalien und Sizilien (1290-1541); The role of the Jews in the cultural life of the Aragonese Kingdom of Naples; Political rivalries between Anjou and Aragon: The Aragonese Kingdom of Albania: an Angevin project of 1311-16; Genova Angioina, 1318-35: gli inizi della Signoria di Roberto re di Napoli; Consideraciones sobre la historia del reino de Mallorca: Mallorca entre Aragón y Francia; Index.