Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa | Page 8

in the East, where the Comneni had
given certain rights to Genoa which on their fall the Venetians refused
to respect. The quarrel came to a head in that cause of so many quarrels,
the island of Crete, for the Marquis of Monferrat had sold it to the
Venetians while he offered it to the Genoese, he himself having
received it as spoil in the fourth Crusade. In this quarrel with Venice,
Genoa certainly at first had the best of it. In 1261, or thereabout, she
founded two colonies at Pera and Caffa, on the Bosphorus and in the
Euxine, thus adding to her empire, which was rather a matter of
business than of dominion. This is illustrated very effectually by the
history of the Bank of St. George, which from this time till its
dissolution at the end of the eighteenth century was, as it were, the
heart of Genoa. It was Guglielmo Boccanegra, the grandfather of a
more famous son, who built the palace which, as we now see it on the
quay, is so sad and ruinous a monument to the independent greatness of
the city. And since its stones were, as it is said, brought from
Constantinople, where Michael Paleologus had given the Genoese the
Venetian fortress of Pancratone, it is really a monument of the hatred of
Genoa for Venice that we see there, the principal door being adorned
with three lions' heads, part of the spoil of that Venetian fortress. This
palace, on the death of Boccanegra, Captain of the People, was used by
the city as an office for the registration of the compere or public loans,
which dated from 1147 and the Moorish expedition. From the time of
the foundation of the Bank the shares were, like our consols, to be
bought and sold and were guaranteed by the city herself, though it was
not till 1407 that the loans were consolidated and the Palazzo delle
Compere, as it was called, became the Banco di S. Giorgio. Indeed,

though its real power may be doubted, it administered, in name at any
rate, the colonies of Genoa after the fall of Constantinople.
Of the building itself I speak elsewhere; it is rather to its place in the
story of Genoa that I have wished here to draw attention.
And it was now, indeed, that Genoa reached, perhaps, the zenith of her
power. For in 1284 comes the great victory of Meloria, which laid Pisa
low. Enraged partly at the success of Genoa in the East, partly at her
growing power and general wealth, Pisa, with that extraordinary
flaming and ruthless energy so characteristic of her, determined to
dispose of Genoa once and for all. Nor were the Genoese unwilling to
meet her. Indeed, they urged her to it. The two fleets, bearing some
sixty thousand men, that of Pisa commanded by a Venetian, Andrea
Morosini, that of Genoa by Oberto Doria, met at Meloria, not far from
Bocca d'Arno, when the Pisans were utterly defeated, partly owing to
the treachery of the immortal Count Ugolino, who sailed away without
striking a blow.[1] Yet in spite of her defeat Pisa carried on the war for
four years, when she sued for peace, which, however, she could not
keep, so that in 1290 we find Corrado Doria sailing into the Porto
Pisano, breaking the chain which guarded it, and carrying it back to
Genoa, where part of it hung as a trophy till our own time on the façade
of the Palazzo di S. Giorgio.
Nor were the Genoese content, for soon after this victory we find them,
led by Lamba Doria, utterly beating the Venetians at Curzola, in the
Adriatic, where they took a famous prisoner, Messer Marco Polo, just
returned from Asia. They brought him back to Genoa, where he
remained in prison for nearly two years, and wrote his masterpiece.
Whether it was the influence of so illustrious a captive, or merely the
natural expression of their own splendid and adventurous spirit, about
this time the Doria fitted out two galleys to explore the western seas,
and to try to reach India by way of the sunset. Tedisio Doria and the
brothers Vivaldi with some Franciscans set out on this adventure, and
never returned.
With the fourteenth century Genoa for a time threw off the yoke of her
great nobles, Spinola, Doria, Grimaldi, Fieschi. The wave of revolt that

passed over Europe at this time certainly left Genoa freer than she had
ever been. The people had claimed to name their own "Abbate," in
opposition to the Captain of the People. They chose by acclamation
Simone Boccanegra, who, however, seeing that he was to have no
power, refused the office. "If he will not be Abbate," cried a voice in
the crowd, "let him