Edward Gibbon’s rendering of the First Crusade at the end of the Eleventh Century is a wonderful read, as is much of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.[1] But I sprouted a smirk as soon as I came across a passage stating that the marching Crusaders’ wants were liberally supplied by the “coasting traders” of Genoa and Pisa.[2] “Clever fellows,” I thought, “but where were the Venetians at this time?” A couple of pages later I read that some Genoese “artists,” who had fortunately landed in the harbor of Jaffa nearby, framed the assault towers used in the decisive siege of Jerusalem.[3] “Hey,” I sobered up, “even traders can be of some use in war.” Two pages hence I read that the Crusaders were “powerfully assisted” by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, as well as Flanders and Norway, in the cleanup of the Palestine coast after the takeover of Jerusalem.[4] By then I felt almost proud of the clever fellows. “After all,” I concluded with an innocent smile, “trade is not just about buying and selling!” My Venetian roots show up when I would least suspect them.

Footnotes

1. London: Wordsworth, 1998 (first published from 1776 to 1788), pp. 893-947.

2. Op. cit., p. 926.

3. Op. cit., p. 928.

4. Op. cit., p. 930.