The Salt War (Italian : guerra del sale) [1] was a brief war between Venice and Padua over salt works in 1304. Venice was victorious and its salt monopoly was confirmed.
On 9 July 1291, Venice and Padua signed a treaty of alliance to last for nine years. [2] In 1299, Padua acted as surety for Venice in its peace treaty with Genoa following the War of Curzola. [3] With the expiration of the treaty in 1300, tensions between the two cities immediately rose. [2] The dispute that turned into open warfare began in 1303. [4] It was a dispute over Padua's right to construct salt pans on the swampy peninsula of Calcinara on the Lagoon near the frontier with Chioggia. [2] [5] [6] The Paduan commune had acquired the land at Calcinara from Gualpertino, [a] the abbot of Santa Giustina and brother of the poet Albertino Mussato. [5] The salt works may have been started under the monks. [6] Venice, however, claimed a monopoly on supplying salt to the surrounding area. [5] [6] They also sought to stop the Chioggians from working with the Paduans. [6]
In an effort to prevent the dispute from turning into a war, Padua sent Giovanni Caligine [b] on a diplomatic mission to Venice. Caligine may also have had a hand in the diplomatic revolution that ended in Padua's alliance with Verona. [9] Negotiations between Padua and Verona took place in March–April, with the personal intervention of Alboino della Scala. [10] The treaty with Verona was signed in Padua on 18 May 1304. Among the signatories were the poet Lovato Lovati and his friend Zambono di Andrea. [11] As a result, Padua's traditional enemy remained neutral during the conflict with Venice. [12] Padua called upon Vicenza, Bassano and Treviso for support. [6] Venice was supported by the D'Este and Da Camino and by the patriarchate of Aquileia. [12]
To defend the salt works, Padua constructed a fortress at Petadibò. [13] By the time Padua had worked out an alliance with Verona, the war was well under way. [2] Simone da Vigodarzere [c] was the Paduan commander. [14] The war was an especially bloody one. [15] In the end, the Paduans were routed and the salt pans destroyed. [5] [6] Treviso, under Rizzardo IV da Camino, [6] ultimately interceded to end the war. [13]
Padua was represented by Caligine at the peace conference in Treviso. [9] The peace treaty was signed on 5 October in the church of San Francesco . Among the witnesses was the local Franciscan custos, Paolino Veneto. [1] [16] According to the terms of the treaty, all the fortresses built during the war by either side were to be destroyed. [13] The border between Venice and Padua was also adjusted in the former's favour, to remove the former salt works from the latter's jurisdiction. [6]
Following the peace, the Paduan poets and early humanists Mussato and Lovato exchanged verses on the war. [4] Lovato wrote three poems in this exchange (numbered 27, 28 and 30) and Mussato wrote two (29 and 31), although the order in which they were written is a matter of dispute. Lovato asked Mussato whether he thought the peace could last, given that, through terms that favoured Venice, Padua's "wounded liberty might be the cause of a second conflict." He thought that they should pretend to be satisfied with the terms since "peace, even a simulated one, is peace: often the true follows the feigned." Mussato, however, preferred to denounce the Treaty of Treviso. [17] Otherwise, Paduan sources have say little about the war. One of the best accounts is found the Historia of Ferreto de' Ferreti of Vicenza. [18] The war is mentioned in Riccobaldo of Ferrara's Compilatio chronologica. [19] Marino Sanudo Torsello was also a witness of the war. [20] On the whole, "the chroniclers seem to endorse the Venetian version of the rupture" with Padua. [3]