Salt War (1304)

Last updated

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.

Contents

Background

Genesis of the dispute

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, [lower-alpha 1] 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]

Preparations for war

In an effort to prevent the dispute from turning into a war, Padua sent Giovanni Caligine [lower-alpha 2] 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]

War and treaty

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 [lower-alpha 3] 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  [ it ]. 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]

Aftermath

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]

Notes

  1. ↑ Gualpertino abandoned the abbey of Vangadizza to study canon law in Padua, where he was eventually made prior of the monastery of San Polo. According to Giovanni da Nono, he poisoned his predecessor as prior and fathered several illegitimate children. Following a disputed election, Gualpertino was appointed abbot of Santa Giustina by Pope Boniface VIII on 17 February 1300. According to Da Nono, he owed his appointment to a large bribe paid by Vitaliano del Dente  [ it ] and later murdered two monks during his abbacy. Guizzardo da Bologna attributed his appointment to his brother's influence with the pope. [7]
  2. ↑ Caligine was a knight of humble origins. An ancestor, Alberto Caligine, was a tailor. His brother Giacomo was a notary and judge. Giovanni entered the college of judges in 1273 and served as its gastaldione three times. He was judge of the anziani in 1283. He served as podestà of Vicenza for six months in 1302–1303; of Verona in 1305; of Mantua when it was under the control of Rinaldo dei Bonacolsi  [ it ]; and of Modena in 1314. He had a son named Prosdocimo and a daughter who married into the Capodilista. A Ghibelline, Giovanni was appointed imperial vicar of Arezzo by the Emperor Henry VII in 1312. He became a citizen of Venice by 1314 and in 1320 his sons were declared rebels by Padua. [8]
  3. ↑ Simone's father, Onore, held the castle of Vigodarzere in 1278 and fought against Verona that year. Simone was knighted by Azzo VIII d'Este. Between 1296 and 1299, he served successively as podestà of Modena, Florence and Vicenza. He married twice. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Padua</span> City in Veneto, Italy

Padua is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 214,000. The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) which has a population of around 2,600,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scaliger</span> Italian noble family

The House of Della Scala, whose members were known as Scaligeri or Scaligers, was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cangrande I della Scala</span>

Cangrandedella Scala was an Italian nobleman, belonging to the della Scala family which ruled Verona from 1308 until 1387. Now perhaps best known as the leading patron of the poet Dante Alighieri, Cangrande was in his own day chiefly acclaimed as a successful warrior and autocrat. Between becoming sole ruler of Verona in 1311 and his death in 1329 he took control of several neighbouring cities, notably Vicenza, Padua and Treviso, and came to be regarded as the leader of the Ghibelline faction in northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triveneto</span>

The Triveneto, or Tre Venezie, is a historical region of Italy. The area included what has become the three Italian regions of Venezia Euganea, Venezia Giulia and Venezia Tridentina. This territory was named after the Roman region of Venetia et Histria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Verona</span> Veronas City history

Events in the history of Verona, in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastino II della Scala</span>

Mastino II della Scala was lord of Verona. He was a member of the famous Scaliger family of Northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venezia Santa Lucia railway station</span> Railway station in Venice, Italy

Venezia Santa Lucia is the central station of Venice in the north-east of Italy. It is a terminus and located at the northern edge of Venice's historic city . The station is one of Venice's two most important railway stations; the other one is Venezia Mestre, a mainline junction station on Venice's mainland district of Mestre. Both Santa-Lucia and Mestre stations are managed by Grandi Stazioni and they are connected to each other by Ponte della Libertà.

Albertino Mussato (1261–1329) was a statesman, poet, historian and playwright from Padua. He is credited with providing an impetus to the revival of literary Latin, and is characterized as an early humanist. He was influenced by his teacher, the Paduan poet and proto-humanist Lovato Lovati. Mussato influenced many humanists such as Petrarch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubertino I da Carrara</span>

Ubertino Ida Carrara, called Novello and better known as Ubertinello, was the Lord of Padua from 1338 until his death.

Jacopo or Giacomo I da Carrara, called the Great (Grande), was the founder of the Carraresi dynasty that ruled Padua from 1318 to 1405. He governed with the advice of the leading citizens during a rule characterized by unity within the city. He is usually considered the first lord of Padua (signore), his election marking the transition from commune ad singularem dominum, a characteristic regime known as a signoria to contemporaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venezia Mestre railway station</span> Railway station in Venice, Italy

Venezia Mestre railway station is a junction station in the comune of Venice, Italy. It is located within the mainland frazione of Mestre, and is classified by its owner, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, as a gold category station.

Lovato Lovati (1241–1309) was an Italian scholar, poet, notary, judge and humanist from the High Middle Ages and early Italian Renaissance. Arguable among historians, Lovati is considered the "father of Humanism." His literary Padua circle included Rolando de Piazzola, Geremia da Montagnone, and Albertino Mussato. Lovati's scholarship marked characteristics which would later define the development of humanism: an appetite for classical texts; a philological concern to correct them, and ascertain their meaning; and a desire to imitate them. Scholars such as Petrarch commented on his works favorably. Lovati's achievements which survive today are his Latin verse epistles, and his short commentary of Seneca's tragedies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezzelino II da Romano</span>

Ezzelino II da Romano, also known as Ezzelino il Monaco was an Italian nobleman of the Ezzelini family, who was lord of Onara, Romano, Bassano and Godego.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Padua in the Veneto region of Italy.

Giordano Forzatè, anglicized Jordan Forzatè, was a Paduan Benedictine monk and religious leader. For his noble background, peacemaking efforts and monastic reforms, the Chronicle of the Trevisan March calls him the pater Padue, "father of Padua".

The War of the Castle of Love was a conflict in 1215–1216 between Padua and Treviso on one side and Venice on the other. It began with an exchange of insults at a festival, escalated to raiding and finally to open warfare. The decisive engagement was fought near the mouth of the Adige on 22 October 1215 and a peace treaty was signed on 9 April 1216.

Guglielmo Cortusi (fl. 1305–1361) was a Paduan judge, diplomat and chronicler whose Chronica de novitatibus Padue et Lombardie is the principal primary source for Paduan history in the early years of Carraresi rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War of Padua</span> 15th century military conflict

The War of Padua was a conflict in 1404–1405 between the Republic of Venice and the Carrarese lordship of Padua. In the power vacuum produced by the death of the Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, in 1402, Francesco II da Carrara endeavored to expand into the Veneto and capture cities held by Visconti troops. These designs alarmed Venice, which allied with Milan to counter the common threat posed by the Carrarese state, and for the first time adopted a policy of direct intervention in the affairs of its hinterland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferreto de' Ferreti</span> Italian writer

Ferreto de' Ferreti, also spelled dei Ferreti, was an Italian judge, poet and historian from Vicenza. He was one of the early Renaissance humanists and an early reader of Dante Alighieri.

Stefano Badoer was a Venetian nobleman.

References

  1. 1 2 Fontana 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 McCabe 2022.
  3. 1 2 Foligno 1910, p. 85.
  4. 1 2 Hyde 1966, p. 295.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hyde 1966, p. 272.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Foligno 1910, p. 86.
  7. ↑ Hyde 1966, pp. 271–272.
  8. ↑ Hyde 1966, pp. 113–115.
  9. 1 2 Hyde 1966, p. 114.
  10. ↑ Varanini 1989.
  11. ↑ Witt 2003 , p. 110. According to McCabe 2022, a contemporary description of the meeting in Padua is found in Sambin 1952–1953.
  12. 1 2 Hyde 1966, p. 248.
  13. 1 2 3 Schor 1871, pp. 64–65.
  14. 1 2 Hyde 1966, p. 98.
  15. ↑ Hankey 2000 , p. 218: "raged savagely"; Rosada 2011 , p. 355: asprezza cruenta ("bloody bitterness").
  16. ↑ Rosada 2011, p. 355.
  17. ↑ Witt 2003, pp. 110–111.
  18. ↑ Hyde 1966 , p. 272, referring to the edition of Cipolla 1908 , pp. 226–234.
  19. ↑ Hankey 2000, p. 218.
  20. ↑ Rosada 2011, p. 364.

Works cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.