Genoa and Byzantium: Aspects of a long relationship

This paper considers how Byzantine awareness of the Western World progressively evolved taking the first Crusade as the starting point of a long process. A particular purpose of this study is to consider the Byzantine attitude towards the mercantile element by comparison to the Frankish crusaders. The Genoese presence, at first less relevant than that of Amalfitans, Pisan, Venetians, in the second half the Thirteenth century developed and people from Genoa became the most visible players in the interaction between Byzantium and the West. The investigation discusses a number of key topics such as the danger of the Italians in the eyes of the Byzantines, the Italian infiltration in the empire, the status of the Italian citizens residing in Byzantium, the competition between the two sides and shows how these themes were reflected in the contemporary Byzantine and Western sources.