108 Galoppini
7 The Return of Pisan Businessmen to Sardinia
In his epic historical poem De proeliiis Tusciae, the Pisan Dominican monk
Ranieri Granchi remembered that the Pisans had held Sardinia for over 300
years with a “just pact.”62 With the occupation of the Catalan-Aragonese, the
island saw a sudden interruption of the process of autonomous municipal
forms analogous to those of the peninsula, and the introduction of a forced
and systematic feudalism.63 The giudicati of Gallura, Cagliari, Arborea, Torres,
and Logudoro had been, until then, the most important royal institutions
of the island, where their great properties had survived. With the Catalan-
Aragonese conquest, Sardinia was divided into fiefdoms, both large and small,
and divided territorially between the conquerors and the financiers.
Beginning in 1355, the island saw the introduction of parliamentary govern-
ment with Peter IV of Aragon, who modeled the system after the parliaments
of Alfonse the Great (1421, 1446, 1452).64 Some Pisan and Genoese institu-
tions were preserved in the cities.65 For example, the regulatory tradition of
Iglesias grew out of a syncretism between Catalan law and Pisan statute law.66
At Sassari, pre-Catalan (Genoese, Pisan) ordinances existed in unison with
those of the Catalans. Due to a particular autonomy of the ruling classes, the
Sardinian city maintained its political autonomy, even if it was socially un-
stable due to ethnic tensions, which slowly started to abate during a phase of
economic stagnation.
The giudicato of Arborea, with Oristano as its capital, was not forced to estab-
lish feudal institutions and the ancient institutions of the giudicato remained
in effect until they secured their autonomy (1410). The giudici of Arborea, who
62 Ranieri Granchi, De preliis Tuscie, ed. Michela Diana (Florence, 2008), p. 239.
63 Francesco Artizzu, Società e istituzioni nella Sardegna aragonese (Cagliari, 1995).
64 Giuseppe Meloni, ed., Il Parlamento di Pietro IV d’Aragona (1355) (Firenze, 1993); Alberto
Boscolo, ed., I Parlamenti di Alfonso il Magnanimo (Cagliari, 1991); Antonio Era, Il
Parlamento sardo del 1481–1485 (Milan, 1955); Anna Maria Oliva and Olivetta Schena, eds,
I Parlamenti dei viceré Giovanni Dusay e Ferdinando Girón de Rebolledo (1495, 1497, 1500,
1504–1511) (Cagliari, 1998).
65 Luisa d’Arienzo, “Influenze pisane e genovesi nella legislazione statutaria dei comuni me-
dievali della Sardegna,” in Genova, Pisa e il Mediterraneo, pp. 451–469; Laura Galoppini,
“Tradizioni normative delle città della Sardegna (secoli XIII–XV),” in Legislazione e prassi
istituzionale nell’Europa medievale. Tradizioni normative, ordinamenti, circolazione mer-
cantile (secoli XI–XV ), ed. Gabriella Rossetti (Naples, 2001), pp. 401–417.
66 Alberto Boscolo, “Le istituzioni pisane e barcellonesi a Cagliari prima e dopo il 1326,” in
Sardegna, Pisa e Genova nel Medioevo (Genoa, 1978), pp. 127–138.