152 Bresc
cities—agricultural laborers in Tuscany and Latium, and shepherds in
Sardinia—reflects the extreme poverty of the islands.
Only one such movement of people to Sicily was successfully organized
under political direction: the arrival of Lombards from the domains of the
Aleramici marquis (between Savona and Montferrat). They were brought in
around 1100 to found new inhabitations (Piazza, Aidone, Vaccaria) and to
populate older ones (Butera, Nicosia, Paternò, San Fratello). Other attempts at
doing this were less successful and ended in failure, like Augusta, which was
founded by Frederick II and populated by Provençals under the Angevins and,
subsequently, the Catalans after 1282. The group implanted in Augusta dis-
solved because of the loose bonds of the non-native communities in Sicily and
the absolute freedom to set oneself up in the recently unified island, which was
open to all inhabitants after the elimination of serfdom between 1250 and 1280.
The strong presence of Jewish communities on both Sicily and Sardinia
should also be noted. Jews were in fact considered privileged immigrants, who
were brought to Sicily from the Maghreb and later from Castile. Prior to the
expulsion of 1492–1493, one Sicilian in 20 was of the Jewish faith. The techni-
cal expertise of some of the Jews assured them of places of note among the
artisans, and in commerce with the interior. In Sardinia, the Aragonese pow-
ers promoted the settlement of Catalan and Provençal Jews in Cagliari and in
Alghero, evidence of which can be seen in these cities’ commercial strength in
the coral trade, as well as foreign exchange.18
5 Habitat
The islands of Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica share a basic geographic similar-
ity: none of them has a natural geographic center or a large central city. As
is the case in most Mediterranean islands, the principal inhabitations are
located on the periphery: they are the ports cities. At times, the Sicilian city
of Castrogiovanni—known as Henna in antiquity—played a central role
in the resistance against the Muslim invasion, the Norman invasion around
1065, and the Angevin reconquest around 1325. Nonetheless, the capitals al-
ways remained on the coast: Syracuse in Byzantine Sicily, then the Arab and
Norman city of Palermo, and, during the Aragon dynasty, Catania and Messina;
in Sardinia, Cagliari, Torres, Olbia, and Tharros were abandoned during the
Giudicati period for Flumini, Santa Gilla, Ardara, Posada, and Oristano. In
18 Bruno Anatra, “Dall’unificazione aragonese ai Savoia,” in La Sardegna medievale e
moderna, ed. Giuseppe Galasso, Storia d’Italia 10 (Turin, 1984), pp. 191–663, 357.