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CHAPTER 13
Sassari
Daniela Rovina1 Sardinian Cities in the Middle Ages
When compared to the rest of Europe, the rise of medieval cities in Sardinia oc-
curred with a notable delay and was marked a break with the late antique and
Byzantine periods, chiefly in the thirteenth century, with a settlement pattern
characterized by a dense network of rural villages.1 Although the major urban
centers of the Roman period, Turris Libisonis (present-day Porto Torres) in the
north and Carales (present-day Cagliari) in the south, maintained their archi-
episcopal sees at least until the seventh century and retained their preemi-
nence over the surrounding territory, they gradually declined and underwent
a process of “ruralization” throughout the course of the early Middle Ages. The
new phase of urbanization in the Middle Ages was the result of complex and
diversified processes, bound in large measure to economic rebirth stemming
from new developments in agriculture in around the eleventh century, as well
as the consequent reactivation of commercial traffic. This renewal was has-
tened by the arrival of various monastic orders from continental Italy and the
political and mercantile presence of both the communes of Pisa and Genoa, as
well as the foremost Tuscan and Ligurian families, especially in the subsequent
two centuries.2
After its break from the Byzantine Empire, Sardinia was divided into four
autonomous kingdoms, known as the giudicati, which were formed at some
point between the tenth and eleventh centuries. They were Cagliari in the
south; Arborea in the midwest; Gallura in the north; and Torres (named after
1 Laura Galoppini and Marco Tangheroni, “Le città della Sardegna tra Due e Trecento,” in La
Libertà di decidere. Realtà e parvenze di autonomia nella normativa locale del medioevo. Atti
del Convegno Nazionale di Studi: Cento, 6/7 maggio 1993, ed. Rolando Dondarini (Cento, 1995),
pp. 207–222; Giuseppe Meloni, Pinuccia Simbula, and Alessandro Soddu, “Introduzione,” in
Identità cittadine ed élites politiche e economiche in sardegna tra XIII e XV secolo (Sassari,
2010), pp. 5–28; Pinuccia Simbula and Alessandro Soddu, “Gli spazi dell’identità cittadina tra
signori e Corona nella Sardegna medieval,” in Identità cittadine e aggregazioni sociali in Italia,
secoli XI–XV, ed. Miriam Davide (Trieste, 2012), pp. 135–171.
2 On the influence of Pisa and Genoa on Sardinian political life, see also Haug in this volume.