522 Cadinu
For instance, Cagliari’s giudice Pietro granted Portus Gruttis status to the
Genoese in 1174, at the expense of the previous concessionaire, Pisa.50 Albeit
for different reasons, the Genoese had sought to build an entire neighborhood
under their jurisdiction since 1164 in the giudicato of Oristano. It was located
near their port, the Januensis in Aristanis, and consisted of 100 dwellings and
various appurtenances.51 If it had been built, it would have used the same mod-
ules as the Ligurian “linear villages” of the time, probably known in the giudi-
cale court (Fig. 19.9).
As in most major Mediterranean cities of the time, it is possible that
Sardinian regulations also required foreign merchants to stay outside the city
walls, in particular for reasons of military security. In this case, the merchants’
residences would have been divided according to different fondaci for each
nation, which would have been led by their consuls or representatives.52 For
nei secoli XV–XVIII,” in Da Olbìa ad Olbia: 2500 anni di storia di una città mediterranea: atti
del Convegno internazionale di studi, 12–14 maggio 1994, Olbia, Italia, eds Giuseppe Meloni
and Pinuccia Franca Simbula (Sassari, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 127–251.
50 This was a port outside the city, tied to the salt trade that the giudici granted to the
Genoese sicut pisani habebant, i.e. according to licensing rules previously agreed upon
with the Pisans. In the 1300s, this was known as the port of Bonayre (Maria Bonaria
Urban, Cagliari aragonese: topografia e insediamento (Cagliari, 2000)). The church of
Santa Maria de Portu was near saltworks and a hilltop citadel built in 1324, Giuseppina
Cossu Pinna, “La carta pisana del 1° marzo 1230, primo documento della presenza fran-
cescana in Sardegna, e la chiesa di Santa Maria ‘de portu gruttis’,” Biblioteca francescana
sarda 1 (1987), pp. 41–49. The site, the mouth of the San Saturno channel documented in
the sixteenth century, was part of an early medieval religious center under the control of
Santa Igia from the eleventh century. Nearby, an extensive system of gardens, canals, and
orchards as well as fragments with Kufic inscriptions near the church of San Saturno have
allowed the hypothesis of a Muslim presence and possible use of the church as a mosque;
see Cadinu, “Elementi di derivazione islamica.” Further, for the hypothesis of a funer-
ary area shared by Christians and Muslims, suggested by an epigraphic fragment from
906–907; see Salvi, “Parole per caso.”
51 Documents dating between 1164 and 1192 describe the Genoese attempt to obtain land
from the family of giudice Barisone, who wanted to be king of Sardinia, in exchange for
favors in negotiations with the emperor. Its uncertain if the district was ever built. It
would have been possible from 1192 onwards, and the military intervention of Guglielmo
of Massa in 1196 would have precluded Genoese initiatives of this nature. I think that the
site with the remains of a linear subdivision of similar size could be identified east of the
walls, with twelfth-century Ligurian forms. Cadinu, Urbanistica medievale, pp. 80–81. On
aligned borghi in Sardinia, see Cadinu, “Originalità e derivazioni,” pp. 118–122.
52 Fondaci (or foundouk) were warehouses and tax checkpoints but also the obliga-
tory dwellings for foreign merchants, protected by municipal authorities. They were