Sardinia As A Crossroads In The Mediterranean 37
that Schena introduces to explain why Sardinia has been a silent player dur-
ing the resurgence of Mediterranean studies. As a consequence of this scarcity
of documentation, past historians have avoided diving into Sardinian matters,
frustrated by the difficulty of finding archives and material on which to work.
An egregious job was undertaken by Olivetta Schena, often accompanied by
Anna Maria Oliva, who, as historians and paleographers, have dedicated much
of their lives to identifying, often transcribing, and finally reorganizing much
of what has survived of the documents, mostly for the later, Spanish period.
Despite the “tenacious Sardinian anti-archival attitude,” she wrote that there is
a “vast and systematic archival collection” gathered by generations of scholars
working in archives and libraries in the Iberian Peninsula, Marseilles, Genoa,
Pisa, Lucca, Montecassino, and Camandoli, as well as the Carolingian and
Hohenstaufen dynastic collections.
Schena’s research on the “lost memory of Sardinia” is focused on the
“geography of the sources or the structure of the sources.” It is this tension
between the source and the content that becomes the key to interpretation.
But, before addressing this “geography of source,” Schena underlines the need
for “freeing the narrative from the superimposition of models” that may not be
pertinent to Sardinia. In particular, she agrees with the research done by Mario
del Treppo regarding Sicily and southern Italy more generally—regions which
have repeatedly been wrongly compared to the “inadequate” models found in
north and central Italian communal cities flourishing in the twelfth century.
Sardinia risks falling into similar comparisons. Only clarifying these distinc-
tions will help avoid misunderstanding and confusion. Schena then lists mu-
nicipal archives (Bosa), privileges conceded by the Aragonese to (their) city of
Alghero “for administrative use,” the Acta Curiarum (papers of the parliament
of Sardinia) post 1355, letters, and other types of documents.
When Nathalie Bouloux describes the evolution of maps made of Sardinia
in the Middle Ages, she outlines the different trajectories of Sardinian car-
tography. The first involved maps made primarily for the benefit of mariners
whose descriptions largely drew upon the earlier, late antique period. Made
in the twelfth century, they stereotypically depicted Sardinia as foot-shaped,
in either a stylized oval or triangular shape, with general dimensions but oth-
erwise lacking in detail. The maps typically depicted Sardinia in the context
of the Mediterranean, rather than in its own right. Fourteenth-century maps
remain maritime in nature, but add more detail. Primary resources and monu-
mental structures, such as salt and baths, are added to the usual references.
Modern place names join their Latin predecessors. Social geography comes
through too, as Barbagians are described as savage mountain-dwellers who
may be descendants of Muslim refugees from the Pisan and Genoese wars of