40 Hobart
to the islands in question came from two diametrically distinct areas. They
came to Sardinia from Andalusia, and towards Sicily from the coasts of North
Africa.110 Similar circumstances during the era of Christian expansion in the
Mediterranean saw the incursion of continental “colonial” families onto the
islands, especially Corsica and Sardinia. However, different land-use policies
and governance fostered divergent kinds of societies. In sum, Bresc attributes
“a strong political core” to southern Italy and Sicily, thanks to the presence of
the church and imperial control, something that did not occur in Sardinia and
Corsica, both of which experienced fragmentation due to fierce competition
between rival Tuscan and Ligurian families.
The next chapter examines Sardinian society more closely. Research on
minority groups, such as the Jewish and Muslim communities, started with
Boscolo, and was embraced soon after by Gabriella Olla Repetto and Olivetta
Schena,111 and continued with the prolific Cecilia Tasca. Tasca searched ar-
chives to determine the nature of the Jewish settlements, their role within
the villages and cities, and their distant trading centers in the Mediterranean.
In the spirit of expanding the historical record to include the diverse inhab-
itants who shaped the nature of Sardinian society and culture, Cecilia Tasca
expounds upon part of the two-thousand-year history of the Jewish com-
munity in Sardinia.112 The Jewish population of Sardinia peaked in two his-
torical phases, beginning with four thousand freed Roman Jews who arrived
in Sardinia in 19 AD and dispersed throughout the island soon after. In the
sixth century, Gregory the Great mentioned the presence of a synagogue on
Sardinia. Tasca asserts that the second largest Jewish migration to Sardinia oc-
curred under the Spanish Crown in 1332, to cities like Cagliari, Sassari, Alghero,
and Oristano. The significant Jewish neighborhoods had men who held highly
110 Al-Idrîsî, La Première géographie de l’Occident, trans. Henri Bresc and Annliese Nef (Paris,
1999).
111 Gabriella Olla Repetto, “Cagliari crogiolo etnico: la componente ‘mora’,” Medioevo: Saggi
e Rassegne 7 (1982), pp. 159–172; Gabriella Olla Repetto, “Vicende ebraiche nella Sardegna
aragonese del ‘300,” Archivio Storico Sardo 42 (2002), pp. 291–325; Gabriella Olla Repetto,
“Prime conclusioni sugli insediamenti ebraici nella Sardegna aragones (1323–1492),” in
Meloni, Oliva, and Schena, Ricordando Albero Boscolo.
112 Cecilia Tasca, Ebrei e società in Sardegna nel XV secolo: fonti archivistiche e nuovi spunti di
ricerca (Florence: Giuntina, 2008). See also, Olivetta Schena, “Tracce di presenze ebraiche
in Sardegna fra VI e XIII secolo,” Materia Giudaica 14:1/2 (2009), pp. 11–24; Olivetta Schena,
“Prime conclusioni sugli insediamenti ebraici nella Sardegna Aragonese (1323–1492),” in
Meloni, Oliva, and Schena, Ricordando Alberto Boscolo; Giancarlo Sorgia, L’inquisizione
in Sardegna (Cagliari, 1991). Giancarlo Sorgia, “Una famiglia di Ebrei in Sardegna: i
Carcassona,” Studi Sardi 17 (1961), pp. 287–308.