AUTHOR'S PREFACEand Cambridge University Press have kindly not objected to
the fact that some material in Chapters 5 and 7 uses similar
words to my contribution to the forthcoming volume of the
New Cambridge Medieval History devoted to the fourteenth
century. Anna Sapir Abulafia and my daughters Bianca and
Rosa have been eminently agreeable audiences for the his-
tory of the Mediterranean. Over the years I have managed
to visit a large proportion of the territories mentioned in
this book, in Catalonia, Aragon, Majorca, southern France,
southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Hungary, and even
Albania during its long dark night of Stalinist-Maoist oppres-
sion; and much nearer home I have had to put up with the
sight of the coat of arms of Rene of Anjou on a flag fly-
ing almost at the bottom of my garden, when the Queens'
College eights are competing in the college bumps. My own
college, Caius, has continued to provide a magnificent work-
ing environment and stimulating colleagues in medieval and
modern history.
But it is to the memory of Dr R.C. ('Otto') Smail of Sid-
ney Sussex College, Cambridge that I want to dedicate this
book. Those who knew him will also know why he inspired
such strong enthusiasm among his colleagues and pupils, as
a superb lecturer, a rigorous scholar and an eminently agree-
able companion.
David Abulafia
Conville and Caius College, Cambridge
September 1996
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