Sardinia In Geographical Descriptions 73
2 The Enrichment of the Representation of Sardinia (Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries)
As their sources diversified—from antiquity, as well as from more recent times,
from readings of texts and from missionary or commercial travel accounts—
significant changes would appear in the representations of the world at the
end of the Middle Ages. What new information came to modify the image of
Sardinia, located in an already familiar maritime space?
From the outset, one should take note of the lack of interest in Sardinia
on the part of the Italian humanists of the fifteenth century. While they were
particularly interested in the Italian peninsula, which they described as di-
vided into regions whose origins were partly drawn from antiquity, they did
not consider the major islands, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, as Italian regions,
nor were they included in Flavio Biondo’s Italia illustrata or in Aeneo Silvio
Piccolomini’s De Europa. 14
A few decades prior, two Italian texts from the second half of the four-
teenth century provided new information. Fazio degli Uberti, the author of the
Dittamondo, a Tuscan description of the world in verse, described Sardinia at
greater length. The Dittamondo is presented as a voyage by the author, guided
by the ancient geographer Solinus.15 The description of Sardinia, which follows
that of Corsica, takes up the ancient themes—Sardinian grass, the absence of
snakes, the solifugid, the silver mines. But several new elements are included
as well, such as the curative hot springs which had become “baths,” and the
extraction of salt is also mentioned. Modern place names, most likely drawn
from charts, are also highlighted (Sassari, Bosa, Callari and Stampace, Arestan,
Villanova and Alighiera),16 along with the recent history of the island (the
Pisan and Genoese attacks on the Saracens at the beginning of the eleventh
century and the dominance of Pisa and subsequently of Aragon). While the air
on the island is considered healthy, the inhabitants are described as “invidiosi,
infedeli e cattivi.” A curious population inhabits the barbagia, a region protect-
ed by mountains—this clearly seems to be the central mountainous region,
around the Gennargentu Massif, devoted primarily to livestock farming. Their
14 Nor did Pietro Ranzano, the author of a vast description of the world as part of his volumi-
nous Annales, include these islands in his description of Italy, the only part of his geogra-
phy currently published: Pietro Ranzano, Descriptio totius italiae (Annales, XVI–XV ), eds.
Adele di Lorenzo, Bruno Figliuolo et Paolo Pontari (Florence, 2007). I have not been able
to ascertain what place he gave the Italian islands in his geographic treatise as a whole.
15 See N. Bouloux, Culture et savoirs géographiques en Italie au XIVe siècle (Turnhout, 2002).
16 See below: these terms are probably drawn from a chart.