Overview Of Sardinian History 109
had a pact of fealty with their sovereign (1323), ended up waging war against
Aragon (1354). Despite brief periods of peace and truces, the conflict lasted for
over 80 years, until the viscount of Narbonne gave up his right to the throne of
the giudicato (1420).67
In the mid-to late fourteenth century, the island was transformed, affect-
ing the import-export business of the port cities, by a number of factors and
events: continuous revolts in the Sardinian cities; the Black Death (1348);68 the
waging of war by the Giudici of Arborea, supported by the Doria in a conflict
that committed the Crown for decades (1353–1409); the rebellion and the re-
population of Alghero (1354); and endemic malaria.69 Many inhabited urban
centers were abandoned or destroyed, cultivation decreased, and commerce
became scarce, creating widespread poverty.70 Fazio degli Uberti summarized
the political vicissitudes of Sardinia in this way:
Sardinia, Genoa and Pisa from the Saracens took / who left with all there
was to have / while to the Genoese went the mobility / and to the Pisans
the land where they all remained / until the Aragons took all their pos-
sessions away(Sardegna, Genova e Pisa al Saracin la tolse, / la qual sortiro con l’aver
che v’era: / lo mobil tutto al Genovese colse / e la terra a’ Pisani e funno
quivi / in fin che ’l Ragonese ne li spolse).71To renounce the territories and thus the profits of Sardinia represented a
serious economic loss for the Tuscan city, but also for the island. Since the
Aragonese and Catalans did not compensate for the voids left by the Pisans,
67 Luciano Gallinari, “Preliminary Research on the Intervention of France in the War be-
tween the kingdom of Arborea and the Crown of Aragon around 1400,” Nottingham
Medieval Studies 43 (1999), pp. 152–171.
68 Amada López de Meneses, “La peste negra en Cerdeña,” in Homenaje a Jaime Vicens Vives,
2 vols (Barcelona, 1965), vol. 1, pp. 533–541.
69 In The Divine Comedy, Dante Alghieri remembers the unhealthy marshes of Sardinia:
“Qual dolor fòra, se de li spedali / di Valdichiana tra’l luglio e ‘l settembre, / e di Maremma
e di Sardigna i mali / fossero in una fossa tutti insembre (Dante, Inferno, XXIX, 46); Dionigi
Scano, Alberto Boscolo, Geo Pistarino, Marco Tangheroni, and Manlio Brigaglia, Ricordi di
Sardegna nella “Divina Commedia” (Milan, 1981).
70 John Day, Villaggi abbandonati in Sardegna dal Trecento al Settecento. Inventario (Paris,
1973).
71 Uberti, Il Dittamondo, p. 219.