356 Rovina
recently identified are the Sassarian polychrome majolica dated to the late six-
teenth and early seventeenth centuries.49 At its peak in the first decades of the
fourteenth century, the city had about 10,000 inhabitants,50 while in the second
half of the century until the middle of the following one, the demographic crisis
of the countryside—in large part related to the commercialization of agricul-
tural products on the island—had a negative impact on its economy.
With the economic revival of the mid-fifteenth century, Sassari’s preemi-
nence was consolidated in the northern part of the island.51 This period of
wellbeing was characterized by a new building boom inspired by Catalonian
late Gothic, the persistence of which is visible even today not only in the
49 Laura Biccone, Paola Mameli, and Daniela Rovina, “La circolazione di ceramiche da
mensa e da trasporto tra X e XI secolo: l’esempio della Sardegna alla luce di recenti indag-
ini archeologiche e archeometriche,” in Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale Association
Internationale pour l’Etude des Céramiques Médiévales Méditerranéennes, Venezia, 23–29
Novembre 2009 (2009), pp. 122–128.
50 Carlo Livi, “La popolazione della Sardegna nel periodo aragonese,” Archivio Storico Sardo
(1984), pp. 82–83.
51 Antonello Mattone, “Eleonora d’Arborea,” in Dizionario Biografico degli italiani, ed.
Alberto M. Ghisalberti, vol. 42 (Rome, 1993), pp. 431–439.
Figure 13.12 The Aragonese castle in a watercolor by S. Manca di Mores (early 19th c.).
With kind permission of the Archaeological
Superintendence of Sardinia, Italian Ministry of Arts,
Culture and Tourism.