Alghero 363
A debate over the attribution of this date started in the 1980s, when some
scholars questioned this chronology,5 emphasizing that the name Alghero
does not appear in written sources before 1281.6 Genoese documents do not
attest to the existence of the Doria family (more correctly D’Oria, De Auria),
who were hypothetically of Provençal origin,7 in Genoa before the mention of
Martino and Gerardo filii Aurie in 1109 or 1110.8 The seigniorial presence of the
Doria family was established in the area called Domoculta, in which a sort of
“citadel” developed from the homes of family members, as well as the church
of the nobility, San Matteo,9 founded in 1125 through the initiative of the same
Martino, and later rebuilt in 1278.10
Thus, it appears that it was not until the middle of the twelfth century,
some decades after their appearance in Genoese written documents, that the
first Doria—Ansaldo and Simone, as noted in the cartulary of the Genoese
notary Giovanni Scriba (1154–1164)—appeared in Sardinia, as merchants in
transit between Genoa and the island.11 In these same years, the interests of
the Doria also developed through a strategy of financing the giudice of Torres
and through a clever political marriage that bound them to the local ruling
family after 1180. The Doria procured their first land acquisitions through
such maneuvers and, at least from the early thirteenth century (even before
pp. 376–377, 380–381. For a bibliographical overview of the problem, see Marco Milanese,
ed. Lo scavo del cimitero di San Michele ad Alghero ( fine XIII–inizi XVII secolo). Campagna
di scavo giugno 2008–settembre 2009 (Ghezzano-Pisa, 2010).
5 Francesco Bertino, Notizie e ipotesi su un borgo sardo-ligure del basso medioevo: l’Alghero
dei Doria (Alghero, 1989); Francesco Bertino, “Alegerium, Sa Lighera, L’Alguer. Ipotesi
sull’origine di Alghero e del suo nome,” in Alghero, la Catalogna, il Mediterraneo storia di
una città e di una minoranza catalana in Italia (XIV–XX secolo), eds Antonello Mattone
and Piero Sanna (Sassari, 1994), pp. 37–48; Rosalind Brown, “Alghero prima dei Catalani,”
in Mattone and Sanna, Alghero, la Catalogna, il Mediterraneo, pp. 37–48.
6 Laura Balletto, “Documenti notarili liguri relativi alla Sardegna,” in La Sardegna nel mondo
mediterraneo: atti del primo convegno internazionale di studi geografico-storici, Sassari, 7–9
aprile 1978, eds Pasquale Brandis and Manlio Brigaglia (Sassari, 1981), vol. 2, pp. 211–259.
7 Clemente Fusero, I Doria (Milan, 1973).
8 Gabriella Airaldi, Le carte di Santa Maria delle Vigne di Genova (1103–1392). Collana storica
di fonti e studi (Genoa, 1969).
9 A. Remedi, “Domoculta,” in San Matteo. La chiesa, la piazza, i palazzi, eds Stefano D’Oria
and Sara Gadducci (Genoa, 2005), p. 6.
10 D’Oria and Gadducci, San Matteo, p. 25.
11 Geo Pistarino, “Genova e la Sardegna nel secolo XII,” in Brandis and Brigaglia, La Sardegna
nel mondo mediterraneo, vol. 2, p. 67. See also, infra Haug.