the disintegration of the empire 127
stake of 4,313 genoese lira—the largest known Western capital invest-
ment on the far eastern markets in the fourteenth century.294 his com-
patriot andalò di savignone must also have made a respectable fortune,
although he is better known as a diplomat, having successfully carried out
an embassy to the pope for the great Khan toghan temür in 1336.295
an especially interesting case is that of Benedetto vivaldi, who seems
to have inherited the drive to seek a new india route: after his uncles
had died trying to circumnavigate africa a quarter-century before, their
nephew founded a company in 1315 to ply the sea route from the per-
sian gulf to india and china with its own ships.296 Because of the paucity
of sources, it is unclear whether the dominican archbishop of sultaniye,
guillaume adam was referring to this venture in his dossier submitted
to the pope in 1332, or to another group of genoese.297 Whatever the
truth, for all their technological superiority the genoese ships posed no
threat to the overwhelming numbers of local vessels in the southern seas:
both marco polo and ibn Baṭṭūṭa mention local ship-building techniques
and the greater number of craft, especially in the waters between india
and china.298
certainly, the sea route onward from ormuz could only be used as long
as the preconditions were in place and access was open, via either the
iraqi waterways or the persian overland route. in 1344 the genoese mer-
chant tommasino gentile fell victim to a set of events which well illus-
trate this interdependence, and at the same time mark the closing of the
trade route which the republic’s merchants used, from the mediterranean
to the Black sea and from persia to the indian ocean.299
294 lopez, “luci,” p. 452.
295 petech, “marchands,” pp. 554–555.
296 cf. heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 143.
297 adam/Kohler, p. 553: Jam enim Januenses soli naves faciunt in mari [.. .] Indie, non
tamen causa hic posita, sed spe lucri [commerce rather than war]; cf. richard, “naviga-
tions,” p. 358.
298 cf. richard, “navigations,” pp. 357–358.
299 petech, “marchands,” p. 555: “Un dernier renseignement sur un voyage de march-
ands génois au cathay est donnée par une sentence d’un tribunal génois de janvier 1344.
tommasino gentile, en route pour le cathay, ‘tomba malade et resta à ormes’ (ormuz
dans le golfe persique). [.. .] il retourna en europe en passant par tabriz; mais en agissant
ainsi, il viola le boycott proclamé par le gouvernement de gênes contre les princes djou-
baniens, seigneurs de la ville. la sentence du tribunal l’absout de ce délit, en reconnais-
sant le cas de force majeure.” the last references to the genoese in china in the second
half of the fourteenth century are collected in lopez, “luci,” p. 455, and idem, “mondus,”
pp. 351–352.