Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone

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Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone (* 1080 or 1081 in Caschifellone (today part of Serra Riccò ), † around 1166) was a Genoese politician, diplomat and historian.

life and work

Caffaro came from an old, noble family of the Republic of Genoa and was the son of Rusticus, Lord of Caschifellone, a small village in Val Polcevera . As a young man he took part in the first crusade and in the summer of 1100 he sailed on a fleet that the Genoese sent to Palestine to support the oppressed Franks. He arrived in the Holy Land shortly after the death of Godfrey of Bouillon (July 18, 1100) and took part in the fighting in the siege and conquest of Caesarea . In October 1101 he returned to his homeland.

As a result, Caffaro became an important political figure in Genoa for the next few decades. In the period from 1122 to 1149, he held eight times the highest dignity, the consulate of the republic. He was also diplomatically active, around 1121 and 1123 during the successful negotiations with Pisa and the Holy See to protect Genoese interests in Corsica . He also succeeded in 1127, with Count Raimund Berengar III. from Barcelona to agree advantageous conditions for Genoese trade. In the position of admiral, he successfully fought the Pisans in 1125. In the 1130s he was likely to have stayed in the Orient again. In 1146 he conquered the island of Menorca , which until then had been under the control of the Saracens . In 1154 he headed a Genoese embassy to the Roman-German king (later emperor) Friedrich I Barbarossa and was able to persuade him to confirm prerogatives for Genoa. He died around 1166 at the old age of 86.

Already after his return from the first crusade, Caffaro had decided to record annals, which he opened with that crusade and then continued. They were supposed to provide information about the most significant events in Genoa's history. In 152, Caffaro presented his work to the Genoese council, which had it copied by Guglielmo de Colomba as the official city chronicle. Caffaro continued to work on his historical work for another eleven years, so that it now lasted from 1100 to 1163. He was the first layman to work as a historian in medieval Europe. Since he had held high positions in his fatherland for decades and had taken part in its most important undertakings, he was, if not always an eyewitness of the events he told, well informed about the internal and external circumstances of Genoa. Despite a certain patriotic partiality, his annals, written in crude Latin and simple style, are therefore an important source for the history of Northern Italy in the period he reports. The Genoese Republic had the historical work begun by Caffaro continued first by Oberto, then by Ottobono and many other followers until 1294. Muratori published Caffaro's annals for the first time in 1725 in the 6th part of his Rerum Italicarum scriptores in print form. Georg Heinrich Pertz (in: MGH SS 18, Hannover 1863) belonged to later editors .

Other works by Caffaro include a Historia captionis Almarie et Tortuose and the Liber de liberatione civitatum Orientis , which deals with the First Crusade and relations between the West and the Byzantine Empire .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Genoese politician, diplomat and historian
DATE OF BIRTH 1080 or 1081
PLACE OF BIRTH Caschifellone (now part of Serra Riccò)
DATE OF DEATH around 1166