Guglielmo Grasso
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Guglielmo Grasso
Guglielmo Grasso, sometimes anglicized William Grassus (died 1201), was a Genoese merchant, pirate and admiral. As a trader serving Genoa's leather sector, Grasso was active in the eastern Mediterranean. Around 1192, he turned to piracy in Byzantine waters. A string of high-profile attacks—including the slaughter of three embassies (two Byzantine, one Ayyubid) and unarmed civilians in Rhodes—forced Genoa to disown him. He reappeared in the service of the Emperor Henry VI in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1194 and was rewarded with the County of Malta and the rank of '' ammiratus'' (admiral). He lost his county in an uprising in 1198 and briefly returned to Genoa. He was back in Sicily in 1199 taking part in the civil war over the regency for Henry's young heir. After a change of allegiance, he was captured by his former allies and imprisoned in 1200. Genoese efforts to procure his release were rebuffed and he died in prison. Nevertheless, his son-in-law managed to succeed him in Malt ...
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Republic Of Genoa
The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Between the 16th and 17th centuries it was one of the major financial centers in Europe. Throughout its history, the Genoese Republic established numerous colonies throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, including Corsica from 1347 to 1768, Monaco, Southern Crimea from 1266 to 1475 and the islands of Lesbos and Chios from the 14th century to 1462 and 1566 respectively. With the arrival of the early modern period, the Republic had lost many of its colonies, and had to shift its interests and focus on banking. This decision would prove successful for Genoa, which remained as one of the hubs of capitalism, with highly developed banks ...
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San Siro (Genoa)
San Siro is a Roman Catholic basilica located on the street of the same name, in the quartiere of the Maddalena in central Genoa, Liguria, Italy. History One of the oldest churches in the city, it occupies the site of a former church originally dedicated to the apostles. In later centuries, the church was renamed after St Syrus of Genoa, a beatified bishop. Originally the cathedral of Genoa, it stood outside of the original walls, and was vulnerable to attacks from Saracen pirates; the title of Cathedral was transferred to San Lorenzo. There is another church dedicated to San Siro, San Siro di Struppa, outside the city center. Legend holds that the bishop was able to banish a Basilisk that dwelt in a well adjacent to the church; a plaque on a nearby house recalls the miracle. This event is represented in a medieval bas relief on the portico arcade next to the church, as well as a fresco by Carlone in the apse. From the tenth to 12th centuries, building of the original Roma ...
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Jacopo Da Varazze
Jacobus de Voragine (c. 123013/16 July 1298) was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of the ''Golden Legend'', a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church that was one of the most popular religious works of the Middle Ages. Biography Jacobus was born either in Varazze or in Genoa, where a family originally from Varazze and bearing that name is attested at the time. He entered the Dominican order in 1244, and became the prior at Como, Bologna and Asti in succession. Besides preaching with success in many parts of Italy, he also taught in the schools of his own fraternity. He was provincial of Lombardy from 1267 till 1286, when he was removed at the meeting of the order in Paris. He also represented his own province at the councils of Lucca (1288) and Ferrara (1290). On the last occasion he was one of the four delegates charged with signifying Pope Nicholas IV's desire for the ...
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Isauria
Isauria ( or ; grc, Ἰσαυρία), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated, district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya Province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In its coastal extension it bordered on Cilicia. It derives its name from the contentious Isaurian tribe and twin settlements ''Isaura Palaea'' (Ἰσαυρα Παλαιά, Latin: ''Isaura Vetus'' 'Old Isaura') and ''Isaura Nea'' (Ἰσαυρα Νέα, Latin: ''Isaura Nova'' 'New Isaura'). Isaurian marauders were fiercely independent mountain people who created havoc in neighboring districts under Macedonian and Roman occupations. History Early The permanent nucleus of Isauria was north of the Taurus range which lies directly to south of Iconium and Lystra. Lycaonia had all the Iconian plain; but Isauria began as soon as the foothills were reached. Its ...
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Pamphylia
Pamphylia (; grc, Παμφυλία, ''Pamphylía'') was a region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the north by Pisidia and was therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only about 120 km (75 miles) with a breadth of about 50 km (30 miles). Under the Roman administration the term Pamphylia was extended so as to include Pisidia and the whole tract up to the frontiers of Phrygia and Lycaonia, and in this wider sense it is employed by Ptolemy. Name The name ''Pamphylia'' comes from the Greek Παμφυλία, itself from grc, πάμφυλος (''pamphylos''), literally "of mingled tribes or races", a compound of πᾶν (''pan''), neuter of πᾶς (''pas'') "all" + φυλή (''phylē''), "race, tribe". Herodotus derived its etymology from a Dorian tribe, the Pamphyloi (Πάμφυλοι), who were said to have colonize ...
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Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some 215,000 square kilometres. In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 2,639m to the west of Karpathos. The Thracian Sea and the Sea of Crete are main subdivisions of the Aegean Sea. The Aegean Islands can be divided into several island groups, including the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades, the Saronic Islands, Saronic islands and the North Aegean islands, North Aegean Islands, as well as Crete and its surrounding islands. The ...
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Massacre Of The Latins
The Massacre of the Latins ( it, Massacro dei Latini; el, Σφαγὴ τῶν Λατίνων) was a large-scale massacre of the Roman Catholic (called "Latin") inhabitants of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, by the Eastern Orthodox population of the city in April 1182. The Roman Catholics of Constantinople at that time dominated the city's maritime trade and financial sector. Although precise numbers are unavailable, the bulk of the Latin community, estimated at 60,000 at the time by Eustathius of Thessalonica, was wiped out or forced to flee. The Genoese and Pisan communities especially were devastated, and some 4,000 survivors were sold as slaves to the (Turkish) Sultanate of Rum. The massacre further worsened relations and increased enmity between the Western and Eastern Christian churches, and a sequence of hostilities between the two followed. Background From the late 11th century, Western merchants, primarily from the Italian city-states of Veni ...
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Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, vessels used for piracy are pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term ''piracy'' generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks, and (in scie ...
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Alum
An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , where is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium. By itself, "alum" often refers to potassium alum, with the formula . Other alums are named after the monovalent ion, such as sodium alum and ammonium alum. The name "alum" is also used, more generally, for salts with the same formula and structure, except that aluminium is replaced by another valence (chemistry), trivalent metal ion like chromium#Chromium(III), chromium, and/or sulfur is replaced by another chalcogen like selenium. The most common of these analogs is chrome alum . In most industries, the name "alum" (or "papermaker's alum") is used to refer to aluminium sulfate, , which is used for most industrial flocculation (the variable is an integer whose size depends on the amount of water absorbed into the alum). In medic ...
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Tanning (leather)
Tanning is the process of treating Skinning, skins and Hide (skin), hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, making it more durable and less susceptible to decomposition and coloring. Before tanning, the skins are dehaired, degreased, desalted and soaked in water over a period of six hours to two days. Historically this process was considered a noxious or "odoriferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town. Historically, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name, derived from the bark of certain trees. An alternative method, developed in the 1800s, is chrome tanning, where chromium salts are used instead of natural tannins. History The English word for tanning is from medieval Latin , derivative of (oak bark), from French (tanbark), from old-Cornish (red oak). ...
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Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome ...
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Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territories in Africa and, along with Melilla and the Canary Islands, one of only a few that are permanently inhabited by a civilian population. It was a regular municipality belonging to the province of Cádiz prior to the passing of its Statute of Autonomy in March 1995, henceforth becoming an autonomous city. Ceuta, like Melilla and the Canary Islands, was classified as a free port before Spain joined the European Union. Its population consists mainly of Christians and Muslims. There is also a small minority of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus, the latter of whom originate from current-day Pakistan. Spanish is the only official language, but Darija Arabic is quite prominent as well. Names The name Abyla has been said to have been a Punic ...
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