Giovanni di Murta ( Murta, date unknown –

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, 6 January 1350) was elected the second

Doge A doge ( , ; plural dogi or doges) was an elected lord and head of state in several Italian city-states, notably Venice and Genoa, during the medieval and renaissance periods. Such states are referred to as " crowned republics". Etymology The ...

of the

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 Lat ...

after the resignation of

Simone Boccanegra Simone Boccanegra (; lij, Scimon Boccaneigra ; died 1363) was the first Doge of Genoa. He became doge in 1339, but was ousted from power six years later. He regained the position in 1356, retaining it until his death in 1363. His story was popul ...

, on 25 December 1345. His dogate was dominated by his attempts to break the circle of political violence which had crippled the city over the past century and to reassert the Genoese domination over the Mediterranean colonies.

Early life

While his date of birth remains unknown, it is assumed that he was born in the early years of the 14th century in the village of Murta in the

Val Polcevera Val Polcevera is one of the main valleys crossing Genoa, taking its name from the eponymous river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river f ...

, today one of the boroughs of the city of

from an affluent commoner family, however his mother was from the powerful Usodimare patrician family.

The Maona of Chios and Phocaea

He became a banker by trade. After his accession to the office of Doge, he managed to somewhat pacify the city torn apart by the conflict between the various local aristocratic families. In particular, he managed to prevent the Grimaldi clan from seizing the city. Against them, Giovanni da Murta chartered a fleet of over two dozen privately owned armed

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

s under the command of the admiral Simone Vignoso. As the Grimaldis did not go out at sea to oppose the Republic's galleys, the Doge sent the navy to support the island of

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...

, then a Genoese colony, which was besieged by

Jani Beg Jani Beg ( fa, , tt-Latn, Canibäk), also known as Djanibek Khan, was a Khan of the Golden Horde from 1342 to 1357, succeeding his father Öz Beg Khan. Reign With the support of his mother Taydula Khatun, Jani Beg made himself khan after el ...

, khan of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...

. The fleet also managed to reconquer the city of Phocea and its important

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 a ...

mines on 20 September 1346. Upon his return, the admiral did not receive the very large amount of money initially promised to him as payment for his galleys. Consequently, the Doge had to agree to entrust Simone Vignoso and a group of his associates with the governorship of Chios, granting them at the same time the fiscal revenues from the island for twenty years. This group of investors became known as the

Maona of Chios and Phocaea Maona of Chios and Phocaea ( it, Maona di Chio e di Focea) (1346–1566) was a maona formed to exact taxes for the Republic of Genoa from the island of Chios and port of Phocaea. Genoa sold the rights to their taxes to the maona, which raised funds ...

Mounting tension in the region

Giovanni da Murta also tried to regain control over the island of

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. At the beginning of his dogate only the citadel of Bonifacio remained in Genoese hands, the rest of the colony was de facto independent thanks to the support of the

kingdom of Aragon The Kingdom of Aragon ( an, Reino d'Aragón, ca, Regne d'Aragó, la, Regnum Aragoniae, es, Reino de Aragón) was a medieval and early modern kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, ...

and of the Venetian fleet. The Doge entrusted his son, Tommaso, with mission of reconquering the island. This expedition marks the end of the feudal anarchy in Corsica and the beginning of a more asserted Genoese rule over the island. To fund the military operations in the island, the Republic had to borrow at 20% from an association of creditors known as the ''Compera nuova acquisitionis Corsicæ'' on 27 December 1347. On the diplomatic front, Giovanni da Murta tried to appease the tension between Genoa and

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, that followed the

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

of the Genoese of Pera on

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, perceived by the Venetians as a threat to their domination in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

. He proposed a joint

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

against the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

, an offer which was dismissed by the Venetians.

Plague and succession

The breakout of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

occurred during his time in office. Republic was one of the first European cities hit by the pandemics as it was a Genoese ship sailing away from Kaffa, in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, besieged by the Mongols that carried the disease across the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. From November 1347 to 1351, the plague killed 30 to 40% of the population of the city, and the Doge was among the victims. He died on 6 January 1350 and was buried in the

Cathedral of San Lorenzo Genoa Cathedral or Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Lawrence ( it, Duomo di Genova, ''Cattedrale di San Lorenzo'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Italian city of Genoa. It is dedicated to Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo), and is the seat of th ...

. His successor, Giovanni Valente, was elected three days later in a climate of tension between ''popolanis'' and aristocrats, making evident that his efforts to unite the city would be short-lived. Unlike most of the other Doges of the history of Genoa, Giovanni I di Murta left an excellent image of his time in office. He is hailed as a pacifier at home and abroad and he has even been qualified as a "lover of the common good" by a modern historian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murta, Giovanni I di 1350 deaths 14th-century Doges of Genoa Italian bankers 14th-century deaths from plague (disease) Year of birth unknown 14th-century Italian businesspeople