Europeans in the Black Sea Area during the Late Middle Ages: The Genoese Colony of Caffa

Abstract

The four brief papers following below continue the line of reports on the archival finds of the Western migrants to the Genoese overseas colony of Caffa from outside Liguria in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, previously published in Archivio Storico Messinese,1 Rassegna Storica Salernitana,2 Studi Piemontesi,3 Studi veneziani,4 and Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria.5 The main sources researched for these studies are Caffae Massariae – the public books of accounts of the treasury of the Commune of Caffa drawn by the officers called massarii. These officers were annually rotated and sent from metropolis (Genoa) to its colony (Caffa). Caffae Massariae reflect money transactions and operations of the treasury in the double-entry bookkeeping system. The sources are stored in the archival section of the Bank of Saint George.6 Since Caffae Massariae quote (directly or indirectly) all those city inhabitants, who did with the administration any kind of financial transaction, they reflect the main flows of Latin migration from the West to the overseas Eastern colonies.