Abstract
Objective: This paper’s aim is to reconstruct the Western population of Venetian Tana in the fourteenth century, the residents’ perception of their condition as “migrants”, and finally this population’s interactions with the other communities who lived there. Research materials: The sources used are primarily the notarial deeds of the Venice State Archive together with the vast and excellent scholarship produced in recent decades. Research results and novelty: For over two centuries the settlement of Tana, situated in the territory of the Golden Horde, represented the easternmost outpost of the Latin emporia in the Levant. Here, the utilitarian concept of the Western urban mercantile class found itself confronted with a new experience. This group was a minority living in close contact with larger, cohesive communities whose cultural background was extremely diverse. Those who emigrated east were mainly the emerging urban bourgeoisie, but also families of ancient noble origin who had nothing in common with the world of the Steppe and its traditional roots. These citizens came to the Levant, bringing with them the urban associative model. The life of the settlement at the mouth of the river Don is an ideal basis for observing the flow of people who left Venice and its surroundings on galleys and, after months of travel, arrived on the shores of the Sea of Azov.
Highlights
Research results and novelty: For over two centuries the settlement of Tana, situated in the territory of the Golden Horde, represented the easternmost outpost of the Latin emporia in the Levant
In these middle years of the fourteenth century, Tana was divided into different areas; the Venetian and Genoese sectors, and the Mongol one where the local governor resided
On the basis of the data analysed for the years 1359–1366, we can say that life in Tana consisted of a constant exchange of people and goods
Summary
As the easternmost outpost of the entire Latin system of commerce in the Levant, fourteenth century Tana was a key trading centre with the Baltic and the Far East. While the southern route, preferable to the others in terms of time and cost, became increasingly clogged because of the closures we have just mentioned, the central one suffered from the same impediment and from the state of constant conflict between the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde. It was the safer and less expensive northern route that became the most popular. The Italian cities soon understood that the ports of the Sea of Azov could potentially become highly profitable trading bases and, from the second half of the thirteenth century, began to focus everincreasing resources in this region
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