ABSTRACT
San Giorgio acquired and ruled territories from 1446 to 1562. The surviving documentation of this period provides coherent information on these possessions, with a range of documents including account books, registers, and so on. This chapter recounts the history of the documentation and analyzes it, showing how it varied across time and place. Genoese and non-Genoese merchants moved within San Giorgio’s territories to trade just as they did within territories of the Commune of Genoa, but San Giorgio administered its possessions differently than the Commune. The chapter analyzes San Giorgio’s dominion as a single system, looking at organizational similarities and differences among the various territories it controlled. It compares the strategies San Giorgio used to deal with conflicts, disturbances, and problems in its various possessions. The chapter also focuses on the first two territorial acquisitions, Pietrasanta, for which no contract remains, and Famagusta, for which we have the first contract.
