Chapter 4 - Time To Leave

A view of Genoa and its fleet by Christoforo de Grassi
(1597 copy, after a drawing of 1481);
Galata Museo del Mare, Genoa
Wikicommons

“This incessant rain is making the bodies turn to soup”.  Consul Dondedeo de Justo looked over the wall down to the market area. Another body landed into the mud. The right arm lodged  in the mud and consequently the body seperated. The corpse somersaulted twice, skipping across the sloppy ground and piled itself beside five or maybe six other corpses. “Well they have the trajectory correct”, de Justo quipped. “I’m glad they don’t have Greek fire”.

The Master at Arms didn’t wait around for the Consul of Kaffa and the Black Sea to be clobbered by a plague infested body. “Your Grace, we will need to put more men towards removing bodies from the city”. He guided de Justo to a safer location. “Consul, The Tartars”, as the Genoans called the Golden Horde, “continue to have bodies building up. I do not believe they are going to run out any time soon”.

The Golden Horde had lost a third of their fighting force. The plague like the rain started in the spring had continued through the summer and was now a serious impediment. To complicate matters the fearocious Crimean winter was on its way. Decisive action was required.

Kaffa under the Genoese had been flourishing since they took the port back from the Venetians 40 years earlier in 1306. The city was heavily fortified with two concentric walls. The inner wall enclosed 6,000 houses, the outer 11,000. While a few of the trading families had seen the Mongols siege Kaffa before, the new traders were decidedly uneasy. The spread of this new pestilence turned the unease to terror. If it was as simple as boarding a plane and leaving town, many of the Genoans would have got onboard in an instant.

This, however, was the middle ages and at the end of the world. Their factories and business wealth were intrinsically linked to this small city tucked on the edge of the Crimean peninsular at the far north of the Black Sea. The ability to just move on was simply not feasible. One of the more mobile Genoans was Gabriele De’ Mussi. A lawyer and notary, his role was to certify contracts on behalf of the Genoan Republic. It took six months for D’Mussi to return to Genoa having documented the plague of the east. He was ready for his presentation to the Doge or Duke. In the Republic he was an elected official with the title of  “The Commander of the Genoese and Defender of the People”. 

To much acclaim, Simon Boccanegra was elected as the first Doge of Genoa. It was a position that came as an appointment for life. The internal tensions of the trading families within Genoa made an appointment for life a short term appointment. Giovanni di Murta was appointed as the second Doge and two years into a 5 year rule, Murta had brought an uneasy calm to Genoan politics. As Doge, Murta had sent a fleet to support and secure the colonies in the Crimea against Jani Beg and it was on this fleet that d’Mussi returned home. D’Mussi’s influence as a contract lawyer was minor but sufficient to speak at the Grand Council meeting in 1347.

His hands shook a little. The Doge sat at the centre of the long table, flanked either side of him by the Council. Between his shaking manuscript and the dim light of the council room, d’Mussi was slow to start his plea. The Court Secretary sat by with a handful of candles and efficiently took down every word.

“…In 1346, in the countries of the East, countless numbers of Tartars and Saracens were struck down by a mysterious illness which brought sudden death. Within these countries broad regions, far-spreading provinces, magnificent kingdoms, cities, towns and settlements, ground down by illness and devoured by dreadful death, were soon stripped of their inhabitants. An eastern settlement under the rule of the Tartars called Tana, which lay to the north of Constantinople and was much frequented by Italian merchants, was totally abandoned after an incident there which led to its being besieged and attacked by hordes of Tartars who gathered in a short space of time. The Christian merchants, who had been driven out by force, were so terrified of the power of the Tartars that, to save themselves and their belongings, they fled in an armed ship to Kaffa, a settlement in the same part of the world which had been founded long ago by the Genoese.

The dying Tartars, stunned and stupefied by the immensity of the disaster brought about by the disease, and realizing that they had no hope of escape, lost interest in the siege. But they ordered corpses to be placed in catapults and lobbed into the city in the hope that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside. What seemed like mountains of dead were thrown into the city, and the Christians could not hide or flee or escape from them, although they dumped as many bodies as they could into the sea. As soon as the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army. Moreover one infected man could carry the poison to others, and infect people and places with the disease by look alone. No one knew, or could discover, a means of defense.”

D’mussi was thanked by the council for his detailed recounting of the horrors of Kaffa. The room was silent for what felt like ten minutes. Not a word among them. The Secretary the Council had finished his notes and was ready to hand them to the scribes for the meeting records. D’Mussi, was still standing in his place numb from his presentation.

“Doge Murta, with your permission, I would like to add to my story”. The Doge looked towards the Secretary to confirm correct council etiquette was being followed. With a node of his head, The Doge invited d’Mussi to continue.

“But behold, the whole army was affected by a disease which overran the Tartars and killed thousands upon thousands every day. It was as though arrows were raining down from heaven to strike and crush the Tartars’ arrogance. All medical advice and attention was useless; the Tartars died as soon as the signs of disease appeared on their bodies: swellings in the armpit or groin caused by coagulating humours, followed by a putrid fever”.

The Council had listened intently to d’Mussi. His plea was impassioned and detailed but Genoa would not be closed. There were too many trade links at jeopardy to implement extreme measures like a quarantine. Many cities of the Mediterranean would make the same mistake that year. The Doge died of the plague three years later in 1350. Like all of the trading cities of Europe, Genoa would lose at least one in three of the population.