Similar Problems, Similar Solutions? Byzantine Chrysobulls and Crusader Charters on Legal Issues Regarding the Italian Maritime Republics, CHAPTER 7 in Byzantium in Dialogue with the Mediterranean, D. Slootjes and M. Verhoeven (eds.), BRILL 2019, Contents and first page (original) (raw)

As the Italian merchants travelled and expanded their business at the time of the Crusades, legal issues arose: What happened to their goods in case of a shipwreck? What happened to their estate when they died in another country? Did they have the right to use their own judges and law? Legal issues that were regulated in the privilege charters of the Crusader kings were also regulated in the Byzantine imperial privileges granted to the Italian cities. In this paper, I will compare legal issues encountered in the Byzantine imperial acts to Venice, Pisa and Genoa in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries with those included in the contemporary Crusader charters to the same three Italian cities.