the inhabitants of Amalfi from its earliest days were forced to become merchants and sailors; to use a modern phrase, the Amalfitani came to possess a complete monopoly of trade with Eastern lands, both Christian and Mahommedan. It was the ships of the Republic that alone brought to the shores of Italy the rich stuffs, the gold and silver embroideries, the dried fruits and the strange birds and beasts of Asia Minor and Arabia, and in exchange for their oriental merchandise obtained an abundance of corn, wine, oil, meat and other commodities of life that their beautiful but somewhat sterile dominions were unable to supply to an ever increasing population. But it was not only the material products of the East that the sailors of Amalfi conveyed to Europe in their home-bound argosies; for they brought back with them the rudiments of arts and sciences that distracted Italy had well-nigh forgotten during the period of the barbarian invasions. Through the merchant princes of Amalfi, the secrets of astronomy, of mathematics and of scientific navigation were re-introduced into the land that had almost lost its old Roman civilization. A priceless manuscript of that great code of laws, the Pandects, which a Byzantine Emperor, the famous Justinian, had caused to be compiled with such skill and labour, putting into concise and accurate form the collected wisdom of generations of Roman jurists, was included amongst the treasures of the East that were borne back to Italy in the Republic’s vessels. And in addition to restoring the old Roman jurisprudence to its original home, the city of Amalfi had the honour of promulgating the celebrated _Tabula Amalphitana_, the new maritime laws that were henceforth destined to regulate the whole commercial system of the western world. No marvel then that the poet William of Apulia should praise in unmeasured terms the glories of the new-sprung city, whose trade extended to the shores of India and whose merchants possessed independent settlements in every great city of the Levant. “Nulla magis civitas argento, vestibus, auro Partibus innumeris; hac plurimus urbe moratur Nauta marit coelique vias aperiri peritus. Huc et Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe Regia et Antiochi. Zeus haec freta plurima transit His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri. Haec genus est totum prope nobilitata per orbem, Et mercanda ferens, et amans mercata referre.” (“No city richer in its store of gold, Of precious stones and silks doth Europe hold; Her skilful mariners o’er treacherous seas With aid of compass sail where’er they please. From Egypt and from Antioch they land, Their precious cargoes on th’ Italian strand. Scathless Amalfi’s navies penetrate The distant ports of every Paynim state. Match me throughout the circuit of this earth Another race so full of zeal and worth.”)