International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Daniele Tinterri
École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, France / University of Turin, Turin, Italy;
[e-mail]
The Giustiniani of Chios and Byzantium as a Means of Validation
The island of Chios is conquered by a group of Genoese merchants in 1346. After founding a 
commercial company, the Maona, to rule the island, thanks to the large concessions of the hometown, 
these merchants, belonging to different families, decide to take the name of Giustiniani. The military 
and commercial conquest thus brings to the birth of a new parental group, which would become an 
important aristocratic family in Medieval and Modern Europe, with interests spanning from the Medi-
terranean to the Atlantic Ocean. Why has the name Giustiniani been chosen to define this new group?
The identification of the name of the new Genoese family with the name of the most renowned 
Byzantine emperor can be hardly seen as a coincidence. Actually, under many points of view the 
merchants ruling Chios appear to seek an authentication of their power from the Byzantine Empire. 
Their attitude towards the conquered Greek population is far from intimidating: religious orthodox 
authorities keep their position, and the same happens with the jurisdiction of the patriarch of 
Constantinople, who keeps appointing local bishops; properties belonging to the local population 
remain almost untouched, and the settlement of the newly arrived Genoese does not deeply affect 
local assets; relations with local elites are rapidly and tightly developed, without those forms of 
separations between Greeks and Latins that can be observed in many other contexts. Thus, it is not 
by chance that, at the beginning of the manuscript containing the documents of interest for the 
company, a chrysobull by John V Paleologue testifies of the concession of the island to the Genoese 
rulers, in exchange of a symbolical tribute: Byzantine authorities are evoked to validate the position 
of the Maona in Chios.
That the name of Giustiniani has not been chosen by chance, appears clearly from the 
documents belonging to the family from the 16
th
century onwards. As it becomes more and more 
necessary to demonstrate the aristocratic origins of a family, which was actually born from the 
merging of different families of non-aristocratic descendance, the possibilities the name Giustiniani 
offers become immediately evident. Genealogies, tales and narrations are invented to demonstrate 
the direct descent of the members of the family from Justinian’s relatives, if not from Justinian 
himself. Thus, a Genoese family who has built its fortunes by conquering a Byzantine island, seeks 
authentication for its power from Constantinople itself, following a pattern which is not unusual in 
other Genoese contexts. We can mention, for instance, the case of the Gattilusio, ruling the nearby 
island of Lesbos, and their tight connections with the Byzantine imperial dinasty.
Perfectly aware of the distance and of the relative weakness of the Genoese Comune in 
sustaining their position and their power, and of the necessity of keeping good relations with the 
local population, whose support is necessary to maintain a firm grip on Chios, the participants to 
the Maona, the Giustiniani, do not hesitate to look to Byzantium to affirm and to validate their 
power. Genoa, for its part, does not impose a strict control on its merchants, letting them rule their 
conquests almost as private, indipendent powers, in a conception of the State which is radically 
different from the one pursued by Venice.

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