International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Simeon Hinkovski
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria; 
[e-mail]
Why Genoese Galley of Pietro Longo Went to Sozopol and Nessebar 
in January 1352? New Observations about the Relations of the Genoese 
Republic and Bulgarian Kingdom in the Middle of the Fourteenth Century
In the second half of the XIV century in the Balkans and particularly in the West part of 
Black sea starts the War for the Straits. In this war the eternal rivals - Genoa and Venice, supported 
by numbers of allies, are competing against each other and are trying to impose their influence 
in an area that once belonged to Byzantium, but now turned into Genoese lake. Along with the 
pandemic plague called the Black Death, the war gives no fewer victims and exhausts additionally 
both sides. Venice and the Byzantine Empire, supported by Pedro III of Aragon are trying to regain 
the former status quo of the region. But on the other side Genoa, which a century earlier imposed 
its dominance in the region and established good trade and political relations in this region, does 
not want to draw back and is desperately trying to impose its hegemony and for this reason is allying
with the countries that then surround the Black Sea. This becomes the perfect situation, caused 
by the exhaustion of the both sides, in which the Bulgarian kingdom becomes one of the main 
political and economic allies of the Ligurian Republic. Some new documents from the Archivio di 
Stato di Genova unequivocally testifies for the enormous role of the diplomacy of Genoa and for 
her trade relations by this time. In this context in January 1352 as a result of these arrangements a 
Genoese galley, whose patron is Pietro Longo, sails to Sozopol and Nessebar with the special errand 
of Admiral Paganino Doria of the Genoese fleet. This move is not accidental, but one very clever 
that did not stay unnoticed by the enemy camp and soon received its counterstrike, turning the 
Bulgarian kingdom in the „apple of discord“ between the two naval forces. Certainly the movement 
of the galley and the implementation of the specific order by its captain have its great importance 
for the development of the region in the future. 
Based on newly discovered documents we make an attempt to give another point of view on 
the last years of the War for the Straits and to demonstrate the enormous role which it has for all 
countries in the region on the West Coast in the late fourteenth century before the arrival of the 
Ottoman Turks.

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