Commune of Bergamo

Who rules

Title

the commune's chief magistrates (podestà or consuls)

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No list we could reach names the officer of 1199 or of the morning of 1 January 1200. The commune had a Cremonese podestà, Bellotto Bonseri (Bellottus Bonserii), in 1193 and probably again in 1197 (Menant, who calls the identity of the two probable). The consulate dates from the early 12th century (charters with consuls from 1117).

Overlord

The Empire (kingdom of Italy); regalia under the Peace of Constance (1183).

What the realm holds

• The upper city with the commune's new Palazzo della Ragione (completed 1198) and the suburbs beginning to spread on the plain below
• The plain to the Oglio and the Cremonese border: Verdello, Urgnano, Cologno, Ghisalba, Martinengo, Romano (new borgo begun on 11 February 1171 on Bergamasque land; attacked by Milan and Brescia in 1192 and by Cremona in 1196), Cortenuova, Covo, Calcio and Cividate on the Oglio [Calcio: medium, the bishop of Cremona held old rights there]
• The Valcalepio and the Oglio below Lake Iseo: Calepio and Sarnico, returned to Bergamo by the 1191 settlement, with the counts of Calepio
• The west shore of Lake Iseo to Lovere, and lower Volpino (settlement of 3 August 1198)
• The Valle Seriana: Albino, Gandino, Clusone (a rural commune attested in 1182, in a district the bishop of Bergamo has held since 1026), Ardesio
• The Valle Brembana (Zogno, San Pellegrino, the upper valley), the Valle Imagna and the Val Cavallina (Trescore, Casazza, Endine)
• The Val di Scalve: the bishop's land since 1026; its men were given the right to seek and mine ore in 1179, and in 1195 the valley's consul and the representatives of its village assemblies (vicinie) came to Bergamo to have a city consul fix its borders
• The Isola between the Brembo and the Adda (Calusco, Capriate)

How it was acquired

Consuls from the early 12th century after the fall of the imperial bishop Arnolfo (1098); the commune took over the public powers of the old counts (the Gisalbertini, who by the end of the 11th century had become private lords) and much of the bishop's. Founding member of the Lombard League at Pontida (7 April 1167); received Frederick I in 1184; in the 1190s it stood with Cremona.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Cremona (at Rudiano in 1191 the Bergamasque side included Cremona, Pavia, Parma, Lodi and Tortona; Lodi made friends with Milan about 1198). Rivals: Brescia (the Oglio and Lake Iseo frontier and the castles of Volpino, Calepio and Sarnico; Bergamo lost at the Grumore in 1156 and at Rudiano in 1191; peace in August 1198) and Milan (which wants a corridor to Brescia through the Bergamasque plain and raids round Calcio in 1200).

The realm that morning

The commune holds the plain and the valleys. Brescia holds the left bank of the Oglio, the east shore of Lake Iseo (Paratico, Iseo, Pisogne) and the Valcamonica beyond Lovere and Volpino. Beyond the Orobie ridge lies the Valtellina (Como's sphere, lmw); across the Adda lie the Milanese Martesana, Lecco and the Valsassina (lmw); the Gera d'Adda to the south-west (Treviglio, Caravaggio) is Milanese or disputed (lmw); Cremona's Soncino and the Cremasco lie to the south.

The Brescian peace of August 1198 holds that morning. The war that matters is Milan's against Bergamo and Cremona: shortly before 1200 Milan asked Brescia for help against them (Milanese raids round Calcio are recorded for 1200, dates not pinned, so they belong to the likely course). No raiding belt is drawn: no campaign in the Bergamasque plain is dated to the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Iron from the Val di Scalve and the upper Seriana and Brembana valleys; wool and cloth; tolls on the valley roads and the Oglio crossings; the fair of Sant'Alessandro in late August [the fair's first record not pinned here].

Military

City host of knights and foot; valley levies; the borgo of Romano with its rocca (end of the 12th century) as the southern bastion; the castles of the Valcalepio. Record: defeated by Brescia at the Grumore (10 March 1156) and at Rudiano (7 July 1191). No figures in our sources.

Threats

• Milan and its league, raiding the plain (1200)
• Brescia, should the 1198 peace fail
• feuds of the great families (open fighting in 1206)
• the valley communities' own ambitions (Scalve, Clusone)

Councils and societies

Consuls or podestà and the commune's councils, meeting in the new Palazzo della Ragione (finished 1198) [composition not pinned]. The valley communities (Scalve with its consul and vicinie; Clusone, attested 1182) have their own officers.

Families and factions

Great families: the Suardi, the Rivola, the Colleoni, the Bonghi, the da Mozzo, the Crotta and others who held shares in Volpino earlier in the century. The Suardi (for the nobles) and the Rivola (for the people) will fight in 1206; in 1200 these are family feuds, not yet parties. The counts of Calepio and the descendants of the old counts hold land in the contado.

Leagues wars truces

In force or live on 1 January 1200: (1) alliance with Cremona (fair); (2) war with Milan and its league, Milan having sought Brescian help against Bergamo and Cremona shortly before 1200 (fair, events not pinned); (3) peace with Brescia: the Volpino settlement of 3 August 1198 and the peace signed at Capriolo on 20 August 1198 (fair; the Capriolo article says the struggles later resumed, date not pinned).

Bishop

Lanfranco, bishop from 26 January 1187 to after 18 June 1211 (Church map record). The bishop holds the Val di Scalve (since 1026, granted to the Capitanei only in 1222) and the district of Clusone in the upper Valle Seriana (since 1026), and old rights at Lovere.

Emperor and pope

No officer of either German king is known in Bergamo that winter.

Coinage

Not pinned in our sources.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. early 1200 (date not pinned)New podestà or consuls take office.Depends on: normal rotation Stopped by: nothing expected
2. 1200 (dates not pinned)Milanese raids in the Bergamasque lowland round Calcio, in breach of the peace treaty of the 1190s.Depends on: Milan's war on Bergamo and Cremona Stopped by: a truce, or a Bergamasque and Cremonese defence of the Oglio and Serio line

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Bergamo, with Cremona and Mantua, helps the Brescian knights regain Brescia; envoys of Bologna impose a peace in November 1201.Depends on: the Brescian civil war breaking out in autumn 1200 Stopped by: Brescian unity

Places of note

• Palazzo della Ragione: The commune's palace, completed in 1198.
• Romano: Borgo begun 11 February 1171; rocca of the late 12th century; attacked in 1192 and 1196.
• Volpino: Castle disputed with Brescia for a century; settlement of 3 August 1198 split the place and doomed the castle.
• Calepio: Castle of the counts of Calepio on the Oglio; returned to Bergamo by the 1191 settlement.
• Clusone: Chief place of the upper Valle Seriana; rural commune attested in 1182.

Where the sources disagree

• it.wikipedia (Castello di Volpino) gives the final Volpino agreement as 3 August 1198 and the demolition in 1198-1199; it.wikipedia (Capriolo) gives a peace signed at Capriolo on 20 August 1198 after which the struggles 'resumed' (date not given). We take both as in force on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: The wars and settlements with Brescia are fairly attested (it.wikipedia articles drawing on Odorici, the Liber Potheris and local studies); the alliance with Cremona is attested by the Cremonese podestà of 1193 and 1197 (Menant). The officers of 1199-1200 are not pinned.

On the map: The southern border with the Cremonese and the Gera d'Adda follows no source and is drawn roughly along the later line; the Calciana (Calcio, Covo, Antegnate) is drawn Bergamasque [medium]. The Val di Scalve and Clusone are the bishop's lordship within the commune's contado.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Sicard, bishop of Cremona, Sicard of Cremona (about 1210 to 1213). A universal chronicle whose last part is a well-placed eyewitness account by a Lombard bishop who served emperors and popes. Read online
• The Lombard city annals of Piacenza, Milan, Cremona, Parma, Mantua and Verona (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries). The communes' own year lists. Read online