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Amalfi is first mentioned in the 6th century, and soon acquired
importance as a maritime power, trading its grain, salt and slaves
from the interior, and even timber, for the gold dinars minted in
Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the silks of the Byzantine empire
that it resold in the West. Merchants of Amalfi were using gold
coins to purchase land in the 9th century, while most of Italy
worked in a barter economy.
Amalfi occupied a high position in medieval architecture; its cathedral of Sant'
Andrea, of the eleventh century, the campanile, the convent of the Capuccini,
founded by Cardinal Capuanor, richly represent the artistic movement prevailing
in Southern Italy at the time of the Normans, with its tendency to blend the
Byzantine style with the forms and sharp lines of the northern architecture. |
