Secular history in twelfth-century Italy: Caffaro of Genoa

Caffaro of Genoa is distinguished among medieval writers of history in being the earliest urban chronicler and the earliest secular historian in western Europe. However, his works and career remain relatively unknown to a remarkable number of contemporary medievalists in the English-speaking world. Caffaro was the originator of the Genoese Annals and remained their sole author for more than half a century. In addition he wrote at least two other historical works of great value. Throughout his long life he played a prominent role in the affairs of his city. He served repeatedly as a consul, ambassador, and diplomat for the Genoese Republic, and he was as well a crusader and a successful military commander. In his writing and in his career Caffaro consistently displays that uniquely secular and urban temperament we too readily associate only with the historians of Antiquity and the Renaissance.