The 8th century began with a deadly threat for Christianity: the Arabs conquered Africa, moved to Spain and finally crossed the Pyrenees into Gaul – where they were defeated by Charles Martel and driven back onto the Iberian Peninsula. Based in Spain and Africa, the Arabs continued their raids in...

When Charlemagne had himself crowned as emperor in the year 800 in Rome, Western Europe had just experienced a deep historical break. In the 7th and early 8th centuries, Muslim warriors had conquered the southern and western coast of the Mediterranean, and thus caused an abrupt end to trade and c...

During the 11th century the Normans, supported by the pope, conquered south Italy, which was ruled partly by Byzantium and partly by the Lombards, and the island of Sicily, which was ruled by the Emirs of Tunis. Count Roger II de Hauteville established there a tightly organized state, and by skil...

The tari was introduced in the 10th century by the Fatimids, who ruled Sicily at that time. The coin was the Arabic equivalent of the quarter denarius. When the Normans conquered Sicily in the 11th century, they resumed the issue of the tari, since the denomination was popular for its convenience...

Northern and central Italy were formally part of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, while southern Italy and Sicily were under the rule of the Normans (which ended in 1189 when the last Norman king Wilhelm II died without male heirs; after that the House of Hohenstaufen took over in s...

In 1202 a crusading army assembled at Venice, and the city agreed to provide transport. Since this required more ships to be built, the authorities had denaro multiples struck, in order to facilitate to buy materials and pay the workmen. These denarii multiples were of virtually pure silver. They...

Two major developments in European monetary history date from the 13th century: the introduction of silver coins worth more than a pfennig, and the reintroduction of gold coins. Both developments started in Italy, and both were due to the increase of trade. In that century, the Roman-Catholics of...

The size of the Holy Roman Empire was impressive. Seen in today's political dimensions it would cover: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Burgundy, southern France, all of northern Italy, Tuscany, Corsica, Sardinia and the Kingdom of Sicily which included the whole of southern Italy. The Papal States...