amalphi

Updated: May 8, 2025

Fifty thousand citizens were numbered in the walls of Amalphi; nor was any city more abundantly provided with gold, silver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners who swarmed in her port, excelled in the theory and practice of navigation and astronomy: and the discovery of the compass, which has opened the globe, is owing to their ingenuity or good fortune.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventh century, was successfully transported by the accidents of war and commerce to Amalphi, Pisa, and Florence, and is now deposited as a sacred relic in the ancient palace of the republic. It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.

- The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 04

His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second with astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his example and discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he instantly tore his garment to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and prepared to visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

But when Amalphi was taken by the Pisans in 1137, an entire copy of the last work was discovered; and its publication immediately attracted, and almost monopolized, the attention of the learned.

- The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 : (From Barbarossa to Dante)

In the decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the republic of Amalphi promoted the interest of trade and religion in the East.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventh century, was successively transported by the accidents of war and commerce to Amalphi, Pisa, and Florence, and is now deposited as a sacred relic in the ancient palace of the republic. It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4

The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces of Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard principality of Salerno, the republic of Amalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts only were exempted from the common law of subjection; the first forever, the two last till the middle of the succeeding century.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

The power of the dukes of Naples was circumscribed by the bay and the adjacent isles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by the Roman colony of Amalphi, whose industrious citizens, by the invention of the mariner's compass, have unveiled the face of the globe.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4

The school of medicine has long slept in the name of a university; but her precepts are abridged in a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine verses, or Latin rhymes, of the twelfth century. II. Seven miles to the west of Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples, the obscure town of Amalphi displayed the power and rewards of industry.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Later the Novellæ Constitutione, or Novels, most of them in Greek, comprising statutes of Justinian arranged chronologically, completed the Code. Forgotten or ignored during the lawless days of the Dark Ages, an entire copy of this famous code was discovered when Amalphi was taken by the Pisans in 1137. Its publication immediately attracted the attention of the learned world.

- The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 04