I Genovesi a Palermo: la Capela Mercatorum Genuensium (sec. XV)

The heart of the industrious Genoese presence in Palermo was the Capela mercatorum Genuensium located in the cloister of the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi thanks to the preexisting relationship of collaboration with the Franciscans. Given a brief mention on the documentation concerning the Genoese nation in Sicily and expecially in Palermo, which plays an important commercial, social, political and religious role with reference to the Logia Ianuensis, the paper will recall the events of the Capela, the viceroy permission to group in confratria disciplinantium (1480), andits works of art. Genoese presences are identified in other thriving companies within the same complex (San Francesco, Sa(San Francesco, San Lorenzo Immacolatella). Noteworthy are the discovery and publication of the Book of Privileges by the Consulate of Genoa and the existence in the Municipal Library of Palermo of a code containing the Annals pf Caffaro and his continuators up to Jacopo Doria. The paper will conclude hinting at the new church of San Giorgio, founded in 1575 close to the new port to be the status symbol of the nation and to have more space for activities and for burials of famous people, such as the female painter Sofonisba Anguissola and the relatives of Christopher Columbus under the same coat of arms as the navigator