AMALFI, or AMALPHI, a sea-port town on the west coast of the Gulf of Salerno, about 7 miles west of the town of Salerno, and 30 miles south of Naples. The history of its origin is somewhat obscure ; but the most general opinion is, that about the middle of the fourth century, a number of families having sailed from Rome for Constantinople, were driven by a tempest to the shores of Salerno; and being afraid again to encounter the perils of the ocean, they resolved to settle on the coast to which they had escaped, and founded the city of Amalfi. The territory which they occupied around it, though exceedingly fertile, was of narrow extent ; but the sea was open before them, and they availed them selves of the advantages of their situation. By carrying on an extensive trade to the East, with whose produc tions and manufactures they supplied the western world, they soon rose to such a height of opulence and reputa tion, as excited the envy of their neighbours, and pro voked their hostility. About the year 825, an epidemical disorder had raged at Salerno, and had so thinned its population, that Sico, its prince, marched a body of troops to Amalfi ; and, surprising it by night, carried off the greater number of its inhabitants to his own city, to supply the place of those who had fallen victims to the plague. It was not long till this outrage was amply re venged ; for, while the chiefs of Salerno were absent on an expedition, the Amalfitans rose in arms, and, after sacking and burning the city of their oppressors, march ed back in triumph to Amalfi. Their first care, after returning to their own country, was to new-model their constitution, to frame a better code of laws, and to adopt such regulations as might most effectually ensure the safety and prosperity of their commonwealth. Amalfi now rose to the summit of its glory ; acquired the dig nity of an archiepiscopal city ; and for its zeal against the infidels, received from Pope Leo IV. the distin guishing title of Defender of the Faith. The whole trade of the Levant passed into their hands, and their naval reputation was so high, that the emperor of Constanti nople established at Amalfi a court for the decision of all maritime disputes, whose codes and decrees became of general authority. To the ingenuity or the good fortune of the inhabitants of Amalfi, is ascribed the dis covery of the mariner's comnass, which, giving more boldness to their adventurous spirit, enabled them to extend their trade to the coasts of Africa, Arabia, and India. In this period of meridian splendour, their walls
contained 50,000 inhabitants ; arid in Arabia, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, they formed settlements which acquired the prk ileges of imlepcndent colonies. Under the patronage or St John of Jerusalem, an order of knighthood was established at Amalfi, the members of which were afterwards called Knights of Rhodes, and have since become celebrated as the Knights of Malta. To the honour of these traders, it is recorded, that they made use of the influence which their com mercial greatness gave them with the mussulmen, to erect at the caliph's court, (A. D. 1026,) two small hos pitals, and a chapel, for the use of votaries coming from the west of Europe.
The distinguished prosperity of the Ainallitans natu rally created many enemies; but the intervention of the holy war gave them a temporary respite from their as saults. At length, after three hundred years of happi ness and glory, it was overwhelmed by the power of the Normans, who abolished every trace of its republican constitution. From that hour which destroyed its liber ties, its grandeur declined, and its power was rapidly diminished. The Pisans, who had long regarded it with an eye of jealousy, now attacked it in its feeble state, and pillaged it without mercy. On this occasion, the conquerors are said to have obtained possession of the Pandects, a copy of the code which was formed by Jus tinian I. The ruin of Amalfi was completed by the alienation of its lordship to feudal proprietors. It was first granted to Colonna, brother to Pope Martin V. ; next to the Sanseverini; then to the Orini; and, lastly, to Picolomini, with the title or duke.
At present, Amalfi scarcely retains any trace of its ancient grandeur. Its inhabitants, not more than 4000 in number, are miserably poor. Its buildings are mean ; and, except the ruins of a cathedral, an arsenal, and the palaces of some of its ancient merchants, nothing re mains to form any contrast with the poverty of the fisher men by whom it is now occupied. See Gibbon, v. x. p. 280. and Swinburne's Travels, v. iii. p. 220. (k)