Schiavi e galeotti fra Tre e Cinquecento

The author questions the fact of multiethnicity on board the Genoese galleys, showing how, from an initial situation of ethnic homogeneity, characterizing the centuries of the late Middle Ages, during the sixteenth century, there was a transition to the presence on board of convicts and enslaved people. The reasons for this change are linked to naval enlargement, as well as to the chronic shortage of men.