Belt
The celebrated Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) tells of a silver belt stolen from a virtuous Genoese woman that was offered for sale in the market at Acre, a principal arrival point for European Christian pilgrims. The story bears witness to the lucrative and lively commerce between Italian merchant cities and the Holy Land. This belt, which combines typically European motifs like that of a woman spinning with images of men in Persian inspired costumes, boasts of the same wide world that Boccaccio took for granted.
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