Amalfi

Amalfi, a port on the N. side of the Gulf of Salerno, Italy. In the 9th century it was an independent republic, governed by its own doges, and a place of great commercial importance. The inhabitants joined warmly in the Crusades, and founded a hospital at Jerusalem, which gave rise to the order of the Knights of Malta. In 1135 the town was sacked by the Pisans, and soon after was annexed to the kingdom of Naples. The maritime code of Amalfi was highly esteemed in the Middle Ages, and a celebrated manuscript of the Pandects was discovered there. The place is now unimportant save as the seat of an archbishopric, and as manufacturing macaroni, silk, and paper.