On an otherwise unremarkable day in 1256 a Genoese merchant, Barozio Malono, sailed his newly purchased vessel into the harbour of Acre and docked it at the wharfs. It caused quite a stir, for the Venetian residents of the city recognised the vessel as one that had recently been captured by pirates. The pirates had subsequently sold their prize to Malono. Unsurprisingly, the Venetians took some offence at Malono's choice in business partners. Heated words were exchanged, and the disagreement soon became violent. A group of Venetians attacked Malono and took the vessel by force. News of the altercation quickly spread to the Genoese quarter, setting off a tinderbox of anger and resentment. Across the neighbourhood, men took up arms, while the leaders sent word to the Pisans in their quarter that, given an alliance recently sealed between their respective governments, they were bound to assist them. The Pisans complied.

The Venetians did not have long to savour their victory at the harbour. Soon hundreds of Genoese and Pisans poured into the area, first retaking the disputed vessel, and then capturing all the Venetian ships docked there. The victors then rushed to the Venetian quarter, where they caused significant property damage before at last being ejected. Tense days followed, about which we know little, although it is certain that an uneasy truce was eventually concluded. According to the sixteenth-century Venetian secretary, ambassador and historian, Giovanni Giacomo Caroldo, who had access to materials now lost, it was the Venetian consul (bailo) of Acre, Nicolò Michiel, who ‘knowing that from such quarrels could arise a major war, procured with his authority a truce, which was signed by the Venetians with pure motives, but by the Genoese with much artifice and dissimulation’. According to the contemporary Venetian chronicler, Martino da Canal, who frequently invented dialogues to enrich his narrative, some of the Genoese who seized the Venetian vessels returned to Genoa ‘with so much jubilation and great celebration as if they had conquered the whole world’. When they told their story to a local wise man, he responded, ‘Sirs, know for certain that never since Genoa was founded have goods been brought from across the sea that will be costlier for us. You have dishonoured Genoa!’