Editing Sassari (section)

===Middle Ages===
{{More citations needed | section|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Statuti Sassaresi XIV century 1a.png|thumb|The Sassari Republic's medieval statutes written in [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]]]]
The origin of the city remains uncertain. Among the theses, according to folk tradition the first village was founded around the 9th–10th century AD by  the inhabitants of the ancient Roman port of ''Turris Libisonis'' (current [[Porto Torres]]), who sought refuge in the mainland to escape the [[Saracen]] attacks from the sea.

It developed from the merger of a number of separate villages, such as San Pietro di Silki, San Giacomo di Taniga, and San Giovanni di Bosove. The oldest mention of the village is in an 1131 document in the archive of the Monastery of St. Peter in Silki where is cited a man named ''Jordi de Sassaro'' (George of Sassari), a serf from the nearby village of Bosove. Sassari was sacked by the [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] in 1166.<ref name=Catholic/> Immigration continued until, in the early 13th century, it was the most populous city in the [[Giudicato of Torres]], and its last capital. After the assassination of [[Michele Zanche]], the latter's last ruler in 1275, Sassari became subject to the [[Republic of Pisa]] with a semi-independent status.
[[File:Proclamazione della Repubblica sassarese - Giuseppe Sciuti, 1880 - Sassari, Palazzo della Provincia.png|thumb|left|500px|
''The proclamation of the Republic of Sassari (The Council)'', [[Giuseppe Sciuti]], 1880, Sassari]]

In 1284, the Pisans were defeated by the [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] fleet at the [[Battle of Meloria]], and the city was able to free itself: it became the [[Republic of Sassari]], the first and only early independent renaissance city-state of Sardinia, with statutes of its own, allied to Genoa; the Genoese were pleased to see it thus withdrawn from Pisan control. Its statutes of 1316 are remarkable for the leniency of the penalties imposed when compared with the penal laws of the Middle Ages.<ref name=Catholic/>
[[File:Sassari - Cattedrale di San Nicola (05).JPG|thumb|right|The baroque façade of [[St. Nicholas]]]]
From 1323, the Republic of Sassari decided to side with the King of Aragon, in whose hands it remained for much of the following centuries, though the population revolted at least three times. The revolts ceased when King [[Alfonso V of Aragon]] nominated the town as a Royal Burg, directly ruled by the King and free from feudal taxation, during a period in which it may have been the most populous city in Sardinia. Further attempts made by [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] to conquer the city failed. In 1391 it was conquered by [[Brancaleone Doria]] and [[Marianus V of Arborea]], of the independent Sardinian [[Giudicato of Arborea]], of which it became the last capital.<ref name=Catholic/>

However, in 1420, the city was sold along with the remaining territory for 100,000 [[Florin (Aragonese coin)|florins]] to the Crown of Aragon, replaced by Spain after 1479 on the joining of the Aragonese and Castilian thrones. During the period of Aragonese and then Spanish domination the city was known as ''Sàsser'' in [[Catalan language]] and ''Saçer'' in old [[Spanish language|Spanish]].{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}