On March 2 1408, eight men gathered in the great hall of the Casa di San Giorgio, a trading house on what was then the main street in Genoa, a few metres from where the waters of the Ligurian Sea lap the Italian shore. They were merchants, rich and powerful representatives of the city's most influential families, and they were meeting to discuss a matter of the utmost gravity. The once-glorious republic of Genoa had fallen on hard times. After years of war with Venice and a crushing defeat at the battle of Chioggia in 1381, the state was effectively bankrupt. The task was to rescue it.
1408年3月2日，八名男子個(gè)人聚集在熱那亞主要街道上的交易所——圣喬治大樓(Casa di San Giorgio)的大廳內(nèi)，離交易所數(shù)米處就是利古里亞海，可以聽到海水拍打意大利海岸的聲響。八人都是商人，金錢和權(quán)勢讓他們成為城市最具影響力家族的代表。他們會(huì)聚于此，討論一個(gè)極其嚴(yán)肅的問題。時(shí)世艱難，一度輝煌的熱那亞共和國已經(jīng)衰落。熱那亞與威尼斯共和國交戰(zhàn)多年，并于1381年在基奧賈戰(zhàn)役中遭受毀滅性打擊，熱那亞實(shí)際上已經(jīng)破產(chǎn)。八人的任務(wù)就是拯救它。