The Genoese annals are famous as an early and official Italian communal chronicle written by laymen. However, comparatively little research has been done on the drawings accompanying Cafaro’s and Oberto’s annals in the surviving original manuscript BNF ms. Lat. 10136. This article re-dates these drawings, closes gaps in the iconographic interpretation – particularly with regard to animal motifs, ships and floral ornaments – and reconstructs verisimilar functions of the images. These were probably intended to make it easier for the ruling elite to access important historical knowledge, to affirm the communal constitutional model and to emphasise memories that created unity and identity.