Background
Giovanni Villani was the son of Villano di Stoldo, and was born at Florence in the second half of the 13th century; the precise year is unknown.
banker Diplomat official chronicler
Giovanni Villani was the son of Villano di Stoldo, and was born at Florence in the second half of the 13th century; the precise year is unknown.
Giovanni Villani was a Florentine merchant whose wide travels gave him an interest in Florence and the world around it.
His life was devoted to commerce, politics, and the Chronicle. In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed a Holy Year, promising spiritual benefits to all who made the pilgrimage to Rome.
Giovanni now saw Rome for the first time.
From 1300 on Giovanni worked intermittently at his chronicle.
He framed his chronicle in customary medieval style.
He began with an account of the Tower of Babel, and his first six books end with the arrival of Charles of Anjou in Italy in 1265.
September 1304 he visited Flanders.
In 1316 and 1317 he was one of the priors, and shared in the crafty tactics whereby Pisa and Lucca were induced to conclude a peace with Florence, to which they were previously averse.
In 1321 he was again chosen prior; and, the Florentines having just then undertaken the rebuilding of the city walls, he and some other citizens were deputed to look after the work.
They were afterwards accused of having diverted the public money to private ends, but Villani clearly established his innocence.
He was next sent with the army against Castruccio Castracani, lord of Lucca, and was present at its defeat at Altopascio.
In 1328 a terrible famine visited many provinces of Italy, including Tuscany, and Villani was appointed to guard Florence from the worst effects of that distressing period.
x. 143).
The following year Villani superintended the making of Andrea Pisano's bronze doors for the baptistery.
x. 177).
In 1341 the acquisition of Lucca was again under treaty, this time with Martino della Scala, for 250, 00c florins.
Villani was sent with others as a hostage to Ferrara, where he remained for some months.
He was present in Florence during the unhappy period that elapsed between the entry of Walter of Brienne, duke of Athens, and his expulsion by the Florentines (1342 - 43).
Nothing but scanty and partly legendary records had preceded Villani's tvork, which rests in part on.
them.
The Gesta Florentinorum of Sanzanome, starting from these vague origins, begins to be more definite about 1125, at the time of the union of Fiesole with Florence.
The Chronica de Origine Civitaiis seems to be a compilation, made by various hands and at various times, in which the different legends regarding the city's origin have been gradually collected.
The Annales Florentini Primi (1110 - 1173) and the Annales Florentini Secundi (1107 - 1247), together with a list of the consuls and podestas from 1197 to 1267, and another chronicle, formerly attributed, but apparently without good reason, to Brunetto Latini, complete the series of ancient Florentine records.
To these must, however, be added a certain quantity of facts which were to be found in various manuscripts, being used and quoted by the older Florentine and Tuscan writers under the general name of Gesta Florentinorum.
Another work, formerly reckoned among the sources of Villani, is the Chronicle of the Malespini; but grave doubts are now entertained as to its authenticity, and many hold that at best it is merely a remodelling, posterior to Villani's time, of old records from which several chroniclers may have drawn, either without citing them at all or only doing so in a vague manner.
(Nuova Cronica)
Giovanni Villani possessed an astute mind, was capable of independent observation and judgment, and was a sufficient literary artist to incorporate lively and accurate portraits of contemporaries into his work.
Giovanni Villani was of good burgher extraction, and, following the traditions of his family, applied himself to commerce.
Villani returned to Florence in 1307 where he married and settled down for a life of city politics.