Villani's Chronicle. Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani. Translated by Rose E. Selfe and Edited by Philip H. Wicksteed. Elibron Classics

by Giovanni Villani, Rose E. Selfe (Translator), Philip H. Wicksteed (Editor)

Overview

Elibron Classics. Digitized replica of 1906 edition by Archibald Constable & Co Ltd., London.
Editor: Philip H. Wicksteed
Translator: Rose E. Selfe
Villani’s Chronicle is a history of Florence, Italy, written by a citizen of that city, who was alive at the time of Dante. This is one of the first histories we have preserved that was written in Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire. Rose Selfe has translated the parts that would be of most interest to students of Dante, and includes references in the margins to the sections in Dante’s works which relate to that portion noted of the history.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012838681
Publisher:	Adegi Graphics LLC
Publication date:	07/11/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Giovanni Villani (c. 1276 or 1280–1348, was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the Nuova Cronica (New Chronicles) on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of Florence but later gained an unsavory reputation and served time in prison as a result of the bankruptcy of a trading and banking company he worked for. His interest in and elaboration of economic details, statistical information, and political and psychological insight mark him as a more modern chronicler of late medieval Europe. His Cronica is viewed as the first introduction of statistics as a positive element in history. However, historian Kenneth R. Bartlett notes that, in contrast to his Renaissance-era successors, "his reliance on such elements as Divine Providence links Villani closely with the medieval vernacular chronicle tradition." In recurring themes made implicit through significant events described in his Cronica, Villani also emphasized three assumptions about the relationship of sin and morality to historical events, these being that excess brings disaster, that forces of right and wrong are in constant struggle, and that events are directly influenced by the will of God.