Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani | |
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chronicler |
Giovanni Villani (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni vilˈlaːni]; c. 1276 or 1280 – 1348)[1][2] 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 unsavoury 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.[3] His Cronica is viewed as the first introduction of statistics as a positive element in history.[4] 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."[5] 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.
Villani was inspired to write his Cronica after attending the
While continuing work on the Cronica and detailing the enormous loss of life during the
Life and career
Giovanni Villani was born into the Florentine merchant middle class. He was the son of Villano di Stoldi di Bellincione, who came from an old and well-respected arti maggiori family of merchants.
Villani returned to Florence in 1307 where he married and settled down for a life of city politics. He became one of the
A
Villani was sent on another diplomatic mission in 1329, this time to
Villani often expressed an optimistic viewpoint in his writing; this changed with the short-lived regime of
Villani and the Buonaccorsi had gained an unsavory reputation as early as 1331, when Villani was tried (and cleared) for barratry for his part in building the new third circuit of walls around Florence.[9] Charles, Duke of Calabria had granted the Buonaccorsi the right to tax three of the six districts of Florence, which did not help Villani's reputation amongst his fellow citizens.[9] In early June 1342, partners and agents of the Buonaccorsi suddenly fled Florence, Avignon, and Naples, following bankruptcy proceedings by creditors, nearly all of whom had deposits in the Buonaccorsi bank.[31] Like other Florentine bankers and companies having difficulty with bankruptcy at the time, in September 1342 they supported the move to invite Walter VI of Brienne to become the next signor of Florence. Walter later suspended all legal actions taken against the Buonaccorsi and other company partners for nearly a year.[31]
However, the legal case against the company was reopened and resumed in October 1343, after the violent overthrow of Walter VI.[31] It is unclear how long Villani served his prison sentence for alleged misconduct during the economic disaster of 1346. It is known that he was imprisoned in the Carceri delle Stinche.[32] After the overthrow of the Brienne regime and a subsequent but short-lived aristocratic signoria, the novi cives or new families—some even from the lesser guilds—rose up in late September 1343 and established a government that provided them with much greater representation in officialdom.[33] Villani and other chroniclers disdained these rustic non-aristocrats who suddenly rose to power, considering them brazen upstarts incapable of governance.[12][34] Villani's class was at a constitutional disadvantage, as twenty-one guilds representing twenty-one equal voices in government meant that the oligarchy of higher guildsmen was "helplessly outnumbered" as historian John M. Najemy states.[35] Yet by the 1350s the general attitude towards the novi cives had changed much, as even Villani's brother Matteo depicted them in a heroic light for being united in a coalition with the merchants and artisans to curb oligarchic power.[34][36] Villani was also a staunch supporter of what he deemed the liberties of the Church, while criticizing the new popular government of the novi cives since they protested against the many legal exemptions the Church enjoyed.[37] However, he did find civic pride in that the whole city—including the novi cives—had joined together in an uprising against Walter VI, whose sins of imposing tyranny were, to Villani, sufficient justification for the violence needed to overthrow him.[38]
Nuova Cronica
Villani's work is an Italian chronicle written from the perspective of the political class of Florence just as the city rose to a rich and powerful position. Only scanty and partly legendary records had preceded his work, and there is little known of events before the death of Countess Matilda in 1115.[40] The Chronica de origine civitatis was composed sometime before 1231, but there is little comparison between this work and Villani's; mid-20th-century historian Nicolai Rubinstein states that the legendary accounts in this earlier chronicle were "arbitrarily selected by a compiler whose learning and critical faculties were considerably below the standard of his age."[41] In contrast, Rubinstein states Villani provided "a mature expression" of Florentine history.[41] Yet Villani still relied upon the Chronica de origine civitatis as the prime source for Florence's early history in his narrative.[42]
In the 36th chapter of Book 8,[42] Villani states that the idea of writing the Cronica was suggested to him during the jubilee of Rome in 1300,[1] under the following circumstances after Pope Boniface VIII made in honor of Christ's nativity a great indulgence;[16] Villani writes:
And being on that blessed pilgrimage in the sacred city of Rome and seeing its great and ancient monuments and reading the great deeds of the Romans as described by Virgil, Sallust, Lucan, Livy, Valerius, Orosius, and other masters of history ... I took my prompting from them although I am a disciple unworthy of such an undertaking. But in view of the fact that our city of Florence, daughter and offspring of Rome, was mounting and pursuing great purposes, while Rome was in its decline, I thought it proper to trace in this chronicle the origins of the city of Florence, so far as I have been able to recover them, and to relate the city's further development at greater length, and at the same time to give a brief account of events throughout the world as long as it please God, in the hope of whose favor I undertook the said enterprise rather than in reliance on my own poor wits. And thus in the year 1300, on my return from Rome, I began to compile this book in the name of God and the blessed John the Baptist and in honor of our city of Florence.[5]
In his writing, Villani states that he considers Florence to be the "daughter and creation of Rome," but asserts
In 1300 or shortly after, Villani began working on the Cronica, which was divided into twelve books; the first six deal with the largely legendary history of Florence, starting at conventionally biblical times with the story of the Tower of Babel up to the year 1264.[50][51] The second phase, in six books, covered the history from 1264 until his own time, all the way up to 1346.[50] He outlined the events in his Cronica in year-to-year accounts; for this he has gained criticism over the years for writing in an episodic manner lacking a unifying theme or point of view.[17] He wrote his Cronica in the vernacular language rather than Latin, the language of the educated elite.[52] His chronicles are intercut with historical episodes reported just as he heard them, sometimes with little interpretation.[53] This often led to historical inaccuracies in his work,[53] especially in the biographies of historical or contemporary people living outside of Florence (even with well-known monarchs).[54]
Despite numerous mistakes, Villani often displayed an insider's knowledge on many subjects, as a result of his extensive travels and access to both official and private documents.[9] For example, De Vries states that he wrote one of the most accurate accounts of the Battle of Crécy during the Hundred Years' War, including information that the archers were placed precariously behind the English and Welsh infantry, not on the flanks as others asserted.[55] While describing detailed events unfolding within the city, Villani would name every individual street, square, bridge, family, and person involved, assuming his readers would have the same intimate knowledge of Florence as he did.[38]
Villani is perhaps unequalled for the value of the statistical data he has preserved.[53] For example, he recorded that in Florence there were 80 banks, 146 bakeries, 80 members in an association of city judges with 600 notaries, 60 physicians and surgical doctors, 100 shops and dealers of spices, 8,000 to 10,000 children attending primary school each year, 550 to 600 students attending 4 different schools for Scholastic knowledge, 13,200 bushels of grain consumed weekly by the city, and 70,000 to 80,000 pieces of cloth produced in the workshops of the Arte della Lana each year, the latter having a total value of 1,200,000 gold florins.[56][57]
Villani was a Guelph,
Historian Louis Green writes that the Cronica was written with three general assumptions about morality[63] which shaped the organization of the work, "[channeling] events into recurring patterns of significance."[63] These general assumptions were that excess brings disaster, that history is governed by a struggle between right and wrong, and that there is a direct connection between the events of the natural world and the overriding, supernatural and divine will of God who intercedes in these events.[63] For example, Villani described the story of Count Ugolini of Pisa, who at the height of attaining his ill-gotten wealth and power was overthrown and eventually starved to death along with his sons.[64] Green writes that this story in the Cronica bears a resemblance to the ancient Greek story of Polycrates and his ring in the work of Herodotus.[65] However, Green notes that Villani's "cautionary tales" disembarked from the Classical Greek tradition of the arrogant and haughty rich falling from fortune due to the Greek belief in equalizing forces determining one's unavoidable fate, which Green calls "excessive good fortune having to be balanced by an appropriate measure of sorrow."[65] Villani's adherence to Medieval Christianity allowed him to suggest retribution was delivered because of sin and insult to God.[65] He stressed that those who gained prestige would fall prey to pride; confidence in their position would then lead them to sin, and sin would bring on a stage of decline.[66] Villani wrote:
... it seems that it happens in the lordships and states of earthly dignitaries, that as they are at their highest peak, so presently does their decline and ruin follow, and not without the providence of divine justice, in order to punish sins and so that no one should place his trust in fallacious good fortune.[65]
For Villani, this theory of sin and morality being tied directly with fate and fortune fit well with the ultimate fate of the Capetian dynasty of France.[66] The House of Capet was once the champion of the Church and ally of the papacy.[66] However, Villani correlated Philip the Fair's defiance of Pope Boniface VIII and seizure of the Templar's wealth with later Capetian misfortunes, such as Philip's death in a hunting accident, the adultery of the wives of his three sons, the death of his heirs, and even French defeats in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War.[66] Green points out that in Villani's writing there are two significant earthly powers that seem to be exempt or immune from this theory of immorality leading to downfall: Florence and the papacy.[67] The interests of these two powers represent, as Green states, "the kingpin of Villani's scheme of historical interpretation."[67]
Besides Divine Providence, Villani acknowledged other events that he believed were explainable via the supernatural. He wrote of many instances where holy men offered prophetic statements that later proved true, such as Pope Clement IV's prophecy on the outcome for the Battle of Tagliacozzo.[68] He believed that certain events were really omens of what was to come. For instance, when a lion was sent to Florence as a gift by Boniface VIII, a donkey purportedly killed the lion.[68] He interpreted this as an omen that foretold the Pope's beating and untimely death shortly after fighting Philip IV at Anagni; Villani wrote: "when the tamed beast kills the King of Beasts, then the dissolution of the Church will begin."[68] He also believed in astrology and changes in the heavens as indication of political changes, the deaths of rulers and popes, and natural calamities.[69] However, he noted that the movement of the heavens would not always predetermine the actions of men and did not trump the divine plan of God.[69]
Marilyn Aronberg Lavin states that Villani was most likely serving as a Peruzzi representative in Flanders when he heard the story of the
Death and continuation of Villani's work
Villani wrote during the
By the 16th century, more than one edition of the Cronica was available in printed form.[78] There was also an abundance of handwritten illuminated manuscripts, including one from Venice by Bartholomeo Zanetti Casterzagense in 1537 and one from Florence by Lorenzo Torrentino in 1554.[78]
Legacy and criticism
Historian J.K. Hyde states that the Nuova Cronica of Villani is representative of the strong vernacular tradition in Florence, appealing to the people of the time as a narrative that was "easy to read, full of human interest and occasionally spiced with novella-type anecdotes."[44] Hyde also notes that Villani's criticisms of the commune politics in Florence promoted a trend of personal expression amongst later chroniclers that defied official conformity.[79] The Cronica is also an incredibly rich historical record; its greatest value to modern historians is its descriptions of the people, data, and events experienced by Villani during his lifetime.[40] Historian Mark Phillips states that all subsequent Florentine accounts of the tyrannical regime of Walter VI of Brienne—including those by Leonardo Bruni and Niccolò Machiavelli—were based upon the primary source of Villani's Cronica.[38] Villani's written work on Dante Alighieri and the age in which he lived has provided insight into Dante's work, reasoning, and psyche.[80] The reprinting of new editions of Villani's work in the early 20th century provided material for a resurgence in the study of Dante.[81] However, Villani's descriptions of events which preceded him by centuries are riddled with inaccurate traditional accounts, popular legend, and hearsay.[40]
In regard to his own time, Villani provides modern historians with valuable details on Florentine social and living habits, such as the growing trend and craze of wealthy Florentines in building large country homes far outside of the city.:
Recording as he did incidents in the order of their occurrence without any of the historian's pretensions to a thematic organization of his material, he could not feed back the lessons of a changing present into a reinterpreted past. Nor did his devotion to the justification and glorification of Florence permit him to see in the altered fortunes of his city a repetition of the pattern of decline he had illustrated in the histories of the great dynasties of his age.[22]
Louis Green asserts that Giovanni's Cronica expressed the outlook of the merchant community in Florence at the time, but also provided valuable indications of "how that outlook was modified in a direction away from characteristically medieval to embryonically modern attitudes."[52] Green writes that Villani's Cronica was one of three types of chronicles found in the 14th century, the type which was largely a universal history.[52] Other types would be chronicles of particular historic episodes such as Dino Compagni's account of the White Guelphs and Black Guelphs or the more domestic chronicle that focused on the fortunes and events of one family, as written by Donato Velluti or Giovanni Morelli.[85]
See also
- Battle of Campaldino
- Category:Italian historians
- Assassin's Creed II, a video game that features Giovanni Villani as "Giovanni Auditore Da Firenze"
Notes
- ^ a b Bartlett (1992), 35.
- ^ a b c d e f Vauchez et al. (2000), 1517.
- ^ Bartlett (1992), 35–36.
- Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD
- ^ a b c d e Bartlett (1992), 36.
- ^ Bartlett (1992), 36–40.
- ^ Kleinhenz (2004), 1102.
- ^ Benedictow (2004), 286.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Kleinhenz (2004), 1144.
- ^ a b Bartlett (1992), 37.
- ^ Kleinhenz (2004), 1147.
- ^ a b Baron (1960), 443.
- ^ "Villani, Giovanni." (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- ^ De Roover (2007), 33.
- ^ De Roover (2007), 49.
- ^ a b Balzani 1911, p. 74.
- ^ a b Kleinhenz (2004), 1145.
- ^ Bartlett (1992), 39.
- ^ Franklin Toker (1976), 158, footnote 10.
- ^ Michele Luzzati, Villani, Giovanni, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 8, col. 1679.
- ^ Kleinhenz (2004), 1146.
- ^ a b Green (1967), 168.
- ^ Caesar (1989), 147–148.
- ^ Wolfgang (1960), 150.
- ^ Hunt (1990), 149 and 151.
- ^ Hunt (1990), 149–150.
- ^ Hunt (1990), 155–157.
- ^ Hunt (1990), 157.
- ^ Hunt (1990), 160.
- ^ Miller et al. (2002), 109, Footnote 10.
- ^ a b c Miller et al. (2002), 109.
- ^ Wolfgang (1960), 149–150.
- ^ Becker (1962), 360.
- ^ a b Becker (1962), 360–361.
- ^ Najemy (1979), 63.
- ^ Baron (1960), 443–444.
- ^ Becker (1959), 64–65.
- ^ a b c Phillips (1979), 89.
- ^ De Vries (2006), 162, 173, 175.
- ^ a b c d Wicksteed (1906), xxxi.
- ^ a b Rubinstein (1942), 199.
- ^ a b c Rubinstein (1942), 214.
- ^ Rubinstein (1942), 215–216.
- ^ a b Hyde (1979), 124.
- ^ Rubinstein (1942), 217.
- ^ Olson (1997), 289
- ^ a b Ratté (1999), 148.
- ^ Ratté (1999), 153.
- ^ Kleinhenz (2004), 1031.
- ^ a b c d Caesar (1989), 148.
- ^ a b c Lansing et al. (2000), 859.
- ^ a b c Green (1967), 161.
- ^ a b c Chisholm (1910), 903.
- ^ Wicksteed (1906), xxxi, xxxii, xxxiii.
- ^ De Vries (2006), 162.
- ^ Bartlett (1992), 41–42.
- ^ Lopez et al. (2001), 72.
- ^ Balzani 1911, p. 75.
- ^ Hyde (1979), 122.
- ^ Becker (1964), 201.
- ^ Caesar (1989), xi.
- ^ Caesar (1989), 13, 457.
- ^ a b c Green (1967), 163.
- ^ Green (1967), 163–164.
- ^ a b c d Green (1967), 164.
- ^ a b c d Green (1967), 165.
- ^ a b Green (1967), 165–166.
- ^ a b c Green (1967), 166.
- ^ a b Green (1967), 167.
- ^ a b Lavin (1967), 3–4.
- ^ Lavin (1967), 4.
- ^ Lavin (1967), 4–5.
- ^ a b Bartlett (1992), 38.
- ^ a b Benedictow (2004), 69.
- ^ Bartlett (1992), 36, 38.
- ^ Selby (1958), 243.
- ^ Molho (1970), 259.
- ^ a b Rudolph (2006), 66.
- ^ Hyde (1979), 124–125.
- ^ Wicksteed (1906), xxv–xlvi
- ^ Caesar (1989), 58–59.
- ^ Goldthwaite (1980), 13, 22.
- ^ Rubinstein (1942), 209.
- ^ Lucas (1930), 366.
- ^ Green (1967), 161–162.
References
- Balzani, Ugo (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 74–75.
- Baron, Hans. "The Social Background of Political Liberty in the Early Italian Renaissance," Comparative Studies in Society and History (Volume 2, Number 4, 1960): 440–451.
- Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance. Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company. ISBN 0-669-20900-7(Paperback).
- Becker, Marvin B. "Florentine Politics and the Diffusion of Heresy in the Trecento: A Socioeconomic Inquiry," Speculum (Volume 34, Number 1, 1959): 60–75.
- Becker, Marvin B. "Florentine Popular Government (1343–1348)," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (Volume 106, Number 4, 1962): 360–382.
- Becker, Marvin B. "Notes from the Florentine Archives," Renaissance News (Volume 17, Number 3, 1964): 201–206.
- Benedictow, Ole Jørgen (2004). The Black Death, 1346–1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-943-5.
- Caesar, Michael. (1989). Dante, the Critical Heritage, 1314(?)–1870. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02822-1.
- Chisholm, Hugh. (1910). The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- De Roover, Raymond. (2007). Money, Banking, and Credit in Medieval Bruges: Italian Merchant-Bankers, Lombards, and Money-Changers, A Study in the Origins of Banking. Cambridge: The Medieval Academy of America.
- De Vries, Kelly. (2006). Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, and Technology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-571-5.
- Goldthwaite, Richard A. (1980). The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-2342-0.
- Green, Louis. "Historical Interpretation in Fourteenth-Century Florentine Chronicles," Journal of the History of Ideas (Volume 28, Number 2, 1967): 161–178.
- Green, Louis, "Chronicle into History : An Essay on the Interpretation of History in Florentine Fourteenth-Century Chronicles", Cambridge University Press, 1972, pp. 9–43
- Hunt, Edwin S. "A New Look at the Dealings of the Bardi and Peruzzi with Edward III," The Journal of Economic History (Volume 50, Number 1, 1990): 149–162.
- Hyde, J. K. "Some Uses of Literacy in Venice and Florence in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (5th series, Volume 29, 1979): 109–128.
- Kleinhenz, Christopher. (2004). Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93929-1.
- Lansing, Richard H. and Teodolinda Barolini, Joan M. Ferrante, Amilcare A. Iannucci, Christopher Kleinhenz. (2000). The Dante Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., a member of the Taylor and Francis Group. ISBN 0-8153-1659-3.
- Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg. "The Altar of Corpus Domini in Urbino: Paolo Uccello, Joos Van Ghent, Piero della Francesca," The Art Bulletin (Volume 49, Number 2, March 1967): 1–24.
- Lopez, Robert S. and Irving W. Raymond. (2001). Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12356-6.
- Lucas, Henry S. "The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316, and 1317," Speculum (Volume 5, Number 4, 1930): 343–377.
- ISBN 0-521-52273-0.
- Molho, Anthony. "Domenico di Leonardo Buoninsegni's Istoria Fiorentina," Renaissance Quarterly (Volume 23, Number 3, 1970): 256–266.
- Najemy, John M. "Guild Republicanism in Trecento Florence: The Successes and Ultimate Failure of Corporate Politics," The American Historical Review (Volume 84, Number 1, 1979): 53–71.
- Olson, Roberta J.M. "An Early Drawing by Luigi Sabatelli Rediscovered," Master Drawings (Volume 35, Number 3, 1997): 289–292.
- Phillips, Mark. "Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and the Tradition of Vernacular Historiography in Florence," The American Historical Review (Volume 84, Number 1, 1979): 86–105.
- Ratté, Felicity. "Architectural Invitations: Images of City Gates in Medieval Italian Painting," Gesta (Volume 38, Number 2, 1999): 142–153.
- Rubinstein, Nicolai. "The Beginnings of Political Thought in Florence. A Study in Mediaeval Historiography," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (Volume 5, 1942): 198–227.
- Rudolph, Julia. (2006). History and Nation. Danvers: Rosemont Printing & Publishing Corp; Cranbury: Associated University Presses. ISBN 978-0-8387-5640-9.
- Selby, Talbot R. "Filippo Villani and his Vita of Guido Bonatti," Renaissance News (Volume 11, Number 4, 1958): 243–248.
- Toker, Franklin. "A Baptistery below the Baptistery of Florence," The Art Bulletin (Volume 58, Number 2, 1976): 157–167.
- Vauchez, André, Richard Barrie Dobson and Michael Lapidge. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 1-57958-282-6.
- Wicksteed, Philip H. (1906). Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani. Translated by Rose E. Selfe. London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
- Wolfgang, Marvin E. "A Florentine Prison: Le Carceri delle Stinche," Studies in the Renaissance (Volume 7, 1960): 148–166.
External links
- Fordham's "Medieval Sourcebook" gives illuminating and flavorful excerpts from the Florentine Chronicle.
- Villani's Chronicles Rose E. Selfe's English translation of Dante relevant selections.
- Giovanni Villani: La Nuova Cronica – Un'opera emblematica della storiografia trecentesca (in Italian)
- Works by Giovanni Villani at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Giovanni Villani at Internet Archive