author
Giovanni Villani
d. 1348
A sharp-eyed Florentine merchant and public official, he turned the story of his city into one of the great chronicles of medieval Europe. His writing blends politics, commerce, religion, and everyday life in a way that still feels vivid centuries later.
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About the author
Born in Florence in the late 13th century, Giovanni Villani was a merchant, banker, diplomat, and civic official who became famous for writing the Nuova Cronica, a sweeping history of Florence and its wider world. Sources agree that a visit to Rome around the Jubilee of 1300 helped inspire his decision to record his city's past and present.
Villani wrote with unusual breadth for his time. Alongside wars, rulers, and church affairs, he paid close attention to trade, finance, public works, population, and daily urban life, which makes his chronicle especially valuable to modern readers. His career in business and government gave him an insider's view of Florentine society, though he also experienced setbacks tied to the collapse of major banking firms.
He died in Florence in 1348, during the Black Death, leaving his chronicle unfinished. Even so, his work remains one of the richest surviving portraits of medieval Florence and an important bridge between medieval chronicle writing and a more observant, worldly kind of history.