author
Giovanni Villani
d. 1348
A Florentine merchant and public official who turned city history into a vivid, year-by-year narrative, he is best known for the Nuova Cronica. His writing captures medieval Florence with unusual detail, from politics and trade to daily life and disaster.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Florence in the late 13th century and dead there in 1348, Giovanni Villani worked as a merchant and banker before becoming one of the city’s most important chroniclers. He was also active in public life, serving Florence in official and diplomatic roles.
Villani is remembered above all for the Nuova Cronica, a sweeping history of Florence that starts in the distant past and reaches into the events of his own lifetime. What makes it stand out is its practical eye: along with battles and rulers, he wrote about commerce, money, population, building projects, and the everyday workings of the city.
His chronicle became a major source for understanding medieval Florence and helped shape later historical writing. Villani died in 1348, the year the Black Death struck Florence, leaving behind a work that still feels close to the life of the city he knew so well.