Carrie Beneš, New College of Florida
Laura Morreale, Independent Historian
In this video, two historians discuss the history of chronicle writing in medieval Italy, in both the Latin and vernacular traditions.
Video
Sources
Jacopo da Varagine, Chronicle of Genoa, trans. C. Beneš (Manchester, 2020). Parts 1 and 5, Full text at Manchester Hive.
Martin da Canal, Les Estoires De Venise, trans. Laura K. Morreale (UNIPRESS, 2009). Book II, Chapters 112-134.
Giovanni Villani, Excerpts from Book III. From Villani’s Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine by Giovanni Villani, trans. R. Selfe and P. Wicksteed (2nd ed., London, 1906; repr. online, Project Gutenberg, 2010).
Discussion questions
How does the chronicler characterize his town? Who populates the history of this town? Which kinds of events are included in the narrative (and by extension, which are excluded)?
Further Reading
Katherine Jansen, Joanna Drell, and Frances Andrews (eds.), Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation. (Penn, 2009). Not online.
Dino Compagni, Chronicle of Florence, trans. D. Bornstein (Penn, 1980). Book on JSTOR.
Trevor Dean, The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester, 2000). Manchester Hive.
Cite
Beneš, Carrie and Morreale, Laura. “Medieval Italian Civic Chronicles, Part 1,” Middle Ages for Educators, March 27, 2020. Accessed [date]. http://middleagesforeducators.com/videos/medieval-italian-civic-chronicles-part-1/.