The idea of writing the Chronicle was suggested to Villani under the following circumstances. “In the year of Christ 1300 Pope Boniface VIII. made in honour of Christ’s nativity a special and great indulgence. And I, finding myself in that blessed pilgrimage in the holy city of Rome, seeing her great and ancient remains, and reading the histories and great deeds of the Romans as written by Virgil, Sallust, Lucan, Livy, Valerius, Paulus Orosius, and other masters of history who wrote the exploits and deeds, both great and small, of the Romans and also of strangers in the whole world . . . considering that our city of Florence, the daughter and offspring of Rome, is on the increase and destined to do great things, as Rome is in her decline, it appeared to me fitting to set down in this volume and new chronicle all the facts and beginnings of the city of Florence, in as far as it has been possible to me to collect and discover them, and to follow the doings of the Florentines at length . . . and so in the year 1300, on my return from Rome, I began to compile this book, in honour of God and of the blessed John, and in praise of our city of Florence.” Villani’s work, written in Italian, makes its appearance, so to say, unexpectedly in the historical literature of Italy, just as the history of Florence, the moment it emerges from the humble and uncertain origin assigned to it by legend, rises suddenly into a rich and powerful life of thought and action. Nothing but scanty and partly legendary records had preceded Villani’s work, which rests in part on them. The Gesta Florentinorum of Sanzanome, starting from these vague origins, begins to be more definite about 1125, at the time of the union of Fiesole with Florence. The Chronica de Origine Civitatis seems to be a compilation, made by various hands and at various times, in which the different legends regarding the city’s origin have been gradually collected. The Annales Florentini Primi (1110-1173) and the Annales Florentini Secundi (1107-1247), together with a list of the consuls and podestas from 1197 to 1267, and another chronicle, formerly attributed, but apparently without good reason, to Brunetto Latini, complete the series of ancient Florentine records. To these must, however, be added a certain quantity of facts which were to be found in various manuscripts, being used and quoted by the old Florentine and Tuscan writers under the general name of Gesta Florentinorum. Another work which used to be reckoned among the sources of Villani is the Chronicle of the Malespini ; but very grave doubts are now entertained as to its authenticity, and many hold that at best it is merely a remodelling, posterior to Villani’s time, of old records unknown to us, from whieh several chroniclers may have drawn, either without citing them at all or only doing so in a vague manner. The Cronaca Fiorentina of Villani goes back to Biblical times and comes down to 1346. The wide universality of the narrative, especially in the times near Villani’s own, while it bears witness to the author’s extensive travels and to the comprehensiveness of his mind, makes one also feel that the book was inspired within the walls of the universal city. Whereas Dino Compagni’s Chronicle is confined within definite limits of time and place, this of Villani is a general chronicle extending over the whole of Europe. Dino Compagni feels and lives in the facts of his history; Villani looks at them and relates them calmly and fairly, with a serenity which makes him seem an outsider, even when he is mixed up in them and is himself their originator. While very important for Italian history in the 14th century, this work is the cornerstone of the early mediaeval history of Florence. Of contemporary events Villani has a very exact knowledge. Having been a sharer in the public affairs, and in the intellectual and economic life, of his native city, at a time when in both it had no rival in Europe, he depicts what he saw with the vividness natural to a clear mind accustomed to business and to the observation of mankind. He was Guelph, but without passion; and his book is much more taken up with an inquiry into what is useful and true than with party considerations. He is really a chronicler, not an historian, and has but little method in his narrative, often reporting the things which occurred long ago and far off just as he heard them and without criticism. Every now and then he falls into some inaccuracy; but such defects as he has are largely compensated for by his valuable qualities. He was for half a century eyewitness of his history, and provides abundant information on the constitution of Florence, its customs, industries, commerce, and arts; and among the chroniclers throughout Europe he is perhaps unequalled for the value of the statistical data he has preserved. As a writer Villani is clear and acute; and, though his prose has not the force and colouring of Compagni, it has the advantage of greater simplicity, so that taking his work as a whole he may be regarded as the greatest chronicler who has written in Italian. The many difficulties connected with the publication of this most important text have hitherto prevented the preparation of a perfect edition. The Italian Historical Institute, lately founded, has, however, undertaken to reprint on a wider scheme the great collection of Muratori.

Villani’s Chronicle was continued by two other writers of the same name. (1) Matteo Villani, his brother, of whom nothing is known save that he was twice married, and that he died of the plague in 1363, continued it down to the year of his death. Matteo’s work, though inferior to Giovanni’s, is nevertheless very valuable. A more prolix writer than his brother and a less acute observer, Matteo is well informed in his facts, and for the years of which he writes is one of the most important sources of Italian history. (2) Filippo Villani, the son of Matteo, flourished in the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. In his continuation, though showing greater literary ability, he is very inferior as an historian to his predecessors. His most valuable work was a collection of lives of illustrious Florentines. Twice, in 1401 and 1404, he was chosen to explain in public the Dimna Commedia in the Florentine “studio.” The year of his death is unknown.

On Giovanni villani, as well as on Matteo and Filippo, the following books may be consulted Argelati, Bibl. Mediοl. (1745); U. Balzani, Early Chroniclers of Italy (1883); Bellarmin-Labbé, Script. eccl. (1728); Brunet, Manuel (1864); Classici Ital. (1802); Fabricius, Bibl. Med. Aev. (1735); Gamba, Testi Ital. (1828); Gervinus, Hist. Schrift. (1833); Giovanni e Mira (Ant. di), in Giorn. di Scienze, xxxi; Graesse, Trésor (1867); Hartwig (Otto), “Giovanni villani und die Leggenda di Messer Gianni di Procida,” in Sybel, Histor. Zeitschr. (1871); Id., Quellen und Forschungen zur ältesten Geschichte der Stadt Florenz (1870); V. Le Clerc, in Hist. Litt. France (1862); Lorenz, Deutsch. Geschichtsquellen (1870); Massai (Pietro), in Uom. Ill. Toscani (1771); Melzi, Anon. Ital. (1852); Michaud, Bibl. des Croisades (1829); Milanesi (Gaet.), “Documenti riguardanti G. villani e il Palazzo degli Alessi in Siena,” in Arch. Stor. Ital. (1856); Moreni, Bibl. Toscana (1805); Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. ; Negri, Scritt. Fiorent. (1722); Rev. de Paris (1832); and Tiraboschi, Stor. Lett. Ital. (1807).