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Chronicling History
Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
352 pages | 6 x 9 | 2007
ISBN 978-0-271-03225-2 | cloth: $85.00
ISBN 978-0-271-03226-9 | paper: $25
“Overall, this is a wonderful source for researchers familiar with and delving deeper into regional Italian history.” —M.M. Johnson, Choice
“There is nothing like this on the market. . . . Nowhere is there offered such an ample body of translations; nowhere is there offered such generous commentary. There are some books of original sources . . . but none that covers as much chronological and regional ground.” —James Grubb, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Literally thousands of annals, chronicles, and histories were produced in Italy during the Middle Ages, ranging from fragments to polished humanist treatises. This book is composed of a set of case studies exploring the kinds of historical writing most characteristic of the period.
We might expect a typical medieval chronicler to be a monk or cleric, but the chroniclers of communal and Renaissance Italy were overwhelmingly secular. Many were jurists or notaries whose professions granted them access to political institutions and public debate. The mix of the anecdotal and the cosmic, of portents and politics, makes these writers so engaging to read.
While chroniclers may have had different reasons to write and often very different points of view, they shared the belief that knowing the past might explain the present. Moreover, their audiences usually shared the world view and civic identity of the historians, so these texts are glimpses into deeper cultural and intellectual contexts. Seen more broadly, chronicles are far more entertaining and informative than narratives. They become part of the very history they are describing.
Sharon Dale is Associate Professor of Art History at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.
Alison Williams Lewin is Associate Professor of History at St. Joseph’s University.
Duane J. Osheim is Professor of History at the University of Virginia
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1 Lombard City Annals and the Social and Cultural History of Northern Italy
by Edward Coleman
2 History Writing in the Twelfth-Century Kingdom of Sicily
by Graham A. Loud
3 The Genoese Civic Annals: Caffaro and His Continuators
by John Dotson
4 Salimbene de Adam and the Franciscan Chronicle
by Alison Williams Lewin
5 The Villani Chronicles
by Paula Clarke
6 Chronicles and Civic Life in Giovanni Sercambi's Lucca
by Duane J. Osheim
7 Fourteenth-Century Lombard Chronicles
by Sharon Dale
8 Venetian History and Patrician Chroniclers
by John Melville Jones
9 Chronicles into Legends and Lives: Two Humanist Accounts of the Carrara Dynasty in Padua
by Benjamin G. Kohl
10 Challenging Chronicles: Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine People
by Gary Ianziti
11 From the Roman Empire to Christian Imperialism: The Work of Flavio Biondo
by Nicoletta Pellegrino
Bibliography
Index