Nuova Cronica
The Nuova Cronica or New Chronicles is a 14th-century history of Florence created in a year-by-year linear format and written by the Italian banker and official Giovanni Villani. The idea came to him in the year 1300, after attending Rome's first Jubilee. Villani realized that Rome's many historical achievements were well-known and desired to lay out a history of the origins of his own city of Florence. In his Cronica, Villani described in detail the many building projects of the city, statistical information on population, ordinances, commerce and trade, education, and religious facilities. He also described several disasters such as famines, floods, fires, and the pandemic of the Black Death in 1348, which would take his own life. Villani's work on the Nuova Cronica was continued by his brother Matteo and his nephew Filippo after his death. It has been described as the first introduction of statistics as a positive element in history.
The oldest manuscript is Vatican Library BAV Chigiano L VIII 296, dating to the time of composition.
Organization
Giovanni Villani's Cronica is divided into twelve books; the first six deal with the largely legendary history of Florence, starting at conventionally Biblical times to 1264. The second phase, in six books, covers the history from 1264 until his own time, all the way up to 1346. Villani outlines the events in his Cronica, not by theme, but through year-to-year accounts; for this, he has gained criticism over the years for writing in an episodic manner lacking a unifying theme or point of view. Villani's chronicles are intercut with historical episodes reported just as he heard them, with little interpretation; this often led to historical inaccuracies in his work, making most of his mistakes in the biographies of historical or contemporary people living outside of Florence. However, his description of such events as the Battle of Crécy in 1346 was fairly accurate according to historian Kelly DeVries. Both Kenneth R. Bartlett and Louis Green state that Villani's Cronica represented a departure from medieval chronicles in that a more modernistic approach was taken in describing events and statistics, yet still medieval in that Villani relied on divine providence to explain the outcome of events.Notable passages
Battle of Montaperti, 1260
In his Cronica, Villani writes that the Guelph defeat by the Ghibellines at Montaperti in 1260 was a major setback to the historical progress of the Republic of Florence. In this civil war, the Guelphs were a faction united with the papacy in Rome, while the Ghibellines were allied with the descendants of Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire and supported by Siena. According to Villani, the Florentine Guelphs' last stand was in defending the Carroccio, a chariot which symbolized the independence of the Commune of Florence. Villani estimated that 2,500 Florentine troops were killed and 1,500 captured during the battle, which Roberta J.M. Olson states are conservative numbers in regards to subsequent historians writing of the battle's casualties.Florence Cathedral, 1296
Villani describes the rebuilding of Florence after the 1293 rebellion of one Giano della Bella; he notes that by 1296 conditions were once again in a "tranquil state". He states that the citizens of Florence were discontented with the small stature of their cathedral, one that did not fit the greatness of their city, and so agreed in 1296 to expand and renew the building. A new foundation was laid in September of that year, adding new marble and sculptural figures. Villani mentions the cardinal legate sent by the Pope in Rome who laid the first stone of the foundation, a significant event since it was the first papal legate to visit Florence. Villani relates that for the construction of the church, it was required of the Commune of Florence that a subsidy of four denari on each libra be paid out of the city treasury in addition to a head-tax of two soldi for each adult male. On July 18, 1334, work began on the new campanile of the cathedral, the first stone placed by the bishop of Florence in front of an audience of clergy, priors, and other magistrates. Villani notes that the commune chose "our fellow-citizen Giotto" as the designer of the tower, a man who was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time".Palazzo Vecchio, 1299
According to Villani, in 1299, the commune and people of Florence laid the foundation for the Palazzo Vecchio, to replace the town hall that was located in a house behind the church of San Brocolo. The new Palazzo Vecchio was to serve as a protective municipal palace for the priors and magistrates, shielding them from the factional strife of the Guelphs and Ghibellines as well as the brawls between the people and magnates over the renewal of the priors every two months. The Uberti family houses had formerly stood at the location of the new piazza, but the Uberti were "rebels of Florence and Ghibellines" and thus the plaza was intentionally laid upon the former location of their homes so they could never be rebuilt. According to Villani, the Uberti family was not even allowed to return to Florence. In planning for the large expanse of the plaza, the commune of Florence purchased the homes of citizens such as the Foraboschi family, so that they could be demolished to make room for construction. In fact, the main tower of the Palazzo was built upon a previously existing tower of the Foraboschi family known as "La Vacca" or "The Cow".Trend of building country homes, early 14th century
Villani boasts of Florence's pristine architecture in its monasteries and churches, as well as its ornate houses and beautiful palaces. His opinion is clear even in the title of the chapter he devotes to this topic, "More on the greatness and status and magnificence of the city of Florence". However, Villani is quick to add that those who spent too much on the lavish excesses of continuous remodelling and refurnishing of homes were sinners and could be "considered crazy because of their extravagant spending". Villani also describes the growing trend in the early 14th century of affluent Florentine citizens building large country homes far outside the walls of Florence, in the hills of Tuscany.Works sponsored by Robert of Naples, 1316
While holding the signoria of Florence, Robert of Naples had the eastern part of the Bargello in Florence constructed, where he had his vicar the Count of Battifolle reside. Villani writes in 1316 that Robert's vicar oversaw the construction of a large part of the new palace, which would suggest Robert's vicar had a great amount of influence in the construction of the eastern addition of the Palazzo del Podestà, including its Magdalen Chapel.Famine of 1328
There was a famine in 1328 which not only devastated Florence, but caused the people of Perugia, Siena, Lucca, and Pistoia to turn away any beggars who approached their towns because they could not provide them with food. Villani reports that Florence did not turn away beggars, but cared for anyone who approached the city and was in need of immediate subsistence. According to Villani, the Florentines sought grain from Sicily, having it brought into port at Talamone and transporting all the way to Florence at great expense. Florence also sought aid and food supplies from Romagna and Arezzo. Villani writes of the bread riots of the poor who could not afford a whole staio of wheat with their meager salaries:
...as long as the scarcity lasted, disregarding the heavy charge upon the public purse, it kept the price of the staio at half a gold florin although to affect this reduction it permitted the wheat to be mixed to one-fourth its volume with coarser grain. In spite of all the government did, the agitation of the people at the market of Or San Michele was so great that it was necessary to protect the officials by means of guards fitted out with ax and block to punish rioters on the spot with the loss of hands or feet.
Villani states that the commune of Florence spent more than 60,000 gold florins to mitigate this effects of this disaster. In order to save their own funds and calm the rage of the riotous poor, all the baker's ovens in the city were requisitioned by the commune and a loaf of bread weighing 170 g was then sold at a meager four pennies. This price was fixed in consideration that poor workers who made only eight to twelve pennies a day could now buy enough bread to survive.
Villani also describes in vivid detail the effects of another widespread famine in Tuscany during the year 1347, which killed an estimated 4,000 people in Florence a year before the Bubonic Plague.
Fires of 1331 and 1332
On June 23, 1331, a fire broke out toward the left bank of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, destroying all twenty shops located on the bridge. Villani notes that this was a heavy loss to local craftsmen of Florence, while two craftsman apprentices died in the fire. On September 12 of that same year a fire broke out at the household of the Soldanieri, killing six people in a house of carpenters and a blacksmith that was located near the church of Santa Trinità.On February 28, 1332, a fire broke out in the palace of the podestà, the leading magistrate of the city. This fire destroyed the roof of the palace and destroyed two-thirds of the entire structure from the ground floor up, prompting the government to rebuild the palatial residence totally out of stone, all the way up to the roof. On July 16 of that year the palace of the wool guild caught fire and everything from the ground floor up was destroyed, prompting the wool guild to reconstruct a new palatial residence on a larger scale and with stone vaults leading up to the roof.