Villani - Croniche Fiorentine - 1537

THE GREAT MEDIEVAL CHRONICLE OF FLORENCE - GUELFS, GIBELLINES, TRADE AND POWER
FIRST EDITION
First printed edition of the famous Chronicles of Giovanni Villani, one of the fundamental sources for the history of Florence and medieval Italy. Printed in Venice by Bartolomeo Zanetti Castrezagense in August 1537, the work retraces the origins of the city and the political, military and economic events of the Florentines, placing them in the broader framework of relations between Italian communes, the Papacy, the Empire and Europe. Villani was not only a chronicler, but a merchant and a politician directly involved in Florentine public life: it is precisely this experience that gives his narrative exceptional documentary value. Alongside wars, struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, dynasties and diplomatic events, he records data on the population, the arts, commerce, coinage, taxation and city institutions, offering one of the most vivid portraits of medieval urban society. This first impression of 1537 contains the first ten books of the Chronicle; the last two were published later. The present copy, preserved in its suggestive full period calfskin parchment binding, is presented as a study copy and has not been fully collated.

WHY TO BUY
FIRST PRINT EDITION – VENICE 1537! The first typographic appearance of the great Chronicle of Giovanni Villani.
FLORENTINE MEDIEVAL Florence IN FIRST PERSON! Politics, wars, trade, population and daily life told by a protagonist from the city.
A KEY SOURCE OF ITALIAN MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION! One of the fundamental texts for understanding Florentine communal civilization.
COARSE PARCHMENT FLOS CIA COEVA! A great sixteenth-century folio still preserved in its authentic user form.

MARKET VALUE
The first printed edition of 1537 falls into a collectible range considerably higher than that of subsequent editions of the Chronicles, especially when the copy is complete, well marginated and preserved in an old binding. In this case, however, one must consider the nature of a study copy and especially the absence of an analytical collation, elements that significantly affect the valuation. For this specific exemplar a realistic retail value is in the order of €900–1,200.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
In-folio (317 × 225 mm). First printed edition, Venice, 1537. Full period calfskin parchment binding, with visible sewing and cords. Parchment with natural undulations, stains, abrasions, small losses and normal signs of use consistent with age. Text arranged in a single column, with running titles and woodcut initials. The pages are overall legible, with a sharp typographic impression; browning, foxing, halos, stains and marginal defects. Frontispiece with several restorations that do not affect the text.
Pages 1; 219; 1. As with all ancient volumes, slight defects or restorations not expressly mentioned may exist.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Giovanni Villani (c. 1280–1348).
Croniche di Messer Giovanni Villani cittadino Fiorentino: nelle quali si tratta dell’origine di Firenze, & di tutti e fatti & guerre state fatte da Fiorentini nella Italia... Historia nuova & utile a sapere le cose passate fatte per tutto l’universo.
Venice: Bartolomeo Zanetti Castrezagense, August 1537.
FIRST PRINT EDITION.
The 1537 edition includes the first ten books of the Chronicle.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Giovanni Villani (c. 1280–1348) was a Florentine merchant, statesman and chronicler, one of the greatest historians of medieval Italy. Belonging to a family integrated into the city’s economic life, he conducted mercantile and banking activities and directly participated in the institutions of the Commune of Florence. This dual experience, financial and political, allowed him to observe Florentine society with exceptional precision. His Chronicle does not merely recount wars, embassies and dynastic changes, but records demographic data, information on the arts and crafts, production levels, monetary movements, public revenues, international trade and administrative organization. It is precisely this attention to quantitative and economic aspects that makes Villani surprisingly modern and indispensable for historians of medieval society. The narrative began as a universal history, but Florence gradually became the true center of the work: the city is described in its political, urban and economic growth and in the conflicts that marked its history. Villani died in 1348 during the great plague epidemic. The narrative was continued by his brother Matteo and then by his nephew Filippo, turning the family historiographical enterprise into one of the largest chronicling complexes of the Italian Trecento.

RARITY
The Venetian edition of 1537 holds particular bibliographic significance because it constitutes the first printed appearance of Villani’s Chronicles. The nearly two-century gap between the medieval composition and its typographical diffusion gives this impression a fundamental role in the modern transmission of the text. Complete and well-preserved copies are relatively rare on the market, especially when they maintain old bindings and satisfactory margins. The present exemplar also preserves a full period calfskin parchment binding, a particularly suggestive element consistent with the nature of a great historical sixteenth-century edition. The lack of collation urges caution on material completeness, but the combination of first edition, in-folio format, Florentine matter and sixteenth-century binding maintains strong bibliographic and collecting interest.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
Giovanni Villani’s Chronicles are one of the most important narrative sources for knowing Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The work documents the formation of the great Florentine economic power, the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, relations with the Papacy and the Empire, the wars among the Italian communes and the growing role of the great merchant families. But the exceptional value of the Chronicle lies especially in Villani’s attention to the city’s concrete structure. Information on the population, the number of workshops and productive activities, public revenues, coinage and institutions allow one to reconstruct Florence as an economic and social organism. The text thus represents a fundamental moment in the birth of civil history written in vernacular Italian, where history is no longer only a tale of rulers and battles, but an analysis of the collective life of an urban community. The first printed edition of 1537 played a decisive role in bringing this medieval testimony back into Renaissance cultural and political discourse.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Giovanni Villani, Croniche di Messer Giovanni Villani cittadino Fiorentino, Venezia, Bartolomeo Zanetti Castrezagense, 1537.
Folger Shakespeare Library, Croniche di Messer Giouanni Villani cittadino Fiorentino, Venezia, Bartolomeo Zanetti Castrezagense, 1537.
The Morgan Library & Museum, Croniche di Messer Giovanni Villani, Venezia, Bartolomeo Zanetti, 1537.
WorldCat, Croniche di Messer Giovanni Villani cittadino fiorentino, Venezia, Bartolomeo Zanetti Castrezagense, 1537.
Treccani, Giovanni Villani entry.
Repertori bibliografici dedicati alla cronachistica italiana, alla storia di Firenze e alla storiografia medievale in volgare.