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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
By twentieth-century American standards, or fourteenth-century Florentine standards, Filippo Villani, nephew of the more famous Giovanni Villani, was a successful man. As early as 1361 he held a chair of jurisprudence in the Studio at Florence, was appointed chancellor of the Commune of Perugia in 1377, which position he held for five or six years, and in the latter years of his life spent a very pleasant old age as public reader of Dante at Florence.
In addition to his public duties, he wrote in Latin and published in 1381-82 a work in two books on the history of Florence and the lives of her famous citizens, which gained the approval as well as the corrections and comments of the learned Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of the Commune of Florence. We may well imagine that Filippo, as a chronicler, following in the footsteps of his uncle Giovanni and his father Matteo, was infected by the brilliant revival of Latin letters set in motion by Petrarch and spurred on by Salutati.
1 Registro della Camera Communale di Firenze, Quaderno 153, 1361, 1 Nov.-31 Dec: cited by U. Marchesini, ‘Filippo Villani, Pubblico Lettore della Divina Cornmedia in Firenze’, Archivio Storico Italiano, Ser. v, vol. xvi (1895), 278, n. 2. The time of appointment was for one year, beginning 1 Oct. 1361, and the stipend was of 25 gold florins. That the appointment was for jurisprudence is Marchesini's conjecture, as no specific position is mentioned.
2 Masséra, A. F., ‘Le Più Antiche Biografie del Boccaccio’, Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, Vol. xxvii (1903), 300.Google Scholar
3 Marchesini, pp. 276-278. The years during which he held the lectureship were 1392, 1397, 1398, 1399, 1401, 1402, and probably from this latter date until the Studio was closed at the end of 1405, though no mention was made until 13 Oct. 1404, when he was given a 5-year appointment to lecture on the Commedia ‘modo et forma hactenus per eum usitatis’. When the Studio reopened in 1412, Filippo was not mentioned, and it is probable that he had died in the meanwhile.
4 Philippi Villani De Origine Civitatis Florentiae et Eiusdem Famosis Civibus. Codex Laur.-Ashburnham 942. A microfilm of this manuscript and others noted in this paper are in the library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
5 For a published discussion of some of these comments and Salutati's part in this opus, see Ullman, B. L., Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Rome, 1955), Chap. 10.Google Scholar
6 For a discussion of the identification of the handwriting, both as an autograph manuscript and as a commentary by Coluccio, v. Ullman, p. 241.
7 These examples and comments are quoted from Ullman, pp. 246-247.
8 G. C. Galletti used only this manuscript for his edition of Book II, published in Florence, 1847.
9 ‘Iam enim sexagesimum quintum annum ingressus, offitium cancellariatus nostre civitatis, quod annis circiter viginti… fedeliter exercuit’, etc.
10 Dante, , Inferno xx, 118.Google Scholar
11 Quad. 297, 1 Oct. 1391-31 Mar. 1392, Reg. for Bimester Dec. 1391-Jan. 1392: cited by Marchesini, p. 276.
12 Quad. 308, 1397, Marchesini, p. 277. Apparently the appointment was for the rest of the academic year 1396-97 only, for in a document dated 18 Feb. 1398 we find the appointment was renewed for the next two scholastic years 1397-99 (Quad. 314, 1397).
13 Benvenutus De Imola, Comentum super Dantis Comoediam. This work was first completely published in Florence, 1887, in 5 volumes, ed. J. P. Lacaita. Ullman, pp. 210-219, argues rather ingeniously that Benvenuto's commentary on Inferno was taking form as early as 1374-75. This argument is based on certain correspondence between Salutati and Benvenuto concerning the latter's commentary. It is not inconceivable, therefore, that this work was known to Villani before his 1381-82 edition of the ‘Lives’. But what is more natural than that Salutati, who commented on Villani's work, and knew of Benvenuto's work should suggest this latter to Filippo, after he had the ‘Lives’; and further that Filippo, when accepting the Dante Lectureship in 1392, would have made constant use of the ‘Comments’ of Benvenuto.
14 ‘Angimur miseri quo nescio urgente fato de futuris eventibus, eaque vexati inquietudine, etiam mulierculis divinandi scientiam pollicentibus, quod turpissimum est, aurem credulam adhibemus.’
15 Dante, , Inferno xx, 121–123.Google Scholar
16 ‘Mos enim antiquis fuit Romanis… nicchil inauspicato moliri’.
17 Benvenuto da Imola, p. 84.
18 ‘Mos fuit regibus atque tirannis, quibus, coscientie aculeo, futura formidolosa sunt, peritos matheseos consulere’, etc.
19 Benvenuto, pp. 88-89 passim.
20 ‘… in qua (arte) antiquorum nobilissima ingenia coequavit, et … fortasse etiam superavit’.
21 Benvenuto, p. 89. ‘Ea hic nota quod autor ponit istum singularem astrologum solum, quia fuit excellens, imo non habuit parem tempore suo.’
22 ‘In judiciis enim particularibus… veridicus repertus est.’
23 Benvenuto, p. 89. ‘… saepe mirabiliter judicabat’.
24 Benvenuto, p. 308 (comments on Inferno xxvii).
25 Benvenuto, p. 308 (on Inferno xxvii).
26 Benvenuto, p. 308 (on Inferno xxvn).
27 Benvenuto, p. 330. It may be well to note, too, that Dante has Count Guido referto himself as a volpe, Inferno xxvii, 75.
28 Benvenuto, p. 89. ‘… et cum ipse Comes teneret Forlivium… ubi erat princeps partis Ghibellinae, utebatur consilio istius astrologi in omnibus agendis. Et satis constans opinio multorum fuit, quod ipse obtinuerit multas victorias contra Bononienses, et alios adversaries suos opera istius Guidonis.’
29 ‘Guido Comes spem tenende tyrannidis penitus dereliquit …(et) Sancti Francisci religionem professus (est)… multi enim… panem in helemosina… precare viderunt.'
30 ‘Nam devote assumpsit habitum, humiliter servavit regulam, et patienter tulit paupertatem; unde saepe visus est ire publice mendicando panem per Anconem.’
