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VILLANI'S CHRONICLE

Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the
Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani

Translated by Rose E. Selfe

and

Edited by Philip H. Wicksteed M.A.







London
Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd.
1906

SECOND EDITION

Carefully Revised


     Ditemi dell' ovil di San Giovanni
     Quanto era allora, e chi eran le genti
     Tra esso degne di piu alti scanni


[Illustration]




PREFATORY NOTE


The Editor is responsible for the selection of the passages
translated, and for the Introduction. He has also compared the
translation with the original text, has satisfied himself of its
general accuracy, and has made numerous suggestions.

The Translator is responsible for the fidelity of the translation in
detail, and for its general tone and style. She has also drawn up the
Indexes, and seen the work through the press.

For the selection of marginal references to the works of Dante the
Editor and Translator are jointly responsible.

Both Translator and Editor desire to express their obligations to Mr.
A.J. Butler, who has given them his ungrudging assistance in every
difficulty, and whose learning and judgment have been invaluable.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


                                                                  PAGE

INTRODUCTION                                                       xxv


BOOK I.

_This book is called the New Chronicle, in which many
past things are treated of, and especially the root and origins
of the city of Florence; then all the changes through which
it has passed and shall pass in the course of time: begun to
be compiled in the year of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ,
1300. Here begins the preface and the First Book._

Sec. 1.                                                              1

Sec. 2.--_How through the confusion of the Tower of Babel
the world began to be inhabited_                                     2

Sec. 5.--_Of the third part of the world called Europe, and
its boundaries_                                                      4

Sec. 7.--_How King Atlas first built the city of Fiesole_            4

Sec. 8.--_How Atlas had three sons, Italus and Dardanus
and Sicanus_                                                         6

Sec. 9.--_How Italus and Dardanus came to agree which
should succeed to the city of Fiesole and the kingdom
of Italy_                                                            7

Sec. 10.--_How Dardanus came to Phrygia and built the city
of Dardania, which was afterwards the great Troy_                    8

Sec. 11.--_How Dardanus had a son which was named
Tritamus, which was the father of Trojus, after
whose name the city of Troy was so called_                           8

Sec. 17.--_How Antenor and the young Priam, having departed
from Troy, built the city of Venice, and that
of Padua_                                                            9

Sec. 21.--_How Aeneas departed from Troy and came to
Carthage in Africa_                                                 10

Sec. 22.--_How Aeneas came into Italy_                              13

Sec. 23.--_How the King Latinus ruled over Italy, and how
Aeneas had his daughter to wife, and all his kingdom_               14

Sec. 29.--_How Rome was ruled for a long time by the
government of the consuls and senators, until Julius
Caesar became Emperor_                                               16

Sec. 30.--_How a conspiracy was formed in Rome by Catiline
and his followers_                                                  18

Sec. 31.--_How Catiline caused the city of Fiesole to rebel
against the city of Rome_                                           19

Sec. 32.--_How Catiline and his followers were discomfited
by the Romans in the plain of Piceno_                               20

Sec. 33.--_How Metellus with his troops made war upon the
Fiesolans_                                                          22

Sec. 34.--_How Metellus and Fiorinus discomfited the Fiesolans_     22

Sec. 35.--_How the Romans besieged Fiesole the first time,
and how Fiorinus was slain_                                         23

Sec. 36.--_How, because of the death of Fiorinus, the Romans
returned to the siege of Fiesole_                                   24

Sec. 37.--_How the city of Fiesole surrendered itself to the
Romans, and was destroyed and laid waste_                           26

Sec. 38.--_How the city of Florence was first built_                27

Sec. 39.--_How Caesar departed from Florence, and went to
Rome, and was made consul to go against the
French_                                                             30

Sec. 40.--_Of the ensign of the Romans and of the Emperors,
and how from them it came to the city of Florence
and other cities_                                                   31

Sec. 42.--_How the Temple of Mars, which is now called
the Duomo of S. Giovanni, was built in Florence_                    32

Sec. 50.--_Of the city of Luni_                                     34

Sec. 57.--_The story returns to the doings of the city of
Florence, and how S. Miniato there suffered martyrdom
under Decius, the Emperor_                                          35

Sec. 59.--_Of Constantine the Emperor, and his descendants,
and the changes which came thereof in Italy_                        