Chronicling history : chroniclers and historians in medieval and Renaissance Italy / edited by Sharon Dale, Alison Williams Lewin, and Duane J. Osheim.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dale, Sharon, 1951-

Lewin, Alison Williams, 1957-

Osheim, Duane J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historiography.

History.

Italy--History--476-1268--Sources.

Italy.

Italy--History--1268-1492--Sources.

Historiography--Italy--History--To 1500.

History--Sources.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xix, 332 pages ; 24 cm

regular print

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Literally thousands of annals, chronicles, and histories were produced in Italy during the Middle Ages, ranging from fragments to polished humanist treatises. They become part of the very history they are describing. This book is composed of a set of case studies exploring the kinds of historical writing most characteristic of the period. 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 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. Seen more broadly, chronicles are far more entertaining and informative than narratives. They become part of the very history they are describing.

Contents:

Lombard city annals and the social and cultural history of northern Italy / Edward Coleman

History writing in the twelfth-century kingdom of Sicily / Graham A. Loud

The Genoese civic annals : Caffaro and his continuators / John Dotson

Salimbene de Adam and the Franciscan chronicle / Alison Williams Lewin

The Villani chronicles / Paula Clarke

Chronicles and civic life in Giovanni Sercambi's Lucca / Duane J. Osheim

Fourteenth-century Lombard chronicles / Sharon Dale

Venetian history and patrician chroniclers / John Melville-Jones

Chronicles into legends and lives : two humanist accounts of the Carrara dynasty in Padua / Benjamin G. Kohl

Challenging chronicles : Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine people / Gary Ianziti

From the Roman empire to Christian imperialism : the work of Flavio Biondo / Nicoletta Pellegrino.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-312) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Chronicling history.

ISBN:

9780271032252

0271032251

9780271032269

027103226X

OCLC:

124539030

Publisher Number:

99817977974