The Final Book of Giovanni Villani's New Chronicle

Giovanni Villani's New Chronicle traces the history of Florence, Italy, and Europe over a vast sweep of time-from the destruction of the Tower of Babel to the outbreak of the Black Death. This final book, which covers one of the most dramatic periods of the early fourteenth century, is a narrative of transformation, of crisis, in which the author, like many of his contemporaries in the mid-fourteenth century, perceives the punishing hand of God. At the same time, this book, composed by Villani as events were unfolding, reveals-in its attention to detail, in its attempted impartiality, in its desire to make sense of events rather than simply document them-the glimmers of a new historical sensibility.