Guglielmo Ventura, sometimes anglicized William Ventura (1249/50–''c''.1322), was a merchant, public official and chronicler of

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

. He is believed to have been an ancestor of the later chronicler Secondino Ventura.Alberto Luongo
"Ventura, Guglielmo"
''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle'', ed. Graeme Dunphy (Brill Online, 2012), retrieved 12 March 2016. Guglielmo's chronicle informs us that he had turned fifty by 1300 and sixty by 1310. His birth therefore fell in 1249 or 1250. He fought for the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

of Asti during its war against

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) i ...

. During the

Battle of Cossano A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

in 1274 he was captured. He was later freed and took part in further campaigns. In 1290 he fought in the war against

William VII of Montferrat Guillaume VII de Montferrat. William VII (c. 1240 – 6 February 1292), called the Great Marquis ( it, il Gran Marchese), was the twelfth Marquis of Montferrat from 1253 to his death. He was also the titular King of Thessalonica. Biography ...

.Armando Tallone
"Ventura, Guglielmo"
''Enciclopedia Italiana'' (Rome: 1937), retrieved 12 March 2016. He became merchant of spices, was a member of the bourgeois '' popolo'' and held several important municipal offices. In 1300, he visited Rome during the first

Jubilee A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

. He made up a will in 1310 and this is the last record of him independent of his chronicle. Guglielmo wrote a chronicle of the city, the ''Memoriale de rebus gestis civium astensium et plurium aliorum'', covering the years 1261–1325, although the last few years were added by another hand. The ''Memoriale'' is written in ungrammatical

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

prose and divided into 114 chapters. His sources were his own memory, oral reports and the municipal archives. The ''Memoriale'' is sometimes called the ''Chronicon Astense'', but it must be distinguished from the earlier and shorter ''

Chronicon Astense parvum In historiography, a ''chronicon'' is a type of chronicle or annals. Examples are: * ''Chronicon'' (Eusebius) * ''Chronicon'' (Jerome) *''Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham'' *'' Chronicon Burgense'' *'' Chronicon Ambrosianum'' *''Chronicon Compostellan ...

''. The ''Memoriale'' is especially valuable today for its length, detail and general accuracy, although Guglielmo uncritically records traditions and legends.

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1250 births 1320s deaths People from Asti