Matteo Villani (1283–1363) was an Italian historian. Born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Villani was the brother of the historian

Giovanni Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

. He worked for a company called Buonaccorsi, of which he was the representative in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. After the death of his brother, he continued his work writing eleven books of the ''

Nuova Cronica The ''Nuova Cronica'' (also: ''Nova Cronica'') or '' New Chronicles'' is a 14th-century history of Florence created in a year-by-year linear format and written by the Italian banker and official Giovanni Villani (c. 1276 or 1280–1348). T ...

''. Critics praised his commitment to seek sources and to read up on the facts; of particular importance it was the part related to the plague of 1348, which emerges between the clichés of the genre, an existential reflection on life. He died in a plague epidemic, in 1363. His work was briefly continued by his son

Filippo Filippo is an Italian male given name, which is the equivalent of the English name Philip, from the Greek ''Philippos'', meaning "amante dei cavalli".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Philip" Retrieved on 23 January 2016. The female variant is Filip ...

.AAVV. ''La peste nera: dati di una realtà, elementi di una interpretazione: Atti del XXX Convegno storico internazionale'', Todi 10-13 ottobre 1993. Atti dei Convegni del Centro italiano di studi sul Basso Medioevo - Accademia Tudertina e del Centro di studi sulla spiritualità medievale, n.s. 7.

References

1283 births 1363 deaths 14th-century Italian historians Italian chroniclers 14th-century deaths from plague (disease) 14th-century people of the Republic of Florence Writers from Florence {{italy-historian-stub