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

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

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

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. After the death of his brother, he continued his work writing eleven books of the '' Nuova Cronica''. 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.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 from the Republic of Florence Writers from Florence Writers from the Republic of Florence {{italy-historian-stub