Dino Compagni

Dino Compagni (* approx. 1246/1247 in Florence ; † February 26, 1324 there ) was a Florentine merchant, politician and chronicler .

Life

Commemorative plaque for Dino Compagni, donated by the Florence municipality in 1893.

The Dino Compagni, who came from an established Florentine family, was a successful cloth merchant and a member of the silk weavers' guild of Por Santa Maria, of which he was a total of six times. Dino was also politically active, he belonged to the group of the so-called “ white Guelfs ”, who were generally more pro- imperial than the so-called “black Guelfs”. Dino campaigned for reforms in the Florentine commune, which relied on greater participation by the Popolans . In 1282 he was instrumental in establishing guild rule in Florence: In that year a group of (initially three, then six) priors were appointed to manage the affairs of the commune and who were chosen from the major guilds and the individual districts. The gonfaloniere was now at the head of the government . This office was held by Dino himself in 1293.

In 1289 and 1301 Dino was one of the priors. When the white Guelphs were expelled from Florence in 1301, Dino was spared exile (unlike Dante, for example ) due to his official position and the associated legal privileges, but from then on he no longer played a role in the city's political life.

Dino went about his business in the following years and wrote a chronicle of the city of Florence in three books ( Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne 'tempi suoi ) between 1310 and 1312/1313 , in which the battles between white and black Guelphs play a central role. Dino limited himself to the period between the 1280s and 1312. The work breaks off in the depiction of Henry VII's march to Italy , in which Dino had high hopes for a stabilization of the situation in Italy . In his chronicle, Dino endeavored to describe and evaluate the motives of the people involved and the political background, which means that the work goes well beyond a pure chronicle. Dino is particularly critical of the politics of the black Guelphs in Florence. In literary terms, the work is attractive and lively. It provides valuable information for this phase of Florentine history.

Funerary tablet in Santa Trinita. The year 1323 is given because in Florence, according to the Calculus Florentinus, the new year took place on March 25th.

In the Italian, but also in the German history of the 19th century, the so-called "dinosaur dispute" was conducted over the authenticity of this chronicle. Paul Scheffer-Boichorst, for example, advocated the falsification thesis, whereas the Erlangen historian and very good expert on the history of the Italian city constitution, Karl Hegel , pleaded for its authenticity. The authenticity of the writing was confirmed in the following period mainly through the research of Isidoro Del Lungo .

In addition to his Florentine Chronicle, Dino also wrote several poems, some of which have been lost.

He was buried in the family chapel in Santa Trinita .

Editions and translations

Dino Compagni: Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne 'tempi suoi . Edited by Isidoro Del Lungo . In: Rerum Italicarum Scriptores NS Vol. 9.2. Città di Castello 1913.
Dino Compagni: Cronica . Edited by Gino Luzzatto . Turin 1968 ( online here ; PDF; 393 kB).
Dino Compagni's Chronicle of Florence . Translated by Daniel E. Bornstein. Philadelphia 1986.
Ida Schwartz (translator): Chronicle of the Dino Compagni of the things that happened in his time . Diederichs, Jena 1914 ( online and as a PDF download ).

literature

Girolamo Arnaldi : Dino Compagni cronista e militante 'popolano' . In: Cultura 21, 1983, pp. 37-82.
Girolamo Arnaldi: Compagni, Dino (Aldebrandino, Ildebrandino, detto Dino). In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 27: Collenuccio – Confortini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1982.
Davide Cappi: Del Lungo editore di Dino Compagni. Il problema del testo della "Cronica" (= Fonti per la storia dell'Italia medievale. Subsidia , Vol. 1), Rome 1995.
Louis Green: Chronicle into History: An Essay on the Interpretation of History in Florentine Fourteenth-Century Chronicles . Cambridge 1972 (general overview).
Sonja Leissing-Giorgetti: Compagni, Dino . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 3, Col. 97f.
Elisabeth von Roon-Bassermann: The whites and the blacks of Florence. Dante and the Chronicle of the Dino Compagni . Freiburg im Breisgau 1954.

Web links

Wikisource: Dino Compagni - Sources and full texts (Italian)

Wikiquote: Dino Compagni - Quotes (Italian)

Commons : Dino Compagni - collection of images, videos and audio files

Dino Compagni . Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .

Remarks

↑ Other, later dates of birth were also considered in older research, but 1246/1247 is the more common assumption in more recent research.
↑ The term popolo could be used in different contexts. In the Middle Ages, it was often used to describe the part of the population of an Italian commune who did not belong to the nobility, but had organized themselves economically and politically and played a role in the economic life of the city, i.e. above all the craftsmen and entrepreneurs. For general information on the term and reference to Florence, see the brief overview in John N. Najemy: A History of Florence . Malden / MA u. a. 2006, p. 35ff .; see. also Max Weber : Economy and Society. Outline of understanding sociology . 5th revised edition. Concerned by Johannes Winckelmann. Tübingen 1980, p. 775ff.
↑ See Dino Compagni, Cronica , I 4.
↑ See in detail Robert Davidsohn : History of Florence . Vol. 2.2, Berlin 1908, p. 212ff.
^ Marion circle: Karl Hegel. Historical significance and scientific history location (= series of publications of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Vol. 84). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen u. a. 2012, pp. 83-86, ISBN 978-3-525-36077-4 .

personal data
SURNAME	Compagni, Dino
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Florentine merchant, politician and chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1246
PLACE OF BIRTH	Florence
DATE OF DEATH	February 26, 1324
Place of death	Florence

[1] Other, later dates of birth were also considered in older research, but 1246/1247 is the more common assumption in more recent research.

[2] The term popolo could be used in different contexts. In the Middle Ages, it was often used to describe the part of the population of an Italian commune who did not belong to the nobility, but had organized themselves economically and politically and played a role in the economic life of the city, i.e. above all the craftsmen and entrepreneurs. For general information on the term and reference to Florence, see the brief overview in John N. Najemy: A History of Florence . Malden / MA u. a. 2006, p. 35ff .; see. also Max Weber : Economy and Society. Outline of understanding sociology . 5th revised edition. Concerned by Johannes Winckelmann. Tübingen 1980, p. 775ff.

[3] See Dino Compagni, Cronica , I 4.

[4] See in detail Robert Davidsohn : History of Florence . Vol. 2.2, Berlin 1908, p. 212ff.

[5] Marion circle: Karl Hegel. Historical significance and scientific history location (= series of publications of the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Vol. 84). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen u. a. 2012, pp. 83-86, ISBN 978-3-525-36077-4 .