Giovanni Cavalcanti

Giovanni Cavalcanti (* 1381 in Florence ; † around 1451 ) was an Italian historian .

Giovanni is the author of the fourteen book Istorie fiorentine , which he wrote in prison, where he spent about ten years for failing to pay the compulsory taxes (imposte) required for the war against Milan . The work covers the period between 1423 and 1440. After his release from prison around 1440, Giovanni Cavalcanti wrote a Seconda storia in seven books that dealt with the period up to 1447. With the work he turned against the rule of the Medici and tried to defend the republic against the nobility.

His Trattato di politica morale has also survived , but it was hardly received and only achieved a certain degree of validity through a critical edition. In it he refers to Aristotle and Seneca or Juvenal and expands in four sections ( Prudenza , Iustizia , Fortitude , Temperanza ) essential virtues, or represents the Ciompi uprising .

Giovanni also came from the Cavalcanti family, like the poet Guido Cavalcanti .

Editions

• Filippo Luigi Polidori (ed.): Giovanni cavalcanti, Istorie fiorentine , 2 vols., Polidori, Florence 1838/39.
• Istorie Fiorentine , edition from 1838, Tipografia All'insegna di Dante, Florence, at Imago Historiae. Biblioteca Digitale degli storici italiani del'Umanesimo e del Rinascimento .
• Guido di Pino (ed.): Giovanni cavalcanti, Istorie fiorentine , Milan 1944.
• Marcella T. Grendler: The “Trattato politico-morale” of Giovanni Cavalcanti. A critical edition and interpretation , Droz, Geneva 1973.
• Antoine Monti (Ed.): Giovanni Cavalcanti. Nuova opera (Chronique florentine inédite du XVe siècle) , Paris 1989.

literature

• Claudio Mutini:  Cavalcanti, Giovanni. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 22:  Castelvetro – Cavallotti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1979.

Web links

• Publications about Cavalcanti in the Opac of the Regesta Imperii