Historia di Matteo Villani cittadino fiorentino il quale continua l'historie di Giouan Villani suo fratello, nella quale oltre i quattro primi libri già stampati, sono aggiunti altri cinque nuovamente ritrovati, & hora mandati in luce.: [bound with] Della historia di Matteo Villani cittadino fiorentino. Li tre ultimi libri. Che son' il resto dell'Istoria scritta da lui, che nelli stampati fino ad'hora mancano. Con un'Aggiunta di Filippo Villani suo figliuolo, ch'arriva sino all'anno 1364

Venice; Florence: Domenico e Giovanni Battista Guerra; gli eredi di Bernardo Giunta, 1562; 1577. First editions. Good. Small quarto (22 cm); two works in one volume. [32], 552, [44] pages; [1 blank leaf]; [16], 177, [11] pages. Fleur-de-lys device on both title pages (Gamba says copies exist with Medici arms in place of the fleur-de-lys). Printers and locations from colophons. Text in italic type, headings in roman. Shoulder notes. In old full mottled calf, joints cracked but holding, gilt decoration on spine worn away. Boards worn. Occasional light stains. Top edge trimmed close, not affecting text. Armorial bookplate of Sir John Cope, Baronet (the fifth or sixth of that name). References: Adams. V 794 and 795; Gamba 1028 and 1030; Camerini, I, p. 433; Lozzi I, 1959.

Contemporary of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the Villani brothers Matteo and Giovanni are considered the most important chroniclers of 14th-century Florence. The older brother, Giovanni, died in the plague of 1348, leaving the manuscript in mid-sentence in its fourth chapter. Matteo took up the chronicle, including his first-hand account of the plague, and carried it through up the point of his death (by plague) in 1363. His son Filippo then continued the annal as far as 1364. THe earliest chapters were published in an error-ridden edition in 1554. The Giunti were the first to publish the text with Matteo's continuation, offered here, having it printed by the Guerra brothers in Venice. Fifteen years later they published FIlippo's continuation, here bound in together with the earlier text.