Giovanni Cavalcanti (chronicler)
Encyclopedia
Among several members of the extended Florentine patrician family the Cavalcanti
holding the name Giovanni, the chronicler Giovanni Cavalcanti (1381-c.1451), of a minor branch of the family but who was captain of the Guelf party in 1422, is most widely remembered for his malevolent and melancholic account of Florence, covering the period 1420-47. Cavalcanti's Storie obsessively focussed on the city's political intrigues and scandals and was colored by his personal political misfortunes as an aristocratic agitator, first against the corrupt oligarchy of 1420-34 and subsequently of the Medici
; his long imprisonment for debt excluded him from the participation in public life that he considered his noble right.
Historians had discounted the decayed grande, Cavalcanti, who was rehabilitated by Claudio Varese, 1961. In private he was also the author of a Trattato politico-morale, written in the 1440s and dedicated to the anti-Medicean Neri Capponi; it was intended as a Cicero
nian moral guide to family morality and a nostalgic account of lost, pre-Medicean civic virtues, offered with Roman parallels, intended for Neri's young son.
Cavalcanti
Cavalcanti is an Italian surname, also common in Brazil where it is used by people of ancient Italian origin. In Italy and Brazil the variant Cavalcante is also used. The family came to Brazil in 1560...
holding the name Giovanni, the chronicler Giovanni Cavalcanti (1381-c.1451), of a minor branch of the family but who was captain of the Guelf party in 1422, is most widely remembered for his malevolent and melancholic account of Florence, covering the period 1420-47. Cavalcanti's Storie obsessively focussed on the city's political intrigues and scandals and was colored by his personal political misfortunes as an aristocratic agitator, first against the corrupt oligarchy of 1420-34 and subsequently of the Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
; his long imprisonment for debt excluded him from the participation in public life that he considered his noble right.
Historians had discounted the decayed grande, Cavalcanti, who was rehabilitated by Claudio Varese, 1961. In private he was also the author of a Trattato politico-morale, written in the 1440s and dedicated to the anti-Medicean Neri Capponi; it was intended as a Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
nian moral guide to family morality and a nostalgic account of lost, pre-Medicean civic virtues, offered with Roman parallels, intended for Neri's young son.