14th Century – Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

1265	Birth of Dante. (d. 1321)
1267	Birth of Giotto. (d. 1337)
1300	May Day, fight in Il Corso (Florence). Gov decides to exile fighters (Dante in gov that makes decision).
1301	Florence government moves into huge new Palace. (Palazzo Vecchio).
1302	Dante exiled from Florence. Wanders in northern Italy.
1303	(Sept) Incident at Anagni. Officers of French king seize the Pope. Shows power of France.
1304	(Jul 20) birth of Petrarch in Via dell’Orto, Arezzo (house still there). (Jul 29)exiled Whites of Florence (Dante) try force and fail. Dante never sees Flo again.
1305	Papacy moves to Avignon till 1377 (“Babylonian Captivity”-Petrarch). Giotto painting the Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel in Padua.
1310	Emperor Henry VII comes to Italy, Florence rejects him. Giotto’s Ognissanti Madonna now in Uffizi.
1311	Petrarch and family to Pisa, meet Emperor. Little Petrarch (7 years old) meets Dante (46 ) at Pisa. Duccio’s Maestá installed on altar of Cathedral of Siena.
1312	Petrarch’s family settles in Avignon. Petrarch lives early years in France.
1313	Birth of Boccaccio.(d. 1375) Death of Dante’s friend Emperor Henry VII.
1314	Dante’s Inferno completed. Ms. copies in circulation. Hundreds of copies survive.
1321	(Sept 14) Death of Dante in Ravenna. (b. 1265)
1323	Death of Marco Polo (travel diaries, journeys. reminds of Dante’s Ulysses!).
1325	Petrarch makes his first recorded book purchase for what will be the largest personal library in the 14th century: Augustine’s City of God for 12 florins. The book is now in the library of the University of Padua with Petrarch’s notation of its purchase and price.
1326	After father’s death Petrarch settles in Avignon. Buys house in Vauclause.
1329	First set of Flo Baptistry doors by Andrea Pisano. (Pisa ahead of Flo in sculpture).
1337	Petrarch’s first visit to Rome. deeply impressed with ruins. Beginning of new thinking about ancient Rome (are we the same or different?). Petrarch returns to France, settles in Vauclause near Avignon.
1337	Beginning of 100 Years War, terrible destruction in France. Death of Giotto.
1339	Lorenzetti’s “Good and Bad Government” fresco for Palazzo Communale, in Siena while financial chaos in the banking world of Florence when the King of England fails to make his payments on huge loans from Florentine banks for the costs of 100 Years War. Reverberates back to Florence and all over the international Florentine banking world. (Boccacio’s father working for Bardi bank one of those hit by the default; the family has to come home to Florence).
1341	Petrarch crowned Poet Laureate of Italy. in the Senatorial Palace on the Capitoline, Rome, and made a citizen of Rome.
1343	Birth of Chaucer.(d. 1400).
1345	Petrarch finds copy of Cicero’s collected letters to Atticus in Verona. Letters show Cicero actively engaged in politics. Petrarch meets with Dante’s son Pietro while in Verona (suppose they talked poetry).
1346	Battle of Crécy, English defeat best of French chivalry. power shift, shows growing dominance of England in 14th C.
1348	Black Death hits Italy. Petrarch’s Laura dies in the plague. Boccaccio begins his Decameron.
1350	Petrarch’s first visit to Florence; met at city gate by Boccaccio.
1353	Petrarch packs up and leaves Vaucluse. Return permanently to Italy (to Milan first).
1355	(Jan)Holy Roman Emperor Charles V comes to Italy. Meets with Petrarch privately and debates the merits of the life of solitude Versus the life of action. Emperor invites Petrarch to come with him to Rome (Pet declines). Emp Charles is crowned in Milan with the ancient crown as “King of Italy,” title and crown going back to Lombard days.
1356	Battle of Poitiers, total Eng triumph, capture King of France John II. Hundred Years War has now totally devastated France. France in decline, Eng & Italy in the ascendance. (July)Petrarch goes on diplomatic journey to Prague to meet with his friend Holy Roman Emperor Charles on behalf of the Visconti of Milan. Long difficult journey but emperor greets Petrarch like friend.
1359	Boccacio visits Petrarch. House in Milan near Sant’ Ambrogio.
1361	Milan sends Petrarch amb to France. Petrarch sees France devastated. Petrarch treated like cultural genius in Paris. Petrarch visit to France shows new Italian cultural preeminence.
1362	Agreement betw Petrarch and Venice: his personal library to become first public library in Europe since Classical times.
1367	At urging of his friend Petrarch, Pope Urban V returns to Rome, Turns around comes back to France in a year.
1368	Duke Lionel of England marries Violonte Visconti in Milan Cathedral. Chaucer, Petrarch and Froissart all attend.
1373	Gov of Florence hires Boccaccio to lecture on Dante at the Badia. Beginning of lectures on Dante that continue in Florence to this day. Chaucer in Florence, probably met Boccaccio but he never mentions Boccaccio in his papers (yet borrows so much from him, why no mention?).
1374	Death of Petrarch at Arqua near Padua. (b. 1304)
1375	Death of Boccaccio at Certaldo outside Florence. (b. 1313)
1377	Pope Gregory XI returns papacy to Italy permanently. End of “Babylonian Captivity.”
1378	Schism within Roman Catholic Church(till 1415). French cardinals go home to France elect another pope. Two Popes. (later three!)
1387	Milan conquers Verona. Milan on the march, look out Florence!
1390	Siena and Pisa join Milan alliance; Flo increasingly isolated.
1392	Coluccio Salutati finds more letters of Cicero. Strengthen image of Cicero as active citizen immersed in civic affairs. Salutati delighted with info. This contrasts with Petrarch’s reaction to letters found in 1345.
1396	Florence hires Manual Chrysoloras: Teaches Greek to Florentines at gov expense..
1399	Siena and Perugia formally turns gov over to Visconti of Milan. Florence in danger.
1400	Milan close to conquering all of northern Italy thus bringing whole of north under one ruler for the first time since Roman times. Florence increasingly hysterical as Milan pushes south. Death of Chaucer.
1401	Competition for Bronze north doors of Baptistery. Brunelleschi vs Ghiberti, on subject of Sacrifice of Isaac. Ghiberti wins the commission.
1402	(Jun)Milan defeats Florence-Bologna army. All northern Italy now open to Milanese control. Never before has any other city-state in Italy come so close to unified control of all of the north.
1402	(Sep) Gian Galleazzo Visconti ruler of Milan dies, Milanese conquest stops. Soon the whole Milanese empire disintegrates. Florence independence saved; closest she ever comes to losing freedom (until modern times).