Nuova opera

Abstract

The Florentine Giovanni Cavalcanti (1381-c.1451), a member of a fallen branch of his family, had a life troubled by imprisonment for debt. Desire for justice and revenge informs his writings. Nuova opera is a heterogeneous text: punctuated by short stories and anecdotes, at the crossroads of historical chronicle and moral satire, it narrates and comments on the events that involved Florence in the years 1440-1447. Reminiscent of Dante and later profitably read by Machiavelli, the author denounces the bloody oppositions between factions and the degeneration into vice of his city, as well as the spreading of violence and tyranny throughout the Italian peninsula, in opposition to Filippo Maria Visconti, Francesco Sforza, Cosimo de’ Medici. This new critical and annotated edition guides the reader through Cavalcanti’s dense and lively writing.