[121] The journals of Matteo Spinelli, ascribed to an Apulian of the thirteenth century, were long accepted as the earliest vernacular attempt at history in prose. It has lately been suggested, with good show of argument, that they are fabrications of the sixteenth century. With regard to the similar doubts affecting the Malespini Chronicles and Dino Compagni, I may refer to my discussion of this question in the first volume of this work, [Age of the Despots], pp. [251], [262-273].
[122] Nannucci, op. cit. p. 137.
[123] Of Villani's Chronicle I have already spoken sufficiently in the [Age of the Despots], [chap. 5], and of the Vita Nuova in this chapter (above, [pp. 67-70]).
[124] Vita Nuova, cap. 2.
[125] Filocopo, Op. Volg. vii. 4.
[126] Fioretti di S. Francesco (Venezia, 1853), p. 104.
[127] See below, the chapter on the Purists.
[128] See Capponi's Storia della Repubblica di Firenze, lib. iii. cap. 9, for a very energetic statement of this view.
[129] See Rime di M. Cino da Pistoja e d'altri del Secolo xiv. (Firenze, Barbèra, 1862), p. 528. It begins:
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Ora è mancata ogni poësia E vote son le case di Parnaso. |