Giovanni Villani (Dictionary of World Biography: The Middle Ages)
Early Life
Giovanni Villani was born into a wealthy merchant family in Florence, Italy. It may be assumed that Villani, like most sons of merchants, went to a grammar school to learn Latin and then to another school to learn computation on the abacus. Thereafter, he likely apprenticed with a merchant firm, perhaps the Peruzzi company, with which his name was first associated. He served as an agent and partner in this great merchant banking house in Flanders off and on from 1300 to 1307. From his intimate knowledge of the affairs of Philip IV, it has been conjectured that he had...
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