Description: ""The Chronicle of an Anonymous Roman" offers the first complete English translation of the Anonimo Romano's "Cronica." Includes an introduction to the text and its author, as well as an introduction to its fourteenth-century world"--
Brief description: James A. Palmer is Associate Professor of History at Florida State University. He studied at Michigan State University, Duke University, and Washington University in St. Louis (Ph.D., 2015). He specializes in the history of medieval and Renaissance Italy and in Romanesco language and literature. His research has focused on the mid-thirteenth through the early sixteenth century with particular interest in the intersections of religion, politics, economy, and community. It has examined notions of virtue and justice, and of lay piety and urban life, as well as histories of sovereignty and governance. His first book explored the transformation of Roman political culture from c.1350 to c.1450 and its implications for the history of the city and the papacy. It traced the gradual transition of Roman political elites from a commitment to governing Rome as a free city commune to a willingness to act as the governing agents of a newly sovereign papacy. Dr. Palmer's current research focuses on the history of social justice and virtue both as governing ideas and frameworks for practice in late medieval politics and society.
Review Quotes:
"James Palmer has proved himself a leader among a cohort of scholars challenging traditional narratives about late medieval Rome, the rise of humanism, and the transition from 'medieval' to 'Renaissance.' Palmer's lucid introduction reveals the sophistication of the Anonimo's critique and contributes to our appreciation of the diversity of historiography in medieval Italy. In more ways than one, then, this new translation of the Anonimo's unique eyewitness account offers readers what Palmer fittingly calls a 'gift of living memory.'" - Carrie Benes, New College of Florida, Author of Jacopo da Varagine's Chronicle of the City of Genoa
"A complete translation to English, the very first of its kind, of the chronicle written by an anonymous Roman at the threshold of modernity, is a most welcome endeavor. James A. Palmer's rich and learned introduction leads us through a pivotal period in European history while offering a glimpse into the complex political struggles in Rome. His translation preserves the intense and vivid style of the vernacular and the astonishing dynamic of the narrative, enviable for authors like Dante and Petrarch, if they had known it. The chronicle is nothing but a masterpiece of Italian literature." - Unn Falkeid, University of Oslo, Author of The Avignon Papacy Contested