Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/249

Rh V I L V I L 227 1885. Vilkomir has a fine church dating from the 14th century. VILLA DE CONTAS, a town of Brazil, in the province of Bahia, 230 miles south-west from the city of Bahia, on the Brumado (Contas-Pequeno), a head-stream of the Rio &amp;lt;le Contas (Jussiape), which rises on the east slope of the neighbouring Serra das Almas, and flows thence to the coast at Barra do Rio Contas. This town, which has a mixed population (1880) of 10,200 whites, Negroes, half- castes, and Indians, lies in a fertile district producing much cotton, sugar, and tobacco. It was founded in 1715 by .some enterprising &quot; Paulistas,&quot; who were attracted to the district by the auriferous sands washed down by the head- .streams of the Jussiape. It received the title of a town in 1724, and soon afterwards most of the inhabitants re moved to the present more convenient site five miles lower down the Brumado, on the high road between Bahia and Goyaz. Villa de Contas is the capital of the department of the same name, which was detached in 1833 from the old department of Jacobina. 1 VILLA DO RIO PARDO, a town of Brazil, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, on the left bank of the Jacuhy at its confluence with the Pardo, about 80 miles due west from Porto Alegre, in 30 S. lat. and 52 W. long. The Jacuhy, chief affluent of the coast lagoon Dos Patos, is navigable by small steamers to this place, which is one of the 7iiost flourishing towns in the province, with a total population (1880) of 11,500, including 6000 whites, 4500 Negroes and coloured, and about 1000 civilized Indians. It had its origin in a fort built by the Portuguese at this point in 1751, but was not raised to the rank of a town till 1809. There is a large parish church founded in 1769, besides several other churches and three schools, but no note worthy buildings. The district is fertile and well-watered, and grows an excellent flax, which supplies a number of local hand-looms. A considerable export trade is carried on by the river craft, which here ship mate* (Paraguay tea), jerked meat, linen, and other products for the coast towns. VILLANI, GIOVANNI (c. 1275-1348), Italian chronicler, was the son of Villano di Stoldo, and was born at Florence in the second half of the 13th century; the precise year is unknown. He was of good burgher extraction, and, following the traditions of his family, applied himself to commerce. During the early years of the 14th century lie travelled in Italy, France, and the Netherlands, seeing men and things with the sagacity alike of the man of business and of the historian. Before leaving Florence, or rather in the interval between one journey and another, he had at least taken some part in that troubled period of civil contentions which Dino Compagni has described, and which swept Dante Alighieri into banishment. In 1301 Villani saw Charles of Valois ruining his country under the false name of peacemaker, and was witness of all the misery which immediately followed. 2 Somewhat later he left Italy, and in September 1304 he visited Flanders. It is not well ascertained when he returned to his native city. He was certainly living there shortly after the emperor Henry VII. had come to Italy in 1312, and prob ably he had been there for some time before. While still continuing to occupy himself with commerce, he now began to take a prominent part in public affairs. In 1316 and 1317 he was one of the priors, and shared in the crafty tactics whereby Pisa and Lucca were induced to conclude a peace with Florence, to which they were previously averse. 3 In 1317 he also had charge of the mint, and 1 Hitter, and with him nearly all other geographers, wrongly make this place still the capital of Jacobina, although Millet de Saint-Adolphe (ii. p. 404) distinctly makes the statement given in the text. - See Villani, Chronicle, bk. viii. ch. 37, 38. 3 Chron., Ijk. ix. ch. 80. during his administration of this office he collected its earlier records and had a register made of all the coins struck in Florence up to his day. In 1321 he was again chosen prior ; and, the Florentines having just then under taken the rebuilding of the city walls, he and some other citizens were deputed to look after the work. They were afterwards accused of having diverted the public money to private ends ; but Villani clearly established his innocence. He was next sent with the army against Castruccio Castracane, lord of Lucca, and was present at its defeat at Altopascio. In 1328 a terrible famine visited many provinces of Italy, including Tuscany, and Villani was appointed to guard Florence from the worst effects of that distressing period. He has left a record of what was done in a chapter of his Chronicle, which still remains a monument of the economic wisdom in which the mediaeval Florentines were often so greatly in advance of their age. 4 In 1339, some time after the death of Castruccio, some rich Florentine merchants, and among them Villani, treated for the acquisition of Lucca by Florence for 80,000 florins, offering to supply the larger part of that sum out of their own private means; but the negotiations fell through, owing to the discords and jealousies then existing in the Govern ment (Chron., x. 143). The following year Villani super intended the making of Andrea Pisano s bronze doors of the baptistery (see vol. xix. p. 122). In the same year he watched over the raising of the campanile of the Badia, erected by Cardinal Giovanni Orsini (Chron., x. 177). In 1341 the acquisition of Lucca was again under treaty, this time with Martino della Scala, for 250,000 florins. Villani was sent with others as a hostage to Ferrara, where he remained for some months (xi. 130, 133, 135). He was present in Florence during the unhappy period that elapsed between the entry of the duke of Athens and his expulsion by the Florentines (xii. 1, 2, 8, 15, 16). Involved through no fault of his own in the failure of the commercial com pany of the Bonaccorsi, which in its turn had been drawn into the failure of the company of the Bardi (1345), Villani towards the end of his life suffered much privation and for some time was kept in prison. 5 In 1348 he fell a victim to the plague described by Boccaccio. The idea of writing the Chronicle was suggested to Villani under the following circumstances. &quot;In the year of Christ 1300 Pope Boniface VIII. made in honour of Christ s nativity a special and great indulgence. And I, finding myself in that blessed pilgrim age in the holy city of Rome, seeing her great and ancient remains, and reading the histories and great deeds of the Romans as written by Virgil, Sallust, Lucan, Livy, Valerius, Paulus Orosius, and other masters of history who wrote the exploits and deeds, both great and small, of the Romans and also of strangers in the whole world. . . considering that our city of Florence, the daughter and offspring of Rome, is on the increase and destined to do great things, as Rome is in her decline, it appeared to rne fitting to set down in this volume and new chronicle all the facts and beginnings of the city of Florence, in as far as it has been possible to me to collect and discover them, and to follow the doings of the Florentines at length. . . and so in the year 1300, on my return from Rome, I began to compile this book, in honour of God and of the blessed John, and in praise of our city of Florence.&quot; 6 Villani s work, written in Italian, makes its appearance, so t&say, unexpectedly in the historical literature of Italy, just as the history of Florence, the moment it emerges from the humble and uncertain origin assigned to it by legend, rises suddenly into a rich and powerful life of thought and action. Nothing but scanty and partly legendary records had preceded Villani s work, which rests in part on them. The Gcsta Florcntinorum of Sanzanome, starting from these vague origins, begins to be more definite about 1125, at the time of the union of Fiesole with Florence. The Chronica dc Origine Civitatis seems to be a compilation, made by various hands and at various times, in which the different legends regarding the city s origin have been gradually collected. The Aniutlcs Florentine Primi (1110-1173) and the Annalcs Florcntini Sccundi (1107-1247), 4 Chron., bk. x. ch. 121. 5 On Villani s imprisonment, see Massai s biography of Villani, men tioned below. 6 Chron., bk. viii. ch. 36.