A TALE OF TWO CHRONICLERS: PTOLEMY OF LUCCA AND GIOVANNI SERCAMBI

Abstract

The following pages will show the results of an investigation conducted on two Italian medieval chroniclers. The texts that I have analysed are the Annales of Ptolemy of Lucca (c.1236-1327) and the Croniche of Giovanni Sercambi (c.1345-1424). This study concentrates on the sources utilized by the authors and how they looked at these sources while they were compiling their own texts. In this context “source” means the public records or text from which the particular historical data or records have been transferred to another text. If we can deduce that this process was the usual way in which the historical facts were gathered and transmitted in the books, I am going to verify that this cultural transmission happened sometime during the XIVth – XVth century in Lucca.