The murder of Buondelmonte: contesting place in early fourteenth‐century Florentine chronicles

In 1215 a young nobleman was murdered in a vendetta at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio. The tale captured the Florentine imagination and the place of his death was immortalised. In the first half of the fourteenth century, however, the tale undergoes a number of subtle changes in the chronicles of Pseudo‐Latini, Dino Compagni, and Giovanni Villani. These changes altered the meanings of the story and, consequently, affected the values tied to the place where the story was set. In this respect, each version can be read as an attempt to attack or legitimize a civic identity associated with Buondelmonte and the entry to the old city where he was murdered.