The population of Florence before the Black Death: survey and synthesis

By any measure, the population of Florence grew enormously from the later twelfth to the early fourteenth century. This article summarises the historiography on Florentine demographic change during the two centuries before the Black Death, and it carefully considers the data provided by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani as well as the various merits and demerits of the information on which he evidently based his writings. It also establishes the approximate parameters of demographic change at Florence within the context of regional demographic movements in Tuscany.