Dino Compagni

Dino Compagni was a Florentine merchant, politician and chronicler. He was born into a well- established Florentine family, and started his career in the cloth industry. As a cloth merchant he was inscribed in the guild of Por Santa Maria,manufacturers of silk cloth and retail cloth dealers, in 1269, and served repeatedly as consul of his guild between 1282 and 1299.

This was the period in history of Florence during which a government based on guilds and headed by priors and a standard-bearer of justice was established, and Compagni, as a prominent and respected member of a major guild, was deeply involved in these developments. He served as prior in 1289 and 1301, and as standard-bearer of justice in 1293, both high and respected offices of Florentine government. These were also politically turbulent times, and during his tenure as prior in 1301 factional conflict between the Black and White Guelfs erupted into open warfare in the streets of Florence. The Black Guelfs seized and plundered the city, and many of the White Guelfs were forced into exile.

Compagni was spared that fate because of a law barring judicial proceedings against certain important officials for a year after they left office, but his public career was over. He dedicated his time to commerce and to a chronicle of events in Florence, between 1280 and 1312, that has ensured his fame ever since its rediscovery in the seventeenth century.