Vegezio e Orosio: storia, cavalleria e politica nella Firenze del tardo Duecento

In his major vernacularisations (Vegetius’ Epitoma rei militaris and Orosius’ Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem), Bono Giamboni presents a modernised version of ancient Rome, more congruent with the time of the Italian city-states. Was this an effect of the limited vocabulary available to Bono at the time, or were his lexical choices in fact intentional devices? This essay highlights some passages through which one can deduce that Bono deliberately superimposed the two historical periods, indicating that his works were artfully written as powerful vehicles for spreading a new political culture among the lower social classes.