During the time of Dante (1265-1321) the townsfolk of Florence continued to multiply. The chronicler Fra Salimbene of Parma, writing in the second half of the thirteenth century, relates an anecdote from the life of Fra Giovanni of Vicenza, a famous preacher of the first half of the century, who with his miracles brought the dead to life. The latter had intimated that he wished to go to preach in Florence. But the Florentines became alarmed: “For heaven's sake,” they said, “don't let him come. There are so many of us already here, that there isn't enough room for the living; and he, with his miracles brings the dead to life.” The chronicler Dino Compagni, who wrote at the beginning of the fourteenth century, tells us that “the good air of Florence was conducive to procreation.” And a description of Florence written in 1339 speaks of the Florentine women as being “lovely and very prolific.” Chronicler Giovanni Villani records that in the year 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII celebrated the Holy Year, a great number of princes and cities sent ambassadors to Rome to pay homage to the Pope. It was found that almost all these ambassadors who had come from all over Europe were Florentines. Since the universe was composed of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water, and the Florentines were found everywhere with the other four elements which made up the universe, the Pope thereupon concluded that the Florentines were the fifth element of creation. One of these Florentines was Dante!

Fabrizio Ricciardelli earned his undergraduate degree in Medieval History at the University of Florence (Italy) and his Ph.D. at the University of Warwick (England). Since 2004 he has been professor of “Renaissance History” at Georgetown University. Between 2010-2012 he was Academic Director of the Georgetown University program in Florence. In 2010 he became Chairman of the scientific committee “Villa Le Balze Studies”. In 2012 he was appointed Director of the Kent State University program in Florence. His academic experience includes journal articles, conference presentations, and several reviews. He has authored and co-authored numerous books on institutional and political history. His main field of study is Italian city-states in the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of Medieval Europe. Ricciardelli has recently embarked upon the study of the relationship between emotions and passions as forms of political persuasion in Renaissance Italy. His latest publications are A Short History of Florence (2019) and The Medici: The Power of a Dynasty (2021).