Una costellazione di informazioni cronachistiche: Francesco Pipino, Riccobaldo da Ferrara, codice Fitalia e “Cronica Sicilie”

How does work a medieval chronicler? The Chronicon by the of Bolognese Dominican friar Francesco Pipino can provide a useful example. In his work, transmitted by the sole copy Modena, Biblioteca Estense, α.X.1.5, he put together information from many sources. For the most recent events, Pipino used as primary source the compilations by Riccobaldo from Ferrara (another chronicler of that time); but he also used (just like the so-called Cronica Sicilie) some rhetorical material very similar to the collection of dictamina transmitted by the so-called Ms. Fitalia (Palermo, Biblioteca della Società siciliana per la storia patria, I.B.25). Writing of history and dictamen were part of the same rhetoric culture, in a period in which the profession of chronicler had not yet acquired fully autonomous characters.