Ferreto de' Ferreti

His family may have been of Paduan origin, since his grandfather, Ferreto Brexani, is attested as a notary at Vicenza only from 1266, when the latter submitted to the domination of the former.

[2] Ferreto's father died in 1302 and, owing to his elder brother Francesco's mental disability, he became the nominal head of the family.

By 1317, Ferreto had married Anna, daughter of the judge Alberto de Scaletis, who brought him a dowry of 500 pounds.

[7] His best known work is his Historia rerum in Italia gestarum ('history of Italian deeds'), a history of northern Italy—both Venetian and Imperial—from 1250 to 1318.

[8] The central episode of the Historia is the Italian expedition of Henry VII of Germany (begun 1310), his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor (1312) and his premature death (1314).

The conflict between the Staufers and the Angevins following the death of the Emperor Frederick II (1250) provides the background.

[5] It is conserved in a single manuscript, now in Vicenza, Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana, MS 314 (formerly shelfmarked G.7.9.17 and Gonz.21.10.12).

[3] He wrote a poem in 110 lines on the death of Dante Alighieri in 1321, although it appears unfinished.

He shares "with Mussato the honour of inaugurating a novel historical technique, which marks the beginning of humanist historiography."