Pope Urban IV offers Sicily to a French prince, Charles of Anjou, who marches south in 1266 to fight for the kingdom

Thomas Aquinas begins the outstanding work of medieval scholasticism, his Summa Theologiae

Marco Polo, aged seventeen, sets off from Venice on his journey to the east

Dante, aged nine, is overwhelmed by the beauty of Beatrice - a child a year younger than himself who later becomes his poetic inspiration

An incident in a church service sparks the uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers, in which 2000 French are killed overnight in Sicily

Marco Polo is back in Venice after an absence of 25 years in the east

The authorities in Siena publish strict regulations for the design of the buildings around a new central piazza, the Campo

Marco Polo, in prison in Genoa, is persuaded by a fellow prisoner to narrate his adventures

Boniface VIII declares a Jubilee or Holy Year, with plenary indulgences for pilgrims who make their way to Rome

The Italian communes employ powerful leaders, or signori, in a trend which leads away from oligarchy and towards princely rule

The bankers of northern Italy develop a method of accountancy - double-entry book-keeping - which will have lasting significance

Dante, a member of the White faction in Florence, is sentenced to death by the Blacks - and never returns to his native city

Enrico degli Scrovegni employs Giotto to paint the cycle of frescoes in his chapel in Padua

Dante, in exile from Florence, begins work on The Divine Comedy - completing it just before his death, 14 years later

The cathedral authorities in Siena commission from Duccio the great altarpiece which becomes known as the Maestà

Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon, in a move which is expected to be temporary but which lasts for nearly seventy years

In places such as Siena and Orvieto, Italian architects add a blaze of colour to the more restrained northern pattern of Gothic

Florence becomes a centre of international finance, with the Bardi and Peruzzi families acting as bankers to Europe's rulers

Petrarch glimpses Laura in a church in Avignon and falls helplessly in love with her - or so he tells us

The Doge's Palace, begun in its present form in this year, is only one of the spectacular beauties of Venetian Gothic

A laurel wreath is placed on the brow of Petrarch in Rome, in a renewal of interest in the classical world

The bridge now known as Ponte Vecchio is constructed in Florence (replacing an older old bridge)

The great Byzantine altarpiece of St Mark's, the Pala d'Oro, is adjusted to take its present form

Edward III of England, defaulting on his massive debts, drives the Florentine banking families of Bardi and Peruzzi into bankruptcy

Cola di Rienzo, appointed tribune of the people, enjoys a few months of dictatorial powers in Rome before the citizens tire of him