The History of the Italian Language
The origins of italian language are very complex and mostly formalized by Dante Alighieri mixing south italian dialects, especially from Sicilian, with his native Tuscan (supposedly derived from Etruscan and Oscan). Those older Italian dialects were hardly influenced by the Occitan bring by the Bard escaping from France centuries before under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
Of the major Romance languages, which were derived from Latin language, Italian is the closest to Latin, although there are other langauges spoken in Italy which are even closer to Latin, for example Sardo logudorese language.
Italians say that the best spoken Italian is lingua toscana in bocca romana - 'the Tuscan tongue, in a Roman mouth.' The formative influence on establishing the Tuscan as the elite speech is generally agreed to have been Dante's Commedia, to which Boccaccio affixed the title Divina in the 14th century.
The economic power that Tuscany had at the time, specially considering Pisa's influence, gave its dialect weight, though Venetian remained widespread in the markets and streets of the Terra Firma. Also, the increasing cultural relevance of Florence in the period of Umanesimo (before Rinascimento) made its vulgare become a standard in art, quickly imported to Rome.
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