The Italian standard has evolved starting from Tuscan. Why Tuscan? It is soon said: thanks to the prestige and the success of authors in vulgar such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch (as we know, also the Milanese Manzoni went to rinse his cloths in the Arno centuries later meaning that he followed the canons of the language spoken in Florence).

After the unification of Italy this mainly literary language spoken by a small percentage of the population spread thanks to compulsory education and, above all, television. In short, just think: if Jacopone da Todi had been luckier today another Italian would resonate in the whole peninsula!