Franco-Italian, also known as Franco-Venetian or Franco-Lombard, was a

literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...

used in parts of northern Italy, from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. It was employed by writers including

Brunetto Latini Brunetto Latini (who signed his name ''Burnectus Latinus'' in Latin and ''Burnecto Latino'' in Italian; –1294) was an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, politician and statesman. Life Brunetto Latini was born in Florence in 1220 to a Tusc ...

and Rustichello da Pisa and was presumably only a written language, and not a spoken one. Absent a standard form for literary works of the

Gallo-Italic languages The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications def ...

at the time, writers in genres including the

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

employed a hybrid language strongly influenced by the French language (at this period, the group called langues d'oïl). They sometimes described this type of literary Franco-Italian simply as French. Franco-Italian literature began to appear in northern Italy in the first half of the 13th century, with the

Livre d'Enanchet LIVRE (, L), previously known as LIVRE/Tempo de Avançar (, L/TDA), is a green political party in Portugal founded in 2014. Its founding principles are ecology, universalism, freedom, equity, solidarity, socialism and Europeanism. Its symbol i ...

. Its vitality was exhausted around the 15th century with the Turin copy of the

Huon d'Auvergne ''Huon d'Auvergne'' is an early modern romance-epic written in Franco-Italian, a hybrid literary language. ''Huon d'Auvergne'' has remained largely unedited, with only selected segments appearing in print. Far better known is the Tuscan prose versio ...

(1441). Prominent masterpieces include two versions of the ''

Chanson de Roland ''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century ''chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is ...

'', the very first version of

The Travels of Marco Polo ''Book of the Marvels of the World'' ( Italian: , lit. 'The Million', deriving from Polo's nickname "Emilione"), in English commonly called ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from st ...

and the Entrée d'Espagne. The last original text of the Franco-Italian tradition is probably

Aquilon de Bavière Aquilon is a name derived from Aquilo, the Latin term for the north-east wind. Aquilon may also refer to: Ships * HMS Aquilon * HMS Aquilon (1758) *Spanish ship Aquilon (1754) * French ship Aquilon * French ship Aquilon (1789) Other uses * L'A ...

Raffaele da Verona Raffaele () is an Italian given name and surname, variant of the English Raphael. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Raffaele Amato, Italian mobster *Raffaele Cutolo, Italian mobster * Raffaele Ganci, Italian mobster * Raffaele Cant ...

, who wrote it between

1379 Year 1379 ( MCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * May 29 – John I succeeds his father, Henry II, as King of Castile and King ...

and

1407 Year 1407 ( MCDVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * April 10 – After several invitations by the Yongle Emperor of China since 1403 ...

Notes

{{Romance languages Romance languages