‘Italy’: Beware Of This Common Mistake!

If you hear someone talking about 'Italy' before the mid-19th century, be careful: it is misleading. Italy as a unified country did not exist until the 1860s. Its unification was a complex process involving many figures, including revolutionaries, politicians, and royalty: Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Camillo di Cavour, and King Vittorio Emanuele II.

Before unification, the Italian peninsula was a patchwork of independent states. Each region had its own language or dialect: French and German were spoken in northern states, along with countless local dialects throughout the peninsula.

It was not until writers such as Petrarch and Dante that the Tuscan vernacular (essentially the foundation of modern Italian) began to gain recognition. Their literature spread across Europe and became associated with Tuscany. Calling figures such as Dante, Brunelleschi, or Leonardo da Vinci 'Italian' is somewhat misleading: they were Tuscan, not Italian in the modern sense.

The Papal States joined ‘The Kingdom of Italy’ in 1870, completing unification. Therefore, when someone casually mentions 'Italy' in a historical context before the 1860s, remember: it was a complex mosaic of states, languages, and cultures, not a single nation.