Other Italian poets who wrote in the vernacular

Through the Divine Comedy, Dante (1265–1321) proved that in literature the vulgar tongue could rival Latin. There were other notable poets that followed his footsteps.

Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Petrarch (1304–74), was a scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, who was one of the earliest humanists. Dante was a friend of his father, who was in exile from Florence as well. Petrarch's philological work was highly respected, as were his translations from Latin to the vernacular, and also his own Latin works. But it is his love poetry, written in the vulgar tongue, that keeps his name alive today. His Canzoniere had enormous influence on the poets of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75) was a writer, poet, and correspondent of Petrarch. His famous Decameron was written in the vernacular of the Florentine language. The poem is structured as a frame story containing 100 stories told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death. In structure, it is similar with the Arabian Nights. The work was to become a model for fiction and prose writing. Boccaccio was the first to write a commentary on Dante, and he christened Dante's Commedia by adding Divina.

It is interesting that all three of these figures were from Florence or near the city. Therefore, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Florence is the birthplace of the Italian language.