Geography of Tuscany
Tuscany, a region in central Italy. It is today a governmental administrative division. About 800 B.C. this area was occupied by the Etruscans, or Tusci, and became known as Etruria. It was absorbed by Rome in the third century B.C. In the sixth century A.D. the region came under the rule of the Lombards, a Germanic tribe that had settled in northern Italy. Tuscany was conquered by Charlemagne in the 8th century and by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in the 10th century.
After the mid-13th century control of Tuscany was divided among its major cities, including Florence, Pisa, Siena, and Lucca. These cities were centers for the great flowering of art, literature, and music during the Renaissance (14th and 15th centuries). The Tuscan dialect became the standard literary language of Italy. In the 15th century Florence, under the leadership of the Medici family, gradually extended its influence over most of Tuscany. In 1569 Tuscany was made a grand duchy by Pope Pius V, with the Medicis as ruling house. The duchy passed to the Hapsburg-Lorraine family in 1737. In 1860 Tuscany voted to be annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia, nucleus of the emerging Italian nation.