It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with , inhabitants in , and , in its metropolitan area. Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments.
Florence plays an important role in Italian fashion , [ 12 ] and is ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world by Global Language Monitor ; [ 14 ] furthermore, it is a major national economic centre, [ 12 ] as well as a tourist and industrial hub.
Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a long period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune , it was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. It was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe and the world from the 14th to 16th centuries.
The language spoken in the city during the 14th century came to be accepted as the model for what would become the Italian language. Thanks especially to the works of the Tuscans Dante , Petrarch and Boccaccio , [ 16 ] the Florentine dialect, above all the local dialects, was adopted as the basis for a national literary language. Starting from the late Middle Ages , Florentine moneyβin the form of the gold florin βfinanced the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges , to Lyon and Hungary.
Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years' War. They similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome.
