The 11th century
For most of this century, the vernacular seems to have disappeared from documents, though it continued to evolve as a spoken language. Actually, it was still fragmented in different regional languages, none of these actually showing signs of trying to prevail upon the others.
Had there been a great Italian poet not writing in Latin (or French) in this age, the language would have probably evolved more rapidly. But dialect was held in low esteem among all classes. Every subject was taught in Latin, and rhethoric, then considered the cornerstone of learning was taught from Latin models as Cicero or Seneca.
Since lay authorities did not provide for any public education, and the few well-off household would hire a private turor to raise their scions, the only Italian schools were run by the Catholic church but open to any lay member of society.
When elsewhere in Europe access was restricted to those taking holy orders, we understand why the prestige of Latin was so widespread and the language much better known in Italy. Such familiarity and prestige in the Italian peninsula, though, seem to have been responsible to have slowed down the evolution of a new romance language.
The 11th century also sees the birth of the communes (it. comuni) or city-states in the center-north such as Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Milan. Cities and towns, the "città" are still listed with that name in documents: Comune di Lucca, Comune di Padova.
Unfortunately, the rise of their political and economic power was not much focused on literary or academic pursuits, and it appears that more practical interests prevail for the next two centuries: Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi and Venice become maritime powers and found colonies overseas, Florence has remarkable talent in banking.
Their standard being non-existent, until Dante Italians would be dependent on French literary models (La Chanson de Roland and the Arthurian legends on the one hand, the courtly love of Occitan poetry on the other, including the Roman de la Rose and the Fabliaux which enjoy an enormous success).
No new original work of value yet emerges: so far the admiration for French and Latin literature only turns everyone's attention away from the Italian language. Jokers, actors and singers entertaining princes and bishops with French and French repertoires are all the rage.
Meantime the South pursues a different political course: the Normans found one big state there, brushing off regional rivalries and paving the way for the linguistic koinè of Frederick II, the Roman Holy Emperor who would inherit the throne of Sicily by his mother's side two centuries later.
By the 11th century North and South have already developed different cultures - though equally prosperous - one essentially pro-Vatican, the other pro-emperor: it is the birth of Guelfi and Ghibellini and the start of endless feuds whose rivalries are sometimes echoed at football matches or on political debates.
Such differences will widen in the following centuries. The Questione meridionale, the divide between North and South does not in fact date to post-unification Italy, which has only inherited an age-old problem which has got worse on account of the widening economic gap between North and South.
The only Italian documents extant (if we can call them so) are the Carta Amiatina (1087), a Tuscan will by one Miciarello and his wife who bequeath their property to the Abbey of San Salvatore (on Mount Amianta) - Miciarello's act of repentance is contained in a footnote in dialect (the rest of the will being in Latin):
Ista carta est de caput coctu ille adiuvet de illu rebottu qui mal consiliu li mise in corpu
"This paper belongs to 'hard head' May it help him against the evil one who possessed him with ill intents"
Note the archaic traits - how different this is from Dante's Italian which is, conversely, quite free from Latinisms. However, it must also be noted that the notary applied Latin spelling to Italian words, so some of the words look Latin, but in fact they are not.
For example, est sounded like modern Italian è (is), illu must be considered an old article and no longer a demonstrative (it will become 'lo' a couple of centuries later), caput coctu is an 'elegant' rendering of 'capucottu', qui sounded 'ki', as Ital. chi ('who'). Mal consiliu = mal consiglio (dial., mostly southern today), li = gli ('to him'), mise ('filled') is modern Italian as well, in corpu is also modern except for the -u ending for -o.
Iscrizione di San Clemente
Much more important is the Iscrizione di San Clemente (late 11th century) , which can still be read in the Church bearing the same name in Rome. It is a dialogue from the Passio Sancti Clementis (6th c. A.D.) added to a fresco in the old underground church and portrays a miracle performed by Saint Clement.
The pagan patrician Sisinnius, after his wife converts to Christianism accuses the saint of using sorcery on his wife. When he has him tied and laid on the floor he orders two of his servants to drag him with a rope, and a third to lift him from behind with a pole:
Fàlite dereto colo palo Carvoncelle ('Push him from behind with the pole, Carvoncelle')
Gosmari, Albertel, traite. ('Gosmari, Albertel, pull!')
Fili de le pute, traite. ('Pull, son of a b******!')
But a miracle has happens: the saint is suddenly standing before them, untied, while the servants are dragging a column in his stead. At this point the saint exclaims sternly:
Duritia[m] cordis vestri[s] saxa traere meruisti
('You deserved to drag stones because of your cold-heartness!')
The importance of the inscription lies in that it was written in a church. It stands in a public place of a certain importance where it can be read and seen by everyone. Migliorini (84-85) remarks that having a Roman patrician like Sisinnius speak dialect adds fun to the scene especially since the saint lectures him in Latin setting the two characters apart: the evil of Sininnius, who is expectd to be learned and polite, transpires from his language and incivility while St. Clement's Latin outwits him and his servants.
The contrast between Sisinnius and Saint Clement is even starker with the phrase 'fili de pute' put in Sisinius' mouth. Using Italian at functions was forbidden by the Church, but the doctrine enforced by Pope Gregory V in 999 A.D. allowed for exceptions with audiences unable to speak or read Latin.
That non-Latin speakers were the great majority at mass obviously tells us something important about the state of Italian in the 11th century, hence the "comic" in dialect on the church's walls and the abundant frescos and bas-reliefs in churches telling stories and events in sort of "comic-strips" sequences.
Confessione di Norcia
From central Italy (Norcia, Abbazia di Sant' Eutizio) comes a confiteor written almost entirely in Italian. It is a standard formula for confession, half spoken by the penitent, half by the priest, a late 11th-century text pasted in a code containing St. Eutitus' confiteor in Latin. We quote here the most notable lines:
Domine mea culpa. Confessu so ad me senior dominedeu et ad mat donna sancta Maria [...] de omnia mea culpa et de omnia mea peccata ket io feci [...]. Me accuso de lo corpus Domini, k'io indignamente lui accepi [...]. Pregonde la sua sancta misericordia e la intercessione de li suoi sancti ke me nd'aia indulgentia [...]
to which the priests answers:
De la parte de mme senior Dominideu et mat donna sancta Maria [...]. Et qual bene tu ai factu ui farai quannanti, ui farai pro te, si sia computatu em pretiu de questa penitentia [...]
The spelling is still much indebted to Latin, though the pronunciation must have done without some of the consonants, as in san[c]ta, omnia (pron. "onnia" or probably "ogne") etc while based on the enclitic use of pregonde (onde prego = so I pray) we may assume that the formula 'me accuso' (where accusome would be expected) must have been modeled on the Latin syntax by the priest, since me and accuso are spelled in the same way in both languages.
Latin and Italian often influence each other: while the grasp of Latin becomes less and less approximate until the late middle ages (as can be seen in the Inscription of St. Clement), Italian seems to draw heavily on its mother language as if to earn more respect in the face of a community that still considered it unfit for literary purposes.