>Tuscan and High German became the standard with the Renaissance and the printing press, centuries before nationalism. It depends on what you mean by "standard

>Tuscan and High German became the standard with the Renaissance and the printing press, centuries before nationalism. It depends on what you mean by "standard". Tuscan was certainly the literary dialect, but most areas of modern Italy did not speak standardised Italian from the Renaissance period onward, except at the level of government.