This volume of selected works of the Lenin Prize laureate Acad. V.F. Shishmarev contains mainly his piles on the history of Italian literature and the Italian language. Most of these works are being printed for the first time. The study of the language and literature of Italy was one of the important areas of scientific activity of V.F. Shishmarev. The works published here once again convincingly confirm this. The published volume opens with the article "At the Origins of Italian Literature" (1941), which examines the emergence of the Italian nationality against a wide historical background, characterizing the conditions for the formation of its language and literature.