[5] Small Spitz-type dogs resembling the modern Volpino have been identified in a number of paintings, of which the earliest may be St. Augustine in His Study by Vittore Carpaccio, painted in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice in 1502.

[6] In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this type of dog was common in Tuscany, where it was known as the Cane di Firenze and was used as a guard dog by carters and shepherds, and in Lazio, where it was called the Cane del Quirinale.

[3]: 234 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom visited Florence in 1888, and bought four dogs of Pomeranian or Spitz type.

It is roughly square in outline, the body length more or less equal to the height.

[6] It is one of many breeds affected by hereditary primary lens luxation, an eye disease which may cause pain or blindness.