In Friuli there has been a Slav minority since the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps,  and the furlana may well have originated as a Slavonic dance. It dates at least to 1583, when a "ballo furlano" called L'arboscello was published in Pierre Phalèse the Younger’s Chorearum molliorum collectanea and in Jakob Paix’s organ tablature book, though its chief popularity extended from the late 1690s to about 1750.
In Friuli, a Slavic minority has existed since the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps,  and the furlana may have originated as a Slavic dance. It dates back to at least 1583, when a "ballo furlano" called L'arboscello was published in Pierre Phalèse the Younger’s Chorearum molliorum collectanea and in Jakob Paix’s organ tablature book, though its main popularity lasted from the late 1690s to about 1750.