<P> In the early Italian Renaissance, much of the focus was on translating and studying classic works from Latin and Greek . Renaissance authors were not content to rest on the laurels of ancient authors, however . Many authors attempted to integrate the methods and styles of the ancient Greeks into their own works . Among the most emulated Romans are Cicero, Horace, Sallust, and Virgil . Among the Greeks, Aristotle, Homer, and Plato were now being read in the original for the first time since the 4th century, though Greek compositions were few . </P> <P> The literature and poetry of the Renaissance was largely influenced by the developing science and philosophy . The humanist Francesco Petrarch, a key figure in the renewed sense of scholarship, was also an accomplished poet, publishing several important works of poetry . He wrote poetry in Latin, notably the Punic War epic Africa, but is today remembered for his works in the Italian vernacular, especially the Canzoniere, a collection of love sonnets dedicated to his unrequited love Laura . He was the foremost writer of sonnets in Italian, and translations of his work into English by Thomas Wyatt established the sonnet form in that country, where it was employed by William Shakespeare and countless other poets . </P> <P> Petrarch's disciple, Giovanni Boccaccio, became a major author in his own right . His major work was the Decameron, a collection of 100 stories told by ten storytellers who have fled to the outskirts of Florence to escape the black plague over ten nights . The Decameron in particular and Boccaccio's work in general were a major source of inspiration and plots for many English authors in the Renaissance, including Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare . </P> <P> Aside from Christianity, classical antiquity, and scholarship, a fourth influence on Renaissance literature was politics . The political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli's most famous works are Discourses on Livy, Florentine Histories and finally The Prince, which has become so well known in Western society that the term "Machiavellian" has come to refer to the realpolitik advocated by the book . However, what is ordinarily called "Machiavellianism" is a simplified textbook view of this single work rather than an accurate term for his philosophy . Further, it is not at all clear that Machiavelli himself was the apologist for immorality as whom he is often portrayed: the basic problem is the apparent contradiction between the monarchism of The Prince and the republicanism of the Discourses . Regardless, along with many other Renaissance works, The Prince remains a relevant and influential work of literature today . </P>

Through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries france and spain fought for control of italy