Famous Writers in Renaissance Period

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor.

He was born on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a
successful local businessman and his mother was the daughter of a
landowner. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the
English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often
called England's national poet and nicknamed the Bard of Avon. He
wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few
other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays
have been translated into every major living language and are
performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Marriage and career

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. She was eight
years older than him. They had three children: Susanna, and twins
Hamnet and Judith. After his marriage information about his life
became very rare. But he is thought to have spent most of his time in
London writing and performing in his plays. Between 1585 and 1592, he
began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner
of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known
as the King's Men.
Miguel de Cervantes was born near Madrid in 1547. He
became a soldier in 1570 and was badly wounded in the Battle of
Lepanto. Captured by the Turks in 1575, Cervantes spent five
years in prison. before he was ransomed and returned home.
After less successful earlier efforts, Cervantes finally achieved
literary success in his later years, publishing the first part of Don
Quixote in 1605. He died in 1616.

Personal Life

Cervantes married Catalinade Salazar y Palacios in 1584, and the

couple remained married until Cervantes's death. Though they
never had any children, Cervantes had an affair with actress Ana
Franca de Rojas, with whom he had a daughter, Isabel de
Saavedra in 1584.

Francesco Petrarch was born Francesco Petrarca on July 20,

1304, in Arezzo, Tuscany. He was a devoted classical scholar who
is considered the "Father of Humanism," a philosophy that helped
spark the Renaissance. Petrarch's writing includes well-known
odes to Laura, his idealized love. His writing was also used to
shape the modern Italian language. He died at age 69 on July 18
or 19, 1374, in Arquà, Carrara.
Niccolo Machiavelli, (born May 3, 1469, Florence, Italy—died
June 21, 1527, Florence), Italian Renaissance political philosopher
and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most
famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as
an atheist and an immoral cynic.

Early Life And Political Career

From the 13th century onward, Machiavelli’s family was wealthy

and prominent, holding on occasion Florence’s most important
offices. His father, Bernardo, a doctor of laws, was nevertheless
among the family’s poorest members. Barred from public office in
Florence as an insolvent debtor, Bernardo lived frugally,
administering his small landed property near the city and
supplementing his meagre income from it with earnings from the
restricted and almost clandestine exercise of his
profession.Bernardo kept a library in which Niccolò must have
read, but little is known of Niccolò’s education and early life in
Florence, at that time a thriving centre of philosophy and a brilliant
showcase of the arts. He attended lectures by Marcello Virgilio
Adriani, who chaired the Studio Fiorentino. He learned Latin well
and probably knew some Greek, and he seems to have acquired
the typical humanist education that was expected of officials of
the Florentine Chancery.
Dante Alighieri (born c. May 21–June 20, 1265, Florence, Italy
—died September 13/14, 1321, Ravenna), Italian poet, prose writer,
literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best
known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named
La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy).Dante’s Divine Comedy,
a landmark in Italian literature and among the greatest works of
all medieval European literature, is a profound Christian vision of
humankind’s temporal and eternal destiny. On its most personal
level, it draws on Dante’s own experience of exile from his native
city of Florence. On its most comprehensive level, it may be read
as an allegory, taking the form of a journey through hell, purgatory,
and paradise. The poem amazes by its array of learning, its
penetrating and comprehensive analysis of contemporary
problems, and its inventiveness of language and imagery. By
choosing to write his poem in the Italian vernacular rather than in
Latin, Dante decisively influenced the course of literary
development.

Geoffrey Chaucer, usually referred to as simply Chaucer, is a

famous Italian writer that wrote in the English vernacular. His is
widely recognized for his book The Canterbury Tales, but he also
many other books, including The Book of the Duchess and The
House of Fame. He is an important figure in developing the
English vernacular we use today because he English he used in
his writing is the ancestor of today’s everyday English language.