Renaissance literature refers to European literature that is influenced by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with the Renaissance.

The literature of the Renaissance is written within the general movement of the Renaissance which arose in late fourteenth century-Italy and continues until the mid-seventeenth century while being diffused into the western world.

It is characterized by the adoption of a humanist philosophy and the recovery of the classical literature of Antiquity.

It benefits from the spread of printing in the latter part of the fifteenth century.The creation of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s encourages authors to write in their local vernacular rather than in Greek or Latin classical languages, widening the reading audience and promoting the spread of Renaissance ideas.

For the writers of the Renaissance, Greco-Roman inspiration is shown both in the themes of their writing and in the literary forms they use.

The world is considered from an anthropocentric perspective.

Platonic ideas are revived and put to the service of Christianity.

The search for pleasures of the senses and a critical and rational spirit complete the ideological panorama of the period.

The impact of the Renaissance varies across the continent; countries that are predominantly Catholic or Protestant experience the Renaissance differently.

Areas where the Orthodox Church is culturally dominant, as well as those areas of Europe under Islamic rule are more or less outside its influence.

The earliest Renaissance literature appears in Italy in the fourteenth century; Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Ariosto are notable examples of Italian Renaissance writers.

From Italy the influence of the Renaissance spreads at different times to other countries and continues to spread around Europe through the seventeenth century.