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Author: Niccolò Machiavelli Synopsis: 'The Prince' is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, 'De Principatibus' (About Principalities). This treatise is one of the most important texts on political theory where Machiavelli outlines the need for realism as opposed to idealism in governance.

Author: William Shakespeare Synopsis: 'Hamlet' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, taken the throne, and married Hamlet's mother.

Author: William Shakespeare Synopsis: 'Sonnets' are a collection of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality.

Author: Thomas More Synopsis: 'Utopia' is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More (1516) depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. The name has come to mean any perfect society, often used to describe a fictional, ideal space.

Author: Dante Alighieri Synopsis: 'The Divine Comedy' is an Italian long narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is a culmination of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church.

Author: Baldassare Castiglione Synopsis: 'The Book of the Courtier' is a courtesy book or guide on the education and manners of courtiers (court ladies and gentlemen). It was written by Baldassare Castiglione over the course of many years and first published in Italian in 1528 as 'Il Cortegiano'. The book provides a fascinating insight into Renaissance court life.

Author: Miguel de Cervantes Synopsis: 'Don Quixote' is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. It tells the story of a noble (hidalgo) from La Mancha named Alonso Quixano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his sanity and decides to become a knight-errant to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote.

Author: John Milton Synopsis: 'Paradise Lost' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. The poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Author: Ludovico Ariosto Synopsis: 'Orlando Furioso' ('The Frenzy of Orlando') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's 'Orlando Innamorato', describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots.

Author: François Rabelais Synopsis: 'Gargantua and Pantagruel' is a series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, which tells the story of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The text is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, and features much crude humor and violence.

Author: Edmund Spenser Synopsis: 'The Faerie Queene' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I to III were first published in 1590, and then republished in 1596 together with books IV to VI. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it is one of the longest poems in the English language and the origin of a verse form that has come to be known as the Spenserian stanza.

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer Synopsis: 'The Canterbury Tales' is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines, written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is structured as a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims who are travelling together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Author: John Calvin Synopsis: 'Institutes of the Christian Religion' is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world and still widely read by theological students today, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at the same time as Henry VIII of England's 'Dissolution of the Monasteries') and in his native French in 1541, with the definitive editions appearing in 1559.

Author: Giovanni Boccaccio Synopsis: 'Decameron' is a collection of novellas by the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353. The work is a series of narrated stories that are supposed to be told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city.