15 Renaissance Critics that Every Literary Student Should Know:

Classical ideas of unity of form and content were developed into literary neoclassicism through the literary criticism of the Renaissance. It proclaims literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preserving a long literary tradition.

In 1498, Renaissance criticism was born with the recovery of classical texts, such as the Latin translation of Aristotle's Poetics by Giorgio Valla. Until the late eighteenth century, Aristotle's work, particularly Poetics, significantly influenced literary criticism.

1. Lodovico Castelvetro (1505–1571)

2. William Caxton (1422-1491)

3. Castigliones (1478-1529)

4. Sir Thomas Elyot (1496-1546)

5. Roger Ascham (1515-1568)

6. George Gascoigne (1534-77)

7. George Puttenham (1529–1590)

8. Stephen Gosson (1554-1624)

9. Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

10. Thomas Lodge (1558-1625)

11. Sir John Harrington (1561-1612)

12. Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

13. Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

14. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

15. John Milton (1608-1674)

Aristotle's Poetics was one of the most influential texts in the Renaissance. A printing press was invented in the late 15th century, enabling multiple copies of a manuscript. Printing was unique, leading to the spread of ancient knowledge to various readers and scholars.