The Renaissance was a period of renewed interest in classical culture, but it also saw a blossoming of national identities and languages. Writers began to see their own languages as capable of expressing complex ideas and emotions just as well as Latin.
Here are some examples:
* Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian.
* William Shakespeare wrote his plays in English.
* Michel de Montaigne wrote his essays in French.
* Miguel de Cervantes wrote Don Quixote in Spanish.
While Latin remained the language of scholarship and diplomacy for some time, the use of native languages in literature during the Renaissance helped to establish the foundations of modern European literature.