From the dawn of the early modern period, around 1400, until the 18th century, Latin was still the European language and its influence extended as far as Asia and the Americas. At the same time, the production of Latin writing exploded thanks to book printing and new literary and cultural dynamics. Latin also entered into a complex interplay with the rising vernacular languages. This handbook gives an accessible survey of the main genres, contexts and regions of neo-Latin, as we have come to call Latin writing composed in the wake of Petrarch (1304-74). Its emphasis is on the period of neo-Latin's greatest cultural relevance, from the 15th to the 18th centuries.