after 1600. Music The music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is probably the most archetypical Cinquecento music. He simplified some of the complexities of the music of the time, and advocated a more homophonic style. He was partially reacting to the strictures of the Council of Trent, which discouraged excessively complex polyphony as inhibiting understanding the text. He was the foremost member of the Roman School, a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, spanning the late Renaissance into early Baroque eras. Many of the composers had a direct connection to the Vatican and the papal chapel, though they worked at several churches, stylistically they are often contrasted with the Venetian School of composers, a concurrent movement which was much more progressive. In Venice, from about 1534 until around 1600, an impressive polychoral style developed, which gave Europe some of the grandest, most sonorous music composed up until that time, with multiple choirs of singers, brass and strings in different spatial locations in the Basilica San Marco di Venezia (see Venetian School). These multiple revolutions spread over Europe in the next several decades, beginning in Germany and then moving to Spain, France and England somewhat later, demarcating the beginning of what we now know as the Baroque musical era. In the late 16th century, as the Renaissance era closes, an extremely manneristic style develops. In secular music, especially in the madrigal, there was a trend towards complexity and even extreme chromaticism (as exemplified in madrigals of Luzzaschi, Marenzio, and Gesualdo). The term mannerism derives from art history. Literature The most famous works of the Italian Renaissance by Boccaccio, and Petrarch were written in the 14th century, but continued to exert influence. Ludovico Ariosto (Orlando furioso), Baldassare Castiglione (The Book of the Courtier) and Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince) were eminent writers of the Cinquecento. Architecture It was the result of the revival of classic architecture known as Renaissance, but the change had commenced already a century earlier, in the works of Ghiberti and Donatello in sculpture, and of Brunelleschi and Alberti in architecture. See also Duecento – the 13th century in Italian culture Trecento – the 14th century in Italian culture Quattrocento – the 15th century in Italian culture Seicento – the 17th century in Italian culture Settecento – the 18th century in Italian culture Ottocento – the 19th century in Italian culture Novecento - the 20th century in