 Italian Renaissance authors produced a number of important works.Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince" is one of the world's most famous essays on political science and modern philosophy, in which the "effectual truth" is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal.Another important work of the period, Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance "Orlando Innamorato", is perhaps the greatest chivalry poem ever written.