 During the Cretan Renaissance in the 16th and early 17th centuries there existed a flourishing vernacular literature in the Cretan dialect, based on Italian literary influences.Its best-known specimen today is the verse romance "Erotokritos", by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553–1614).Later, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Ionian Islands, then also under Italian rule, became a centre of literary production in Demotic Greek.