The character's origins can be traced as far back as Pyramus, who appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, but the first modern incarnation of Romeo is Mariotto in the 33rd of Masuccio Salernitano's Il Novellino (1476).

This story was reworked in 1524 by Luigi da Porto as Giulietta e Romeo (published posthumously in 1531).

The earliest tale bearing a resemblance to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesiaca, whose heroic figure is a Habrocomes.

[3] Although it is unlikely that Shakespeare directly borrowed from Ovid while writing Romeo and Juliet, the story was likely an influence on the Italian writers whom the playwright was greatly indebted to.

[4] The two sources which Shakespeare most likely consulted are Brooke's translation of da Porto and William Painter's The goodly historye of the true, and constant Love between Romeo and Juliet.