It is likely that William Shakespeare knew the Italian translator and lexicographer John Florio, as they had the same patrons. Certainly Shakespeare knew Florio’s work: his later plays show the influence of Florio’s translation of Montaigne’s Essayes, particularly Of the Caniballes, a passage of which is made use of by Shakespeare in The Tempest. This copy of Montaigne’s Essayes has been annotated and marked by early readers.