Luigi da Porto 
Romeo and Juliet [PDF ebook] 
A Photographic Reproduction of Luigi Da Porto’s Prose Version of Romeo and Giulietta Dated 1535 Being the Original Source of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. In this early Greek novel we already perceive the amalgamation of two distinct episodes, namely, the separation and the potion parts. There is no evidence that Da Porto was acquainted with this work. It remained in manuscript until the 17th century and, although Douce, the Shakespearean scholar, considers that Da Porto may have read the story in manuscript, this opinion is no longer main tained by modern students.