Galileo's studies in astronomy clashed with the Aristotelian cosmos, which the Catholic Church previously accepted and incorporated into its teachings. His observations of Venus backed the Copernican notion of a solar system centered around the sun, rather than centered around the earth. As a result of his findings, Galileo influenced Renaissance philosophy and, by extension, art and literature.
Galileo broke down everything in his world, from human anatomy to motion, into mathematical equations, and in so doing, promoted the idea of a visual mathematical perspective. This perspective allowed Renaissance artists to create more realistic physical spaces on their canvases.
The concept of realism and new perspectives in both philosophy and art soon affected the literary realm, as innovations in these realms drove writers to seek recognition as well. Writers experimented with form and content like never before, resulting in works such as Giovanni Boccaccio's realistic prose tales of "The Decameron" and the lighthearted facetiousness of Miguel de Cervantes Sasvedra's "Don Quixote."