See also: 15th century in literature, other events of the 16th century, 17th century in literature, list of years in literature.

Further information: Early Modern literature and Renaissance literature

[edit] Events

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1539

• Marie Dentière writes an open letter to Marguerite of Navarre, sister of the King of France; the Epistre tres utile, or "very useful letter", calls for an expulsion of Catholic clergy from France.

1565

• Torquato Tasso enters the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este at Ferrara.

1567

• October 14 - António Ferreira becomes Desembargador da Casa do Civel and leaves Coimbra for Lisbon.

1571

• Michel de Montaigne retires from public life and isolates himself in the tower of the Château de Montaigne.

1572

• English law eliminates actors' companies lacking formal patronage, by labelling them "vagabonds".

1575

• Sir Philip Sidney meets Penelope Devereaux, the inspiration for his Astrophel and Stella.

1576

• James Burbage builds The Theatre, the first permanent public playhouse in London, to open the great age of Elizabethan drama.

1590

• A troupe of boy actors, the Children of Paul's, are suppressed because of their playwright John Lyly's role in the Marprelate controversy.

1597

• Ben Jonson is briefly jailed in Marshalsea Prison, after the suppression of his play, The Isle of Dogs.

1598

• September 22 - Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel; he is convicted of manslaughter and imprisoned in Newgate Prison.

[edit] New books

1501

• The Book of Margery Kempe (posthumous)
• Marko Marulić - Judita

1503

• William Dunbar - The Thrissill and the Rois

1505

• Georges Chastellain - Récollections des merveilles advenues en mon temps (posthumous)
• Stephen Hawes

• • The Passtyme of Pleasure
  • The Temple of Glass

1508

• William Dunbar - The Goldyn Targe

1509

• Erasmus - In Praise of Folly

1512

• Henry Medwall - Fulgens and Lucrece
• Huldrych Zwingli - De Gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios relatio

1513

• First translation of Virgil's Aeneid into English language (Scots dialect) by Gavin Douglas

1514-15

• Gian Giorgio Trissino - Sofonisba

1515

• Robert Fabyan - The New Chronicles of England and France

1516

• Thomas More - Utopia

1517

• Francysk Skaryna's Bible translation and printing
• Teofilo Folengo's Baldo, a popular Italian work of comedy.

1524

• Philippe de Commines - Mémoires (Part 1: Books 1-6); first publication (Paris)

1526

• William Tyndale's New Testament translation

1527

• Hector Boece - Historia Scotorum
• Philippe de Commines - Mémoires (Part 2: Books 7-8); first publication

1528

• Baltissare Castiglione - The Book of the Courtier

1531

• Michael Servetus - De trinitatis erroribus ("On the Errors of the Trinity")

1532

• Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
• François Rabelais - Pantagruel

1534

• Martin Luther's Bible translation
• François Rabelais - Gargantua
• Polydore Vergil - Historia Anglica

1535

• John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners - Huon of Bordeaux

1536

• Jean Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion (in Latin)

1538

• Hélisenne de Crenne - Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amours

1539

• Sir Thomas Elyot - The Castel of Helth

1540

• Historia Scotorum of Hector Boece, translated into vernacular Scots by John Bellenden at the special request of James V of Scotland

1541

• George Buchanan

• • Baptistes
  • Jephtha

1542

• Paul Fagius - Liber Fidei seu Veritatis
• Edward Hall - The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrate Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke

1543

• Andreas Vesalius - De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (On the Fabric of the Human body in Seven Books)
• Nicolaus Copernicus - De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres)

1545

• Roger Ascham - Toxophilus
• Bernard Etxepare - Linguae Vasconum Primitiae

1546

• François Rabelais - Le tiers livre

1547

• Martynas Mažvydas - The Simple Words of Catechism (first printed book in Lithuanian language)

1549

• Johannes Aal - Johannes der Täufer (St. John Baptist)

1550

• Martin Bucer - De regno Christi

1552

• François Rabelais - Le quart livre
• Gerónimo de Santa Fe - Hebræomastix (posthumous)
• Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians), composed in Nahuatl by Martín de la Cruz and translated into Latin by Juan Badiano.

1553

• Francesco Patrizi - La Città felice ("The Happy City")

1554

• anon - Lazarillo de Tormes

1559

• The Elizabethan version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, which remained in use until the mid-17th century and was the first English Prayer Book in America.
• Jorge de Montemayor - Diana

1560

• Jacques Grévin - Jules César
• William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson - Geneva Bible

1562

• William Bullein - Bullein's Bulwarke of Defence againste all Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes

1563

• John Foxe - Foxe's Book of Martyrs

1564

• John Dee - Monas Hieroglyphica

1565

• Camillo Porzio - La Congiura dei baroni

1567

• Joan Perez de Lazarraga - Silbero, Silbia, Doristeo, and Sirena (MS in Basque language)

1569

• Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga - La Araucana, part 1

1571

• François de Belleforest - La Pyrénée (or La Pastorale amoureuse) (the first French "pastoral novel")

1572

• Friedrich Risner - Opticae thesaurus

1576

• Jean Boudin - Six livres de la République
• George Pettie - A Petite Palace of Pettie His Pleasure
• The Paradise of Dainty Devices, the most popular of the Elizabethan verse miscellanies

1577

• Richard Eden - The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies
• Thomas Hill - The Gardener's Labyrinth
• Raphael Holinshed - The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Irelande

1578

• George Best - A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie…under the Conduct of Martin Frobisher
• John Florio - First Fruits
• Jaroš Griemiller - Rosarium philosophorum
• Gabriel Harvey - Smithus, vel Musarum lachrymae
• John Lyly - Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit

1579

• Stephen Gosson - The Schoole of Abuse
• Thomas Lodge - Honest Excuses

1582

• George Buchanan - Rerum Scoticarum Historia
• Richard Hakluyt - Divers Voyages

1583

• Philip Stubbes - The Anatomy of Abuses

1584

• Reginald Scot - The Discovery of Witchcraft

1585

• Miguel de Cervantes - La Galatea

1586

• John Knox - Historie of the Reformatioun of Religioun within the Realms of Scotland
• John Lyly - Pappe with an hatchet, alias a figge for my Godsonne
• George Puttenham (attr.) - The Arte of English Poesie
• Luis Barahona de Soto - Primera parte de la Angélica

1588

• Thomas Hariot - A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
• Thomas Nashe - The Anatomie of Absurditie

1590

• Thomas Lodge - Rosalynde
• Thomas Nashe - An Almond for a Parrat

1592

• Robert Greene - Greene's Groatsworth of Wit
• Gabriel Harvey - Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets
• Richard Johnson - Nine Worthies of London

1594

• Sir John Davys - The Seamans Secrets
• Richard Hooker - Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

1595

• Sir Philip Sidney (posthumous) - Defense of Poesy, a.k.a. An Apologie for Poetrie

1596

• Sir Walter Raleigh - The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana

1598

• John Bodenham - Politeuphuia (Wits' Commonwealth)
• King James VI of Scotland - The Trew Law of Free Monarchies
• Francis Meres - Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury
• John Stow - Survey of London

1599

• John Bodenham - Wits' Theater

[edit] New drama

1508

• The World and the Child, also known as Mundas et Infans (probable date of composition)

1536

• Hans Ackermann - Der Verlorene Sohn

1541

• Giovanni Battista Giraldi - Orbecche

1551

• Marin Držić - Dundo Maroje

1553

• (about 1553) – Gammer Gurton's Needle and Ralph Roister Doister, the first comedies written in the English language
• António Ferreira - Bristo

1562

• Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville - Gorboduc
• Jack Juggler - anonymous, sometimes attributed to Nicholas Udall

1566

• George Gascoigne - Supposes

1567

• John Pickering - Horestes

1568

• Ulpian Fulwell - Like Will to Like

1573

• Torquato Tasso - Aminta

1582

• Giovanni Battista Guarini - Il pastor fido

1584

• John Lyly
  • Campaspe
  • Sapho and Phao
• George Peele - The Arraignment of Paris
• Robert Wilson - The Three Ladies of London (published)

1588

• George Peele - The Battle of Alcazar (performed)

1589

• The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune - anonymous (published)

1590

• Christopher Marlowe - Tamburlaine (both parts published)
• George Peele - Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First
• Robert Wilson - The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London (published)

1591

• John Lyly - Endymion (published)
• The Troublesome Reign of King John - Anonymous (published)

1592

• Thomas Kyd - The Spanish Tragedy (published)
• William Shakespeare - Henry VI, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Arden of Faversham - anonymous (previously attributed to Shakespeare)

1594

• Samuel Daniel - Cleopatra
• Robert Greene
  • Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (published)
  • Orlando Furioso (published)
• Thomas Lodge & Robert Greene - A Looking Glass for London (published)
• Lope de Vega - El maestro de danzar - (The Dancing Master)
• George Peele - The Battle of Alcazar (published)
• William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet
• Robert Wilson - The Cobbler's Prophecy (published)

1595

• Locrine - Anonymous (published)

1597

• The Isle of Dogs - Thomas Nashe & Ben Jonson
• Richard II - William Shakespeare (published)

1598

• Robert Greene - The Scottish Historie of James the Fourth (published)
• Ben Jonson - Every Man in His Humour

1599

• Thomas Dekker - The Shoemaker's Holiday
• Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton - Patient Grissel
• Ben Jonson - Every Man Out of His Humour
• William Shakespeare - Henry V

[edit] New poetry

1514

• The Aeneid -Francesco Maria Molzo's translation into Italian, in consecutive unrhymed verse (forerunner of Blank verse)

1550

• Sir Thomas Wyatt - Pentential Psalms

1557

• Giovanni Battista Giraldi - Ercole
• Tottel's Miscellany

1562

• The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet - Arthur Brooke

1563

• Barnaby Googe - Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets

1567

• George Turberville - Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets

1573

• George Gascoigne - A Hundred Sundry Flowers

1575

• Nicholas Breton - A Small Handful of Fragrant Flowers
• George Gascoigne - The Posies

1576

• The Paradise of Dainty Devices, the most popular of the Elizabethan verse miscellanies

1577

• Nicholas Breton - The Works of a Young Wit and A Flourish upon Fancy

1579

• Edmund Spenser - The Shepherd's Calendar

1582

• Thomas Watson - Hekatompathia or Passionate Century of Love

1590

• Sir Philip Sidney - Arcadia
• Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene, Books 1-3

1591

• Sir Philip Sidney - Astrophel and Stella (published posthumously)

1592

• Henry Constable - Diana
• Michael Drayton - The Shepherd's Garland

1593

• Michael Drayton - Peirs Gaveston
• Giles Fletcher, the Elder - Licia

1595

• Thomas Campion - *Poemata

1596

• Sir John Davies - Orchestra, or a Poeme of Dauncing
• Michael Drayton - The Civell Warres of Edward the Second and the Barrons
• Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene, Books 1-6

1597

• Michael Drayton - Englands Heroicall Epistles

1598

• Lope de Vega

• La Arcadia
• La Dragontea

1599

• Sir John Davies

• Hymnes of Astraea
• Nosce Teipsum

• George Peele - The Love of King David and Faire Bethsabe

[edit] Births

• 1503 - Thomas Wyatt
• 1510 - Martynas Mažvydas
• 1511 - Johannes Secundus (d. 1535)
• 1515 - Roger Ascham
• 1517 - Henry Howard
• 1524 - Luís de Camões (d. 1580)
• 1547 - Miguel de Cervantes (d. 1616)
• 1551 - William Camden
• 1554 - Philip Sidney
• 1555 - Lancelot Andrewes
• 1558 - Robert Greene
• 1558 - Thomas Kyd
• 1561 - Luís de Góngora y Argote, Spanish poet (d. 1627)
• 1562 - Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (d. 1635)
• 1564 - Henry Chettle, English dramatist (d. 1607)
• 1564 - Christopher Marlowe, English poet and dramatist (d. 1593)
• 1564 - William Shakespeare, English poet and dramatist (d. 1616)
• 1570 - Robert Aytoun
• 1572 - Ben Jonson
• 1576 - John Marston
• 1577 - Robert Burton
• 1581 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
• 1583 - Philip Massinger
• 1587 - Joost van den Vondel
• 1594 - James Howell

[edit] Deaths

• 1502 - Henry Medwall
• 1513 - Robert Fabyan
• 1535 - Johannes Secundus (b. 1511)
• 1552 - Alexander Barclay
• 1553 - Hanibal Lucić, Croatian poet and playwright (born c. 1485)
• 1553 - Francois Rabelais
• 1563 - John Bale
• 1563 - Martynas Mažvydas
• 1566 - Marco Girolamo Vida, Italian poet (b. 1485?)
• 1568 - Roger Ascham
• 1577 - George Gascoigne
• 1592 - Robert Greene
• 1593 - Christopher Marlowe
• 1594 - Thomas Kyd
• 1595 - Luis Barahona de Soto