16th century in literature

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1508

• • April 4 - John Lydgate's The Complaint of the Black Knight becomes the first book printed in Scotland.
  • The earliest known printed edition of the chivalric romance Amadis de Gaula, as edited and expanded by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, is published in Castilian at Zaragoza.
  • Elia Levita completes writing the Bovo-Bukh.

1510

• • April 10 - Henry Cornelius Agrippa pens the dedication of De occulta philosophia libri tres to Johannes Trithemius.

1512

• • The word "masque" is first used to denote a poetic drama.

1513

• • Johannes Potken publishes the first Ge'ez text, Psalterium David et Cantica aliqua, at Rome.

1515

• • Paolo Ricci translates Sha'are Orah by Joseph Gikatilla as Portae lucis.

1519

• • Apokopos by Bergadis, the first book in Modern Greek is printed in Venice.

1522

• • Martin Luther's translation of the Bible's New Testament into Early New High German from Greek is published.

1526

• • Spring - The first complete printed translation of the New Testament of the Bible into English by William Tyndale arrives in England from Germany, having been printed in Worms. In October, Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, attempts to collect all the copies in his diocese and burn them.
  • The first official translation is made of the New Testament into Swedish.

1530

• • Paracelsus finishes writing Paragranum.

1534

• • Martin Luther's Biblia: das ist die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch, a translation of the complete Bible into German is printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, including woodcut illustrations.
  • Rabbi Asher Anchel's Mirkevet ha-Mishneh (a Tanakh concordance) is the first book printed in Yiddish (in Kraków).

1535

• • The earliest printed book in Estonian, a Catechism with a translation by Johann Koell from the Middle Low German Lutheran text of Simon Wanradt, is printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg for use in Tallinn.

1537

• • Paracelsus starts to write Astronomia Magna or the whole Philosophia Sagax of the Great and Little World".

1538

• • Paracelsus finishes writing Astronomia Magna or the whole Philosophia Sagax of the Great and Little World".

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.

1541

• • Elia Levita's chivalric romance, the Bovo-Bukh, is first printed, the earliest published secular work in Yiddish.

1551

• • An edition of the Book of Common Prayer becomes the first book printed in Ireland.

1554

• • Publication of Menno Simons' Uytgangh ofte bekeeringhe begins the Dutch Golden Age of literature.

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

• • December - James Burbage builds The Theatre, the first permanent public playhouse in London, opening 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.

1596

• • Blackfriars Theatre opens in London.

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 and is briefly held in Newgate Prison.
  • December 28 - The Theatre is dismantled in London.
  • Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.

1599

• • Spring/Summer - Globe Theatre built in Southwark, London, utilising material from The Theatre.
  • June 4 - Bishops' Ban of 1599: Thomas Middleton's Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires and John Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned as the English ecclesiastical authorities clamp down on published satire.
  • Late - War of the Theatres, a satirical controversy, breaks out on the London stage.

New books

1501

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

1503

• • William Dunbar - The Thrissill and the Rois
  • Euripedes - Tragoediae

1505

• • Georges Chastellain - Récollections des merveilles advenues en mon temps (posthumous)
  • Stephen Hawes
    • The Passtyme of Pleasure
    • The Temple of Glass
  • Lodovico Lazzarelli - Crater Hermetics (posthumous).

1508

• • Johannes Trithemius - De septem secundeis.
  • William Dunbar - The Goldyn Targe

1509

• • Erasmus - In Praise of Folly

1510

• • Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo - Las sergas de Esplandián
  • Ruiz Paez de Ribera - Florisando

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

• • Henry Cornelius Agrippa
    • Dialogus de homine (Casale)
    • De triplici ratione cognoscendi Deum
  • Marsilio Ficino - De triplici vita.
  • Thomas More - Utopia.

1517

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

1518

• • Henry Cornelius Agrippa - De originali peccato

1522

• • Martin Luther - New Testament translation

1524

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

1525

• • Francesco Giorgi - De harmonia mundi totius
  • Paracelsus - De septem puncti idolotriae christianae.

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")
  • Henry Cornelius Agrippa - Book One of De occulta philosophia libri tres
  • Sir Thomas Elyot - The Boke Named the Governour; the first English work concerning moral philosophy
  • Paracelsus - Opus Paramirum (written in St. Gallen).

1532

• • Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
  • François Rabelais - Pantagruel
  • Feliciano de Silva - Don Florisel de Niquea

1533

• • Henry Cornelius Agrippa - Books Two and Three of De occulta philosophia libri tres

1534

• • Asher Anchel - Mirkevet ha-Mishneh
  • Martin Luther - Bible translation Biblia
  • François Rabelais - Gargantua
  • Polydore Vergil - Historia Anglica

1535

• • John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners - Huon of Bordeaux
  • Simon Wanradt and Johann Koell - Catechism

1536

• • John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion (in Latin)
  • Sir Thomas Elyot - The Castel of Helth
  • Paracelsus - Die große Wundarzney.

1538

• • Hélisenne de Crenne - Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amours
  • Sir Thomas Elyot - The dictionary of syr Thomas Eliot knyght (Latin to English)

1539

• • Robert Estienne - Alphabetum Hebraicum

1540

• • Historia Scotorum of Hector Boece, translated into vernacular Scots by John Bellenden at the special request of James V of Scotland
  • The Byrth of Mankynde; the first printed book in English on obstetrics, and one of the first published in England to include engraved plates.

1541

• • George Buchanan
    • Baptistes
    • Jephtha
  • Joachim Sterck van Ringelbergh - Lucubrationes vel potius absolutissima kyklopaideia

1542

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

1543

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

1544

• • Cardinal John Fisher - Psalmi seu precationes (posthumous) in an anonymous English translation by its sponsor, Queen Katherine Parr
  • John Leland - Assertio inclytissimi Arturii regis Britanniae

1545

• • Roger Ascham - Toxophilus
  • Bernard Etxepare - Linguae Vasconum Primitiae
  • Sir John Fortescue - De laudibus legum Angliae (written c. 1471)
  • Queen Katherine Parr - Prayers or Meditations; the first book published by an English queen under her own name

1546

• • Sir John Prise of Brecon - Yn y lhyvyr hwnn (first book in Welsh; anonymous)
  • François Rabelais - Le tiers livre

1547

• • Gruffudd Hiraethog - Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd (posthumous collection of Welsh proverbs made by William Salesbury)
  • Martynas Mažvydas - The Simple Words of Catechism (first printed book in Lithuanian)
  • Queen Katherine Parr - The Lamentation of a Sinner
  • William Salesbury - A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe

1549

• • Johannes Aal - Johannes der Täufer (St. John Baptist)
  • The Complaynt of Scotland

1550

• • Martin Bucer - De regno Christi
  • The Facetious Nights of Straparola published in Italian, the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales

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 remains in use until the mid-17th century and becomes the first English Prayer Book in America
  • Jorge de Montemayor - Diana
  • Pavao Skalić - Encyclopediae seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam profanarum epistemon

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)
  • Magdeburg Centuries, vols X-XI
  • William Salesbury - Testament Newydd ein Arglwydd Iesu Christ (translation of New Testament into Welsh)
  • Séon Carsuel, Bishop of the Isles - Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh (translation of Knox's Book of Common Order into Classical Gaelic)

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")
  • Aibidil Gaoidheilge agus Caiticiosma (first printing in Irish)

1572

• • Friedrich Risner - Opticae thesaurus
  • Turba Philosophorum

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

1581

• • Barnabe Riche - Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme

1582

• • George Buchanan - Rerum Scoticarum Historia
  • Richard Hakluyt - Divers Voyages
  • John Leland - A learned and true assertion of the original, life, actes, and death of the most noble, valiant, and renoumed Prince Arthure, King of great Brittaine (posthumous translation)

1583

• • Philip Stubbes - The Anatomy of Abuses

1584

• • James VI of Scotland - Some Reulis and Cautelis
  • David Powel - Historie of Cambria
  • Reginald Scot - The Discovery of Witchcraft

1585

• • Miguel de Cervantes - La Galatea
  • William Davies - Y drych Cristianogawl

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: Euphues Golden Legacie
  • 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 Davis - 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

1597

• • Francis Bacon Essays

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

New drama

1508

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

1531

• • Accademia degli Intronati - Gl' Ingannati

1536

• • Hans Ackermann - Der Verlorene Sohn

1538

• • John Bale
    • Kynge Johan, the earliest known English historical drama (in verse)
    • Three Laws of Nature, Moses and Christ, corrupted by the Sodomytes, Pharisees and Papystes most wicked

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

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

• • Barnabe Googe - Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets

1567

• • George Turberville - Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets

1572

• • Luís de Camões - Os Lusíadas

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

1593

• Michael Drayton - The Shepherd's Garland
  • Giles Fletcher, the Elder - Licia

1594

• • Michael Drayton - Peirs Gaveston

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

Births

• 1503 - Thomas Wyatt
• 1508 - Primož Trubar, author of the first printed books in the Slovene language (died 1586)
• 1510 - Martynas Mažvydas
• 1511 - Johannes Secundus (died 1535)
• 1514 - Daniele Barbaro (died 1570)
• 1515 - Roger Ascham
• 1517 - Henry Howard
• 1524 - Luís de Camões (died 1580)
• 1547 - Miguel de Cervantes (died 1616)
• 1551 - William Camden
• 1554 - Philip Sidney
• 1555 - Lancelot Andrewes
• 1558 - Robert Greene
• 1558 - Thomas Kyd
• 1561 - Luís de Góngora y Argote, Spanish poet (died 1627)
• 1562 - Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (died 1635)
• 1564 - Henry Chettle, English dramatist (died 1607)
• 1564 - Christopher Marlowe, English poet and dramatist (died 1593)
• 1564 - William Shakespeare, English poet and dramatist (died 1616)
• 1570 - Robert Aytoun
• 1572 - Ben Jonson, John Donne
• 1576 - John Marston
• 1577 - Robert Burton
• 1580 - Francisco de Quevedo (died 1645)
• 1581 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
• 1583 - Philip Massinger
• 1587 - Joost van den Vondel
• 1594 - James Howell

Deaths

• 1502 - Henry Medwall
• 1513 - Robert Fabyan
• 1519 - Anna Bülow
• 1535 - Johannes Secundus (born 1511)
• 1542 - Thomas Wyatt
• 1552 - Alexander Barclay
• 1553 - Hanibal Lucić, Croatian poet and playwright (born c. 1485)
• 1553 - François Rabelais
• 1555 - Polydore Vergil
• 1563 - John Bale
• 1563 - Martynas Mažvydas
• 1566 - Marco Girolamo Vida, Italian poet (born 1485?)
• 1568 - Roger Ascham
• 1570 - Daniele Barbaro (born 1514)
• 1577 - George Gascoigne
• 1586 - Primož Trubar, author of the first printed books in the Slovene language (born 1508)
• 1592 - Robert Greene
• 1593 - Christopher Marlowe
• 1594 - Thomas Kyd
• 1595 - Luis Barahona de Soto

See also

• 16th century in poetry