16th century in literature

Events

1501

Italic type (cut by Francesco Griffo) is first used by Aldus Manutius at the Aldine Press in Venice, in an octavo edition of Virgil's Aeneid. Manutius also publishes an edition of Petrarch's Le cose volgari and first adopts his dolphin and anchor device.

1502

Aldine Press editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, Herodotus' Histories and Sophocles.

1507

King James IV grants a patent for the first printing press in Scotland to Walter Chapman and Andrew Myllar.

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.

1509

Desiderius Erasmus writes The Praise of Folly while staying with Thomas More in England.

1510

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

1510–1511

Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von Dyl Ulenspiegel, geboren uß dem Land zu Brunßwick, wie er sein leben volbracht hat … is published by printer Hans Grüninger in Strassburg in Early New High German, the first appearance of the trickster character Till Eulenspiegel in print.

1512

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

1513

Aldine Press editiones principes of Lycophron, Lysias, Pindar and Plato published by Aldus Manutius in Venice.

Niccolò Machiavelli is banished from Florence by the House of Medici and writes The Prince as De Principatibus ("About Principalities") in Tuscany this summer.

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

1514

May 15 – The earliest printed edition of Saxo Grammaticus' 12th-century Scandinavian history Gesta Danorum, edited by Christiern Pedersen from an original found near Lund, is published as Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae by Jodocus Badius in Paris.

Gregorio de Gregorii begins printing Kitab Salat al-Sawa'i (a Christian book of hours), the first known book printed in the Arabic alphabet using movable type, in Venice, falsely assigned to Fano.

1515

Christoph Froschauer becomes the first printer in Zürich.

1516

Samuel Nedivot prints the 14th century Hebrew Sefer Abudirham in Fez, the first book printed in Africa.

Paolo Ricci translates the 13th century Kabbalistic work Sha'are Orah by Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla as Portae Lucis.

1519

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

The chivalric romance Libro del muy esforzado e invencible caballero Don Claribalte ("Book of the very striving and invincible knight Don Claribalte"), the first literary work by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, is published in Valencia (Spain) by Juan Viñao. In the foreword, dedicated to Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, Oviedo relates that the work has been conceived and written in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (the Caribbean island of Hispaniola), where he has been working since 1514; therefore, it can claim to be the first literary work created in the New World.

1521

June 29 or 30 – Neacșu's letter: oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language (in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet).

1522

Luo Guanzhong's 14th-century compilation Romance of the Three Kingdoms is first printed, as Sanguozhi Tongsu Yanyi.

Luther Bible: Martin Luther's translation of the Bible's New Testament into Early New High German from Greek, Das newe Testament Deutzsch, is published.

1522–24

St Ignatius Loyola writes his Exercitia spiritualia (Spiritual Exercises), on which Jesuit spirituality is based. It is published in 1548 after formal approval by Pope Paul III.

1524

Eyn Gespräch von dem gemaynen Schwabacher Kasten ("als durch Brüder Hainrich, Knecht Ruprecht, Kemerin, Spüler, und irem Maister, des Handtwercks der Wüllen Tuchmacher") is published in Germany, the first publication in the "Schwabacher" blackletter typeface.

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.

New Testament in Swedish, the first official Bible translation into Swedish, made by Olaus Petri under royal patronage.

The first complete Dutch translation of the Bible is printed by Jacob van Liesveldt at Antwerp.

The Bibliotheca Corviniana in Ofen is destroyed by troops of the Ottoman Empire.

1530

January – The first printed translation of the Torah into English, by William Tyndale, is published in Antwerp for distribution in Britain.

An edition of Erasmus's Paraphrasis in Elegantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallae is the first book to use the Roman form of the Garamond typeface cut by Claude Garamond.

Paracelsus finishes writing Paragranum.

1533

October – The censors of the Collège de Sorbonne stigmatize François Rabelais' Pantagruel as obscene.

1534

Luther Bible: 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.

Cambridge University Press is granted a royal charter by King Henry VIII of England to print "all manner of books" and becomes the first of the privileged presses.

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.

1536

Petar Zoranić writes the first Croatian novel, the pastoral-allegorical Planine ("Mountains"); it is first published posthumously in Venice in 1569.

1537

Construction of the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice to the design of Jacopo Sansovino begins, continuing to 1560.

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

December 28 – Ordonnance de Montpellier initiates a legal deposit system for books in the Kingdom of France.

1538

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

December 20 – Pietro Bembo is made a Cardinal.

1539

April – Printing of the Great Bible (The Byble in Englyshe) is completed and it is distributed to churches in England. Prepared by Myles Coverdale, it contains much material from the Tyndale Bible (unacknowleged as this version is officially considered heretical).

Game Place House in Great Yarmouth becomes the first premises in England to be used regularly as a public theatre.

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.

The first printing press in North America is set up in Mexico City. The first known book from it, Manual de Adultos, is published in 1540.

1540

Sir David Lyndsay's Middle Scots satirical morality play A Satire of the Three Estates first performed, privately.

1541

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

1542

La relación/The Account, written by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, is published; it is the first European literature completely devoted to discussion of North America.

1550

Primož Trubar's Catechismus and Abecedarium, the first books in Slovene, are printed in Schwäbisch Hall.

Approximate date – First publication in book form of the Chinese shenmo fantasy novel Fengshen Yanyi.

1551

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

1552

June – Sir David Lyndsay's Middle Scots satirical morality play A Satire of the Three Estates first performed publicly in full, at Cupar in Fife.

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

October 7 – Naval Battle of Lepanto; Miguel de Cervantes is wounded.

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

1572

Vagabonds Act in England prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.

1575

September 26 – Miguel de Cervantes is captured by Barbary pirates. After 5 years he is ransomed.

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 Elizabethan age of English Renaissance theatre.

1586

October 17 – Poet Sir Philip Sidney (born 1554) dies as a result of wounds received at the Battle of Zutphen.

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

1500

This is the Boke of Cokery, the first known printed cookbook in English

Desiderius Erasmus – Collectanea Adagiorum (1st ed., Paris)

Singiraja – Maha Basavaraja Charitra

1501

Desiderius Erasmus – Handbook of a Christian Knight (Enchiridion militis Christiani)

Margery Kempe – The Book of Margery Kempe (posthumous)

Marko Marulić – Judita (written)

1502

Shin Maha Thilawuntha – Yazawin Kyaw

1503

William Dunbar – The Thrissil and the Rois

Euripedes – Tragoediae

Approximate date: "Robin Hood and the Potter" (ballad)

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)

Pierre Le Baud – Cronique des roys et princes de Bretaigne armoricane (completed)

1508

William Dunbar – The Goldyn Targe

Erasmus of Rotterdam – Adagiorum chiliades (2nd ed., Venice)

Johannes Trithemius – De septem secundeis

1509

Manjarasa – Samyukta Koumudi

1510

Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo – Las sergas de Esplandián

Ruiz Paez de Ribera – Florisando

1511

The Demaũdes Joyous (joke book published by Wynkyn de Worde in English)

Erasmus – The Praise of Folly

1512

Henry Medwall – Fulgens and Lucrece

Huldrych Zwingli – De Gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios relatio

Il-yeon - The Samguk Yusa

1513

Mallanarya of Gubbi – Bhava Chintaratna

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

1514–15

Gian Giorgio Trissino – Sofonisba

1516

Henry Cornelius Agrippa

Dialogus de homine (Casale)

De triplici ratione cognoscendi Deum

Erasmus – Novum Instrumentum omne (Greek New Testament translation)

Robert Fabyan (anonymous; died c. 1512) – The New Chronicles of England and France

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

Erasmus – Colloquies

Tantrakhyan (Nepal Bhasa literature)

1519

Santikirti – Santinatha Purana

1520

Scholars at Complutense University, Alcalá de Henares, under the direction of Diego Lopez de Zúñiga – Complutensian Polyglot Bible

1521

Goražde Psalter

1522

Luo Guanzhong (attrib.) – Romance of the Three Kingdoms; first publication

Martin Luther – Das newe Testament Deutzsch, translation of the New Testament into German

1523

Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples – Nouveau Testament, translation of the New Testament into French

Martin Luther – Das allte Testament Deutsch, translation of the Pentateuch into German

Maximilianus Transylvanus – De Moluccis Insulis, the first published account of the Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation

1524

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

Martin Luther and Paul Speratus – Etlich Cristlich Lider: Lobgesang un Psalm ("Achtliederbuch"), the first Lutheran hymnal (Wittenberg)

Martin Luther and others – Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbüchlein (the "Erfurt Enchiridion"), two editions of a hymnal printed respectively by Johannes Loersfeld and Matthes Maler (Erfurt)

Johann Walter – Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn ("A sacred little hymnal") (Wittenberg)

1525

Pietro Bembo – Prose della volgar lingua

Francesco Giorgi – De harmonia mundi totius

Paracelsus – De septem puncti idolotriae christianae

Antonio Pigafetta – Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo ("Report on the First Voyage Around the World"); partial publication (Paris)

1526

William Tyndale's New Testament Bible translation

1527

Hector Boece – Historia Scotorum

Philippe de Commines – Mémoires (Part 2: Books 7–8); first publication

Hans Sachs and Andreas Osiander – Eyn wunderliche Weyssagung von dem Babsttumb, wie es ihm biz an das endt der welt gehen sol ("A wonderful prophecy of the papacy about how things will go for it up until the end of the world")

1528

Baltissare Castiglione – The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano)

Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples – Ancien Testament, translation of the Old Testament into French

Francisco Delicado – Portrait of Lozana: The Lusty Andalusian Woman (Retrato de la Loçana andaluza)

William Tyndale – The Obedience of a Christian Man

1530

William Tyndale – The Practice of Prelates

1531

Henry Cornelius Agrippa – De occulta philosophia libri tres, Book One

Andrea Alciato – Emblemata

Sir Thomas Elyot – The Boke Named the Governour, the first English work concerning moral philosophy

Niccolò Machiavelli (posthumous) – Discourses on Livy

Paracelsus – Opus Paramirum (written in St. Gallen)

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

1532

Niccolò Machiavelli (posthumous) – The Prince

François Rabelais (as Alcofribas Nasier) – Pantagruel (Les horribles et épouvantables faits et prouesses du très renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, fils du Grand Géant Gargantua)

Feliciano de Silva – Don Florisel de Niquea

1533

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

Antoine Marcourt (as Pantople) – Le livre des marchans

1534

Asher Anchel – Mirkevet ha-Mishneh

Martin Luther (translator) – "Luther Bible" (Biblia)

François Rabelais (as Alcofribas Nasier) – Gargantua (La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua, père de Pantagruel)

Polydore Vergil – Historia Anglica

1535

John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners – Huon of Bordeaux

Simon Wanradt and Johann Koell – Catechism

Bible d'Olivétan (first translation of the complete Bible made from the original Hebrew and Greek into French)

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

1548

John Bale – Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium... ("A Summary of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, that is, of England, Wales and Scotland"; 1548-9)

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

Anonymous – 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

Petar Zoranić – Planine

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) – An Apology for Poetry (written c. 1579)

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

1502

The Monologue of the Cowboy

1504

Beunans Meriasek (Cornish language)

1508

Ludovico Ariosto – Cassaria

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

1509

Ludovico Ariosto – I suppositi

1513

Juan del Encina – Plácida y Victoriano

1517

A Trilogia das Barcas

1522

Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I – Vom Papst und Christi Gegensatz

1523

Farsa de Inês Pereira

1524

Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I – Vom Papst und seiner Priesterschaft

1525

Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I – Der Ablasskrämer

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

Anonymous – Locrine (published)

1597

Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson – The Isle of Dogs

William Shakespeare – Richard II (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

1505

Pietro Bembo – Gli Asolani

1514

Francesco Maria Molzo – Translation of the Aeneid into Italian, in consecutive unrhymed verse (forerunner of blank verse)

1516

Ludovico Ariosto – Orlando Furioso (first version, April)

1527

Pietro Aretino – Sonetti Lussuriosi ("Sonnets of lust" or "Aretino's Postures", to accompany an edition of Raimondi's erotic engravings, I Modi)

1528

Anna Bijns – Refrains

1530

Pietro Bembo – Rime

By 1534

"A Gest of Robyn Hode"

1550

Sir Thomas Wyatt – Pentential Psalms

1557

Giovanni Battista Giraldi – Ercole

Tottel's Miscellany

1562

Arthur Brooke – The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet

Torquato Tasso – Rinaldo

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

1581

Torquato Tasso – Jerusalem Delivered

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

c. 1501 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish soldier and poet (died 1536)

1503 – Thomas Wyatt

1504 – Nicholas Udall (died 1556)

1508 – Primož Trubar, author of the first printed books in the Slovene language (died 1586)

1510 – Martynas Mažvydas

1511 – Johannes Secundus (died 1535)

1513 – Daniele Barbaro (died 1570)

1515 – Roger Ascham

1515 – Johann Weyer, Dutch occultist (died 1588)

1517 – Henry Howard

c. 1520 – Christophe Plantin, printer (died 1589)

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

Felix Fabri (Felix Faber), Swiss Dominican theologian and travel writer (born c. 1441)

Henry Medwall, English dramatist (born c. 1462)

1513 – Robert Fabyan, English chronicler and sheriff (year of birth unknown)

1515 – Aldus Manutius, Italian publisher (born 1449)

1527 – Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi, Italian calligrapher and type designer (born 1475)

1534 – Wynkyn de Worde, Lotharingian-born English printer

1536 – Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet writing in Latin (born 1511)

1542 – Thomas Wyatt, English poet (born 1503)

1546 – Meera, Indian poet and mystic (born 1498)

1552 – Alexander Barclay, English or Scottish poet (born c. 1476)

1553

Hanibal Lucić, Croatian poet and playwright (born c. 1485)

François Rabelais, French writer and polymath (year of birth unknown)

1555 – Polydore Vergil (Polydorus Vergilius), Italian scholar (born c. 1470)

1563

John Bale, English historian, controversialist and bishop (born 1495)

Martynas Mažvydas, Lithuanian religious writer (born 1510)

1566 – Marco Girolamo Vida, Italian poet (born 1485?)

30 December 1568 – Roger Ascham, English scholar and didact (born 1515)

1570 – Daniele Barbaro, Italian writer, translator and cardinal (born 1513)

1577 – George Gascoigne, English poet and soldier (born c. 1535)

1580 or 1582 – Wu Cheng'en, Chinese writer (born c. 1500)

1584 – Jan Kochanowski, Polish poet (born 1530)

1585 – Pierre de Ronsard, French poet (born 1524)

1586 – Primož Trubar, Slovene author (born 1508)

1588 – Johann Weyer, Dutch occultist (born 1515)

1 July 1589 – Christophe Plantin, Dutch humanist and printer (born c. 1520)

3 September 1592 – Robert Greene, English dramatist (born 1558)

30 May 1593 – Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist, poet and translator (born 1564)

15 August 1594 (burial) – Thomas Kyd, English dramatist (born 1558)

5 November 1595 – Luis Barahona de Soto, Spanish poet (born 1548)

In literature

The main action of Peter Shaffer's drama The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964) is set in 1532–33.