This article presents lists of literary events and publications in the 16th century.
Quick Facts List of years in literature (table) ...
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1501
1502
1507
- King James IV grants a patent for the first printing press in Scotland to Walter Chapman and Andrew Myllar.
1508
1509
1510
1510–1511
1512
- The word "masque" is first used to denote a poetic drama.
1513
1514
1515
1516
1519
1521
1522
1522–24
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
1530
- January – The first printed translation of the Torah in 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
1534
1535
1536
1537
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. It is distributed to churches in England.[1] Prepared by Myles Coverdale, it contains much material from the Tyndale Bible, unacknowledged as Tyndale's version is officially considered heretical.
- Game Place House in Great Yarmouth becomes the first English building to be used regularly as a public theatre.[6]
- Marie Dentière writes an open letter to Marguerite of Navarre, sister of the King of France; the Epistre tres utile (Very useful letter) calls for expulsion of Catholic clergy from France.
- The first printing press in North America is set up in Mexico City. Its first known book, Manual de Adultos, appears in 1540.[7]
1540
1541
1542
1550
1551
1552
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
1571
1572
- England's Vagabonds Act 1572 prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes acting companies lacking formal patronage.
- Luís Vaz de Camões of Portugal publishes his epic Os Lusíadas.
1575
1576
1586
1590
1596
1597
1598
1599
1500
1501
1502
1503
1505
1508
1509
- Manjarasa – Samyukta Koumudi
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514–15
1516
1517
1518
1519
- Santikirti – Santinatha Purana
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
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
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
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
- Paul Fagius – Liber Fidei seu Veritatis
- Edward Hall – The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrate Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
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
1550
1552
1553
1554
1559
1560
1562
- William Bullein – Bullein's Bulwarke of Defence againste all Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes
1563
1564
1565
1567
1569
1571
1572
1560–1575
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
1578
1579
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
1584
1585
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
1588
1590
1592
1594
1595
1596
- Sir Walter Raleigh – The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana
1597
1598
1599
1502
- The Monologue of the Cowboy
1504
1508
1509
1513
1517
1522
1523
1524
1525
1531
1536
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
1551
1553
1562
1566
1567
1568
- Ulpian Fulwell – Like Will to Like
1573
1582
1584
1588
1589
- The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune – anonymous (published)
1590
1591
1592
1594
1595
1597
1598
1599
1505
1514
- Francesco Maria Molzo – Translation of the Aeneid into Italian, in consecutive unrhymed verse (forerunner of blank verse)
1516
1527
- Pietro Aretino – Sonetti Lussuriosi ("Sonnets of lust" or "Aretino's Postures", to accompany an edition of Raimondi's erotic engravings, I Modi)
1528
1530
By 1534
1550
1557
1562
1563
1567
1572
1573
1575
1576
- The Paradise of Dainty Devices, the most popular of the Elizabethan verse miscellanies
1577
1579
1581
1586
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594
1595
1596
1597
1598
1599
- 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 Slovene (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
- 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
- 1555 – Polydore Vergil (Polydorus Vergilius), Italian scholar (born c. 1470)
- 1563
- 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)
Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 145–148. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
Agustín G. de Amezúa (1956). Introduction to facsimile reprint of Libro de Claribalte. Madrid: Real Academia Española.
Szegedi, Edit (2002). Geschichtsbewusstsein und Gruppenidentität. Bohlau Verlag. p. 223.
Robertson, Patrick (1974). The Shell Book of Firsts. London: Ebury Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-7181-1279-2.