16th century in literature

This article presents lists of literary events and publications in the 16th century.

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. He also publishes an edition of Petrarch's Le cose volgari and first adopts his dolphin and anchor device. 1502 Aldine Press editions appear of Dante's Divine Comedy, Herodotus's 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 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 The Aldine Press editiones principes of Lycophron, Lysias, Pindar and Plato is published by Aldus Manutius in Venice. Niccolò Machiavelli is banished from Florence by the House of Medici and writes The Prince as De Principatibus (On 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. It is falsely assigned in Venice 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 much striving and invincible knight Don Claribalte), the first work by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, is published in Valencia, Spain, by Juan Viñao. In a foreword dedicating it to Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, Oviedo relates that it has been conceived and written in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (the Caribbean island of Hispaniola), where he has been working since 1514. It can therefore claim to be the first literary work created in the New World.Agustín G. de Amezúa (1956). Introduction to facsimile reprint of Libro de Claribalte. Madrid: Real Academia Española. 1521 June 29 or 30 – Neacșu's letter is the oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in Romanian (using 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 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 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 New Testament in Swedish, the first official Bible translation into Swedish, is made by Olaus Petri under royal patronage. The first complete Dutch-language translation of the Bible is printed by Jacob van Liesvelt in Antwerp. The Bibliotheca Corviniana in Ofen is destroyed by troops of the Ottoman Empire. 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 October – The censors of the Collège de Sorbonne condemn 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, with woodcut illustrations. Cambridge University Press is granted a royal charter by King Henry VIII of England to print "all manner of books" and so 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 first appears 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. It is distributed to churches in England. 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. 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. 1540 Sir David Lyndsay's Middle Scots satirical morality play A Satire of the Three Estates is first performed, privately. 1541 Elia Levita's chivalric romance, the Bovo-Bukh, is first printed, becoming the earliest published secular work in Yiddish. 1542 La relación/The Account, written by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, appears, as the first European publication devoted wholly to discussion of North America. 1550 Primož Trubar's Catechismus and Abecedarium, the first books in Slovene, are printed in Schwäbisch Hall. Popol Vuh is written after a long oral tradition. 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 is 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. Approximate date – The first publication in book form of the Chinese shenmo fantasy novel Fengshen Yanyi. 1571 October 7 – In the 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 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 September 26 – Miguel de Cervantes is captured by Barbary pirates, to be ransomed only five years later. Sir Philip Sidney meets Penelope Devereux, the inspiration for his Astrophel and Stella. 1576 December – James Burbage builds The Theatre, London's first permanent public playhouse. This opens the great age of English Renaissance theatre. 1586 October 17 – The poet Sir Philip Sidney (born 1554) dies of wounds received at the Battle of Zutphen. 1590 A troupe of boy actors, the Children of Paul's, is suppressed due to its 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 his play The Isle of Dogs is suppressed. 1598 September 22 – Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel, but is only held briefly in Newgate Prison. December 28 – The Theatre in London is dismantled . Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. 1599 Spring/Summer – The Globe Theatre built in Southwark, London, utilises 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 – The 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 Euripides – 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 (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