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16th century in literature

Overview of the events of 1510 in literature

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Events

1501

1502

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

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

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.

1521

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

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

  • 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

1534

1535

1536

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

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

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

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.

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