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. 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. •
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==