16th century in literature

See also: 16th century in poetry, 15th century in literature, other events of the 16th century, 17th century in literature, list of years in literature.

Events
1508 1513 1519 1539 1565 1567 1571 1572 1575 1576 1590 1597 1598
 * April 4 - John Lydgate's The Complaint of the Black Knight becomes the first known book printed in Scotland.
 * Johannes Potken publishes the first Ge'ez text, Psalterium David et Cantica aliqua, at Rome.
 * Apokopos by Bergadis, the first book in Modern Greek is printed in Venice.
 * 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.
 * Torquato Tasso enters the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este at Ferrara.
 * October 14 - António Ferreira becomes Desembargador da Casa do Civel and leaves Coimbra for Lisbon.
 * Michel de Montaigne retires from public life and isolates himself in the tower of the Château de Montaigne.
 * English law eliminates actors' companies lacking formal patronage, by labelling them "vagabonds".
 * Sir Philip Sidney meets Penelope Devereaux, the inspiration for his Astrophel and Stella.
 * James Burbage builds The Theatre, the first permanent public playhouse in London, to open the great age of Elizabethan drama.
 * A troupe of boy actors, the Children of Paul's, are suppressed because of their playwright John Lyly's role in the Marprelate controversy.
 * Ben Jonson is briefly jailed in Marshalsea Prison, after the suppression of his play, The Isle of Dogs.
 * September 22 - Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel; he is convicted of manslaughter and imprisoned in Newgate Prison.

New books
1501 1503 1505 1508 1509 1512 1513 1514-15 1515 1516 1517 1524 1526 1527 1528 1531 1532 1534 1535 1536 1538 1539 1540 1541 1542 1543 1545 1546 1547 1549 1550 1552 1553 1554 1559 1560 1562 1563 1564 1565 1567 1569 1571 1572 1576 1577 1578 1579 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1588 1590 1592 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1599
 * The Book of Margery Kempe (posthumous)
 * Marko Marulić - Judita
 * William Dunbar - The Thrissill and the Rois
 * Georges Chastellain - Récollections des merveilles advenues en mon temps (posthumous)
 * Stephen Hawes
 * The Passtyme of Pleasure
 * The Temple of Glass
 * William Dunbar - The Goldyn Targe
 * Erasmus - In Praise of Folly
 * Henry Medwall - Fulgens and Lucrece
 * Huldrych Zwingli - De Gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios relatio
 * First translation of Virgil's Aeneid into English language (Scots dialect) by Gavin Douglas
 * Gian Giorgio Trissino - Sofonisba
 * Robert Fabyan - The New Chronicles of England and France
 * Thomas More - Utopia
 * Francysk Skaryna's Bible translation and printing
 * Teofilo Folengo's Baldo, a popular Italian work of comedy.
 * Philippe de Commines - Mémoires (Part 1: Books 1-6); first publication (Paris)
 * William Tyndale's New Testament translation
 * Hector Boece - Historia Scotorum
 * Philippe de Commines - Mémoires (Part 2: Books 7-8); first publication
 * Baltissare Castiglione - The Book of the Courtier
 * Michael Servetus - De trinitatis erroribus ("On the Errors of the Trinity")
 * Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
 * François Rabelais - Pantagruel
 * Feliciano de Silva - Don Florisel de Niquea
 * Martin Luther's Bible translation
 * François Rabelais - Gargantua
 * Polydore Vergil - Historia Anglica
 * John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners - Huon of Bordeaux
 * John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion (in Latin)
 * Hélisenne de Crenne - Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amours
 * Sir Thomas Elyot - The Castel of Helth
 * Historia Scotorum of Hector Boece, translated into vernacular Scots by John Bellenden at the special request of James V of Scotland
 * George Buchanan
 * Baptistes
 * Jephtha
 * Paul Fagius - Liber Fidei seu Veritatis
 * Edward Hall - The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrate Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke
 * Andreas Vesalius - De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (On the Fabric of the Human body in Seven Books)
 * Nicolaus Copernicus - De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres)
 * Roger Ascham - Toxophilus
 * Bernard Etxepare - Linguae Vasconum Primitiae
 * Queen Katherine Parr - Prayers and Meditations; became the first book published by an English queen under her own name.
 * François Rabelais - Le tiers livre
 * Martynas Mažvydas - The Simple Words of Catechism (first printed book in Lithuanian language)
 * Queen Katherine Parr - The Lamentation of a Sinner
 * Johannes Aal - Johannes der Täufer (St. John Baptist)
 * The Complaynt of Scotland
 * Martin Bucer - De regno Christi
 * The Facetious Nights of Straparola published in Italian. The first European storybook to contain fairy-tales.
 * 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.
 * Francesco Patrizi - La Città felice ("The Happy City")
 * anon -  Lazarillo de Tormes
 * The Elizabethan version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, which remained in use until the mid-17th century and was the first English Prayer Book in America.
 * Jorge de Montemayor - Diana
 * Jacques Grévin - Jules César
 * William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson - Geneva Bible
 * William Bullein - Bullein's Bulwarke of Defence againste all Sicknes, Sornes, and Woundes
 * John Foxe - Foxe's Book of Martyrs
 * John Dee - Monas Hieroglyphica
 * Camillo Porzio - La Congiura dei baroni
 * Joan Perez de Lazarraga - Silbero, Silbia, Doristeo, and Sirena (MS in Basque language)
 * Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga - La Araucana, part 1
 * François de Belleforest - La Pyrénée (or La Pastorale amoureuse) (the first French "pastoral novel")
 * Friedrich Risner - Opticae thesaurus
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Stephen Gosson - The Schoole of Abuse
 * Thomas Lodge - Honest Excuses
 * George Buchanan - Rerum Scoticarum Historia
 * Richard Hakluyt - Divers Voyages''
 * Philip Stubbes - The Anatomy of Abuses
 * James VI of Scotland - Some Reulis and Cautelis
 * David Powel - Historie of Cambria
 * Reginald Scot - The Discovery of Witchcraft
 * Miguel de Cervantes - La Galatea
 * 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
 * Thomas Hariot - A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
 * Thomas Nashe - The Anatomie of Absurditie
 * Thomas Lodge - Rosalynde
 * Thomas Nashe - An Almond for a Parrat
 * Robert Greene - Greene's Groatsworth of Wit
 * Gabriel Harvey - Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets
 * Richard Johnson - Nine Worthies of London
 * Sir John Davys - The Seamans Secrets
 * Richard Hooker - Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
 * Sir Philip Sidney (posthumous) - Defense of Poesy, a.k.a. An Apologie for Poetrie
 * Sir Walter Raleigh - The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana
 * Francis Bacon Essays
 * 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
 * John Bodenham - Wits' Theater

New drama
1508
 * The World and the Child, also known as Mundas et Infans (probable date of composition)

1536
 * Hans Ackermann - Der Verlorene Sohn

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
 * Locrine - Anonymous (published)

1597
 * The Isle of Dogs - Thomas Nashe & Ben Jonson
 * Richard II - William Shakespeare (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
1514
 * The Aeneid -Francesco Maria Molzo's translation into Italian, in consecutive unrhymed verse (forerunner of Blank verse)

1550
 * Sir Thomas Wyatt - Pentential Psalms

1557
 * Giovanni Battista Giraldi - Ercole
 * Tottel's Miscellany

1562
 * The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet - Arthur Brooke

1563
 * Barnaby Googe - Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets

1567
 * George Turberville - Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets

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

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

 * 1503 - Thomas Wyatt
 * 1508 - Primož Trubar, author of the first printed books in the Slovene language (d. 1586)
 * 1510 - Martynas Mažvydas
 * 1511 - Johannes Secundus (d. 1535)
 * 1514 - Daniele Barbaro (d. 1570)
 * 1515 - Roger Ascham
 * 1517 - Henry Howard
 * 1524 - Luís de Camões (d. 1580)
 * 1547 - Miguel de Cervantes (d. 1616)
 * 1551 - William Camden
 * 1554 - Philip Sidney
 * 1555 - Lancelot Andrewes
 * 1558 - Robert Greene
 * 1558 - Thomas Kyd
 * 1561 - Luís de Góngora y Argote, Spanish poet (d. 1627)
 * 1562 - Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (d. 1635)
 * 1564 - Henry Chettle, English dramatist (d. 1607)
 * 1564 - Christopher Marlowe, English poet and dramatist (d. 1593)
 * 1564 - William Shakespeare, English poet and dramatist (d. 1616)
 * 1570 - Robert Aytoun
 * 1572 - Ben Jonson
 * 1576 - John Marston
 * 1577 - Robert Burton
 * 1581 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
 * 1583 - Philip Massinger
 * 1587 - Joost van den Vondel
 * 1594 - James Howell

Deaths

 * 1502 - Henry Medwall
 * 1513 - Robert Fabyan
 * 1519 - Anna Bülow
 * 1535 - Johannes Secundus (b. 1511)
 * 1542 - Thomas Wyatt
 * 1552 - Alexander Barclay
 * 1553 - Hanibal Lucić, Croatian poet and playwright (born c. 1485)
 * 1553 - François Rabelais
 * 1555 - Polydore Vergil
 * 1563 - John Bale
 * 1563 - Martynas Mažvydas
 * 1566 - Marco Girolamo Vida, Italian poet (b. 1485?)
 * 1568 - Roger Ascham
 * 1570 - Daniele Barbaro (b. 1514)
 * 1577 - George Gascoigne
 * 1586 - Primož Trubar, author of the first printed books in the Slovene language (b. 1508)
 * 1592 - Robert Greene
 * 1593 - Christopher Marlowe
 * 1594 - Thomas Kyd
 * 1595 - Luis Barahona de Soto