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The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume III. Renascence and Reformation.

Table of Principal Dates

1475 The Babees’ Boke.
1478(?) First book printed at Oxford.
1485–1489 Linacre and Grocyn go to Italy.
1485–1509 King Henry VII.
1486 Bartolommeo Diaz circumnavigates the Cape.
1489 Villon’s poems (first dated edition).
1490 Sannazaro Arcadia.
1491 Death of Caxton.
1491 Marsilio Ficino’s works published at Basel.
1492 Columbus discovers the West Indies.
1494 Sebastian Brant’s Narrenschiff printed at Basel.
1494–1515 Aldus Manutius prints editiones principes of Greek authors.
1497 Sebastian Cabot reaches America.
1498 Execution of Savonarola.
1499 Erasmus visits England.
1499 Pinzon and Amerigo Vespucci rediscover America.
1503 Erasmus’s Enchiridion Militis Christiani.
1503 The Lady Margaret endows professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge.
1505 The Lady Margaret founds Christ’s College, Cambridge.
1506 Death of Columbus.
Before 1508 Skelton’s Phyllyp Sparowe.
Before 1509 Skelton’s Bowge of Courte.
1509 The Ship of Fools.
1509 Erasmus’s Moriae Encomium.
1509 The Lady Margaret founds St. John’s College, Cambridge.
1509 Bishop Smyth and Sir Richard Sutton found Brasenose College, Oxford.
1509–1547 King Henry VIII.
1510–1513 Erasmus at Cambridge.
c. 1510 Cocke Lorell’s bote.
c. 1510 (?) The Parson of Kalenborowe.
1513 Gawain Douglas’s trans. of the Aeneid printed.
1513 Macchiavelli’s Prince (pub. 1532).
1513 Battle of Flodden.
1514 Greek text of New Testament printed at Alcalá, through instrumentality of cardinal Ximenes.
1514 Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, vol. I (vol. II 1517).
1515 Earliest known edition of Eulenspiegel.
1516 More’s Utopia (Latin).
1516–1563 Eulenspiegel in English.
1516 Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
1516 Death of Battista Spagnuoli (Mantuanus).
1516 Froben publishes Erasmus’s Greek Testament at Basel.
1516 Bishop Fox founds Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
c. 1516 Skelton’s Magnyfycence.
1517 Luther’s theses at Wittenberg.
1518 Linacre founds the Royal College of Physicians.
1519 Cortes reaches the capital of Mexico.
1519–1555 Charles V.
c. 1519 Skelton’s Colyn Clout.
1520 Straits of Magellan crossed.
1520 Death of Raphael.
1521 Major’s Historia majoris Britanniae.
1521 Melanchthon’s Loci Communes.
1521 Diet of Worms.
1521–1522 John Siberch prints books at Cambridge.
1522–1523 Skelton’s Why come ye nat to courte.
1524 Berners’s Froissart.
1524 Luther and Walther’s first German hymn book.
1525 Tindale’s New Testament, Worms.
1525 Wolsey founds Cardinal college, Oxford, on the site of the monastery of St. Frideswide (re-endowed as Christ Church, 1546).
c. 1526 A C. Mery Talys.
1526 Vives: De Subventione Pauperum.
1527 Death of Macchiavelli.
1528 Rede me and be not wrothe.
1528 Simon Fish’s Supplication.
1528 Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano.
1528 Execution of Patrick Hamilton.
c. 1528 Lyndsay’s Dreme.
1528 Death of Dürer.
1529 Guevara’s Dial of Princes (trans. Berners, 1531).
1530 Death of Cardinal Wolsey.
1530 Death of Sannazaro.
1531 Elyot’s Governour.
1531 Death of Zwingli.
1531 (pub. after) The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous.
1532–1564 Rabelais: Pantagruel.
1533 Death of Ariosto.
1534 Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus.
1535–1539 Suppression of religious houses.
1535 The first complete English Bible (Coverdale’s 1st edition) printed.
1535 Act of Supremacy.
1535 Execution of Sir Thomas More.
1536 Execution of William Tindale.
1536 Death of Erasmus.
1536 Calvin’s Christianae Religionis Institutio.
1536 Bellenden’s translation of Boece.
1536(?) The Complaynt of Roderyck Mors.
1537 The first Bible (Coverdale’s 2nd edition) printed in England
1537 The Institution of a Christian Man
1538 Kirchmayer’s Pammachius.
1539 The Great Bible.
1540 The English Bible set up in Churches.
1540 Lyndsay’s Satyre of the Thrie Estatis performed (printed 1602).
1540 Regius Professorships of Divinity, Greek, Hebrew, Law and Physic established at Cambridge and Oxford.
1540 John Cheke regius professor of Greek at Cambridge.
1541 Henry VIII’s first act against sorcery and magic.
1541 Death of Paracelsus.
1542–1547 Andrew’s Boorde’s Fyrste Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge.
1542, 1548, 1550 Hall’s Chronicle.
1543 The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man.
1543, 1557 The history of King Richarde III.
1543 Death of Copernicus.
1544 The Litany in English.
1544 Death of Clément Marot.
1545 Montemayor’s Diana Enamorada.
1545 Ascham’s Toxophilus.
1545 King Henry’s Primer.
1545 Council of Trent opens.
1546 Leland’s Laboriouse Journey and Serche.
1546 Henry VIII founds Trinity College, Cambridge, by combining earlier halls, etc.
1546 Death of Luther.
c. 1546 The Gude and Godlie Ballatis.
1547 The first book of Homilies.
1547 Execution of the earl of Surrey.
1547–1553 King Edward VI.
1548 John Bon and Mast Parson.
c. 1548, 1549 The Complaynt of Scotland.
1548, 1549, 1562 Sternhold and Hopkins’s Psalms.
1549 Joachim du Bellay: Défense et Illustration de la Langue Française.
1549 La Pléiade (Pierre de Ronsard, Jodelle, Belleau, Baïf, Daurat, Pontus de Thyard and Joachim du Bellay).
1549 The first prayer-book of Edward VI.
1549 Dedekind’s Grobianus.
1550 Robert Crowley’s One and Thirty Epigrams.
c. 1550 The Wyll of the Devyll.
1552 (?) Birth of Sir Walter Ralegh
1552 The second prayer-book of Edward VI.
1552 Christ’s Hospital founded.
1553 Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique.
1553 Execution of Servetus.
1553 Death of Rabelais.
1553–1558 Queen Mary I.
1554 Lazarillo de Tormes.
1555 Execution of Latimer.
1556 Death of Nicholas Udall, author of Ralph Roister Doister.
1556 Execution of Cranmer.
1557 Tottel’s Miscellany.
1557 Tusser’s Hundreth good pointes of husbandrie.
1557 North’s trans. of Guevara’s El Relox de Principes.
1557 Recorde’s Whetstone of Wit (the first English algebra).
1557 Death of Pietro Aretino.
1557 Stationers’ company incorporated.
1558 Margaret of Navarre’s Heptameron.
1558 Knox’s First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstruous Regiment of Women.
1558–1603 Queen Elizabeth.
1559 A Mirror for Magistrates (first quarto).
1559 Foxe’s Actes and Monuments, in Latin (in English, 1563).
1559 Jacques Amyot translates Plutarch.
1559 Act of Uniformity.
1559 The Elizabethan prayer-book.
1560 Buchanan’s Franciscanus.
1560 Death of Melanchthon.
1561 Awdeley’s Fraternitye of Vacabones.
1561 More’s Utopia trans. into English by Robynson.
1561 Hoby’s trans. of Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano.
1561 Gorboduc acted in Inner Temple Hall.
1561 Scaliger’s Poetics.
1561 Merchant Taylors’ School founded.
1562 Jewel’s Apology for the Church of England.
1562 (written after) Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Queene Elizabethes Achademy.
1563 Sackville’s Induction.
1563 Barnabe Googe’s Eglogs.
1563 Council of Trent closes.
1564 Bullein’s Dialogue against the Fever Pestilence.
1564 Birth of Marlowe.
1564 Birth of Galileo.
1564 Death of Calvin.
1565 Smith’s Commonwealth of England written (printed in 1583).
1565 Death of Michelangelo.
1565 Cinthio’s Hecatommithi.
c.1565–1566 The Geystes of Skoggan.
1566 Buchanan’s Psalms (2nd ed.).
1566 Gascoigne’s Supposes and Jocasta at Gray’s Inn.
1566 Gresham founds the Royal Exchange.
1566–1567 Painter’s Palace of Pleasure.
1567 Harman’s Caveat (2nd ed.).
1567 Fenton’s Tragicall Discourses.
1567 Turbervile’s Epitaphs, Epigrams, etc.
1568 The Bishops’ Bible.
1568 William Allen founds Douai.
1570 Ascham’s Scholemaster.
1571 The Act for the Incorporation of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
1572 Society of Antiquaries founded by Parker.
c. 1573 First edition of Gascoigne’s works.
1573(?) Birth of Ben Jonson.
1574 Scot’s Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe-Garden.
1575 Gascoigne’s Notes of Instruction.
1575 Elizabeth visits Leicester at Kenilworth.
1575 Tasso completes Gerusalemme Liberata (1st complete ed. 1581).
1575 Birth of Jacob Boehme.
1576 The Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure.
1576 The Paradyse of Daynty Devises.
1577–1580 Drake’s voyage round the world.
1578 Lyly’s Euphues.
1578 Holinshed’s Chronicles.
1578 A Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions.
1578 Birth of William Harvey.
1579 The Shepheards Calender.
1579 North’s trans. of Plutarch.
1580 Sidney’s Arcadia begun (published, 1590).
1580 Lyly’s Euphues and his England.
1580 Stow’s Chronicles of England.
1580 Gabriel Harvey’s attempts on behalf of classical metres
1580 Montaigne’s Essays (1st ed.).
1580 Death of Camoens.
1580–1584 Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella written (pub. 1591).
1581 Mulcaster’s Positions.
1581 Thomas Howell’s Devises.
1582 Mulcaster’s Elementarie.
1582 Camden’s Britannia (trans. by Philemon Holland, 1610).
1582 Watson’s EKATOMIIA\??\IA.
1582 Codex Bezae given to Cambridge University.
1582 Edinburgh University founded.
1582 Death of St. Teresa.
Before 1583 Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie written (printed 1595).
1583 Stubbes’s Anatomy of Abuses.
1584 A Handefull of pleasant delites.
1584 Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft.
1584 Sir Walter Mildmay founds Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
1585 Death of Pierre de Ronsard.
1585 Elizabeth assumes protection of Netherlands
1586 Knox’s Historie of the reformation of Scotland.
1586 Webbe’s Discourse of English Poetrie.
1586 Death of Sir Philip Sidney.
1587 Penry’s Aequity.
1587 Albericus Gentilis, regius professor of civil law, Oxford.
1587 Execution of Mary Stewart.
1588 Udall’s Diotrephes.
1588 Greene’s Pandosto and Perimedes the Blacksmith.
1588 The Spanish Armada.
1589 The Marprelate tracts.
1589 Nashe’s Anatomie of Absurditie.
1589 Greene’s Menaphon.
1589 The Arte of English Poesie.
1589, 1598–1600 Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations.
1590 Greene’s Mourning Garment and Never too late.
1590 Lodge’s Rosalynde.
1590 The Faerie Queene, Books I–III.
1591 Greene’s Notable Discovery of Coosnage.
1591 Trinity College, Dublin, founded.
1592 Nashe’s Pierce Pennilesse.
1592 Greene’s Quip for an Upstart Courtier and Blacke Bookes Messenger.
1592 Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit (licensed).
1592 Daniel’s Delia.
1592 Constable’s Diana.
1592 Death of Montaigne.
1593 Giles Fletcher’s Licia.
1593 Thomas Lodge’s Phillis.
1593 Barnabe Barnes’s Parthenophil and Parthenophe.
1593 Death of Marlowe.
1594 Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, I–IV.
1594 Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveller and Terrors of the Night.
1594 Drayton’s Idea.
1594 La Satyre Ménippée.
1595 Spenser’s Amoretti.
1595 Richard Barnfield’s Cynthia.
1595 Death of Tasso.
1595–1596 The Faerie Queene, Books IV–VI.
1596 Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour.
1596 Gresham College founded.
1597 Bacon’s Essayes (1st ed.).
1597 National scheme for relief of the poor formulated.
1598 Emanuel Ford’s Parismus.
1598 Death of Burghley.
1598 Restoration of the University Library, Oxford, by Sir Thomas Bodley.
1598 Edict of Nantes.
1598, 1603 Stow’s Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster.
1599 Nashe’s Lenten Stuffe.
1599 The Passionate Pilgrim.
1599 Guzman d’Alfarache.
1599 Death of Spenser.
1600 England’s Helicon.
1600 Gilbert’s De Magnete.
1600 Execution of Giordano Bruno.
1600 Foundation of the East India Company.
1602 Campion’s Observations in the Art of English Poesy.
1602(?) Daniel’s Defence of Ryme.
1603 Florio’s trans. of Montaigne.
1603–1625 King James I. of England.
1604 Breton’s Passionate Shepheard.
1605 Bacon’s Advancement of Learning.
1605 Gunpowder plot.
1605–1615 Don Quixote.
1611 The Authorised Version.
1611 Speed’s Historie of Great Britaine.
1615 Camden’s Annales. Part 1. (Part II, 1627, 1629.)
1616 Death of Shakespeare.
1616 Death of Cervantes.
1619 Drayton’s Ideas Mirrour.
1620 Bacon’s Novum Organum.
1625–1649 King Charles I.
1628 Coke: The first part of the Institutes of the Laws of England.
1633 Fulke Greville’s Caelica published.
1641 Cavendish’s Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey (printed).