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

Table of Principal Dates.



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