1557 in literature

Events

• May 4 - The Stationers' Company in the City of London, a printers' guild, receives a Royal Charter.^[1]
• June 5 - London publisher Richard Tottel produces Songes and Sonettes, written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and others, better known as Tottel's Miscellany, the first printed anthology of English poetry, edited by himself and including the first publication of original poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (beheaded 1547) and Sir Thomas Wyatt (died 1542)
• June 10 - The New Testament of the Geneva Bible, a Protestant Bible translation into English produced under the supervision of William Whittingham and printed in Roman type, is published in Geneva.

New books

• Thomas North - The Diall of Princes (translation from a French version of Antonio de Guevara's Reloj de Principes, chiefly compiled from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations)
• Robert Recorde - The Whetstone of Witte
• Hans Staden - Warhaftige Historia und beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der Wilden Nacketen, Grimmigen Menschfresser-Leuthen in der Newenwelt America gelegen
• Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo (a version of The Three Princes of Serendip published by Michele Tramezzino, allegedly based on a translation by Christophero Armeno into Italian)

New drama

• None

Poetry

• Giovanni Battista Giraldi - Ercole
• Tottel's Miscellany

Births

• February 15 – Alfonso Fontanelli, Italian composer and writer (died 1622)
• Unknown date – Jean de Sponde, Basque French poet (died 1595)

Deaths

• April 9 – Mikael Agricola, Finnish scholar (born c. 1510)
• August 1 – Olaus Magnus, Swedish ecclesiastic and writer (born 1490)
• September 13 – John Cheke, English classical scholar and statesman (born 1514)
• October 20 – Jean Salmon Macrin, French poet (born 1490)
• Unknown dates
  • Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Spanish historian (born 1478 in literature)
  • Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts, French translator (birth year unknown)

References