istoryworld
Events relating to literature
Petrarch glimpses Laura in a church in Avignon and falls helplessly in love with her - or so he tells us
William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor
A laurel wreath is placed on the brow of Petrarch in Rome, in a renewal of interest in the classical world
Humanism, or the study of classical literature as a living tradition, develops into one of the main strands of the Renaissance
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman
One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer
The Persian poet Hafiz perfects a form of short poem, the ghazal, dwelling on the pleasures of life with an undercurrent of Sufi mysticism
The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death
Francois Villon, recently released from prison, writes his Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past
In keeping with his personal interest in Plato, Cosimo de' Medici founds a Platonic Academy in Florence
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur
Boiardo publishes a romantic epic, Orlando Innamorato, about Roland's love for a bewitching princess
Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism
Ariosto, in Orlando Furioso, tells of Roland's madness when he is abandoned by the pagan princess Angelica
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer
Pierre de Ronsard publishes the first four books of his Odes
Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588
Luis de Camoëns publishes The Lusiads, the poem which becomes Portugal's national epic
Tasso, in Gerusalemme Liberata ('Jerusalem Liberated'), turns the first crusade into a romantic epic
The 18-year-old William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
