Pope Clement VII hides in Castel Sant'Angelo while Rome is sacked by German mercenaries

The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, makes Titian his court painter (an arrangement continued by Philip II)

Pope Paul III establishes the Roman Inquisition, with the specific task of fighting against the Protestant heresy

The Italian players of the commedia dell'arte first feature in the records in this year

A council of the Roman Catholic church is convened in Trent, to establish the tenets of the Counter-Reformation

A book to teach good handwriting is published by Gianfrancesco Cresci, with examples engraved on copper plates

Palladio publishes I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ('The Four Books of Architecture'), which include his influential designs for villas

Spanish and Venetian galleys defeat the Turks in the battle of Lepanto

Soft-paste porcelain, in imitation of true porcelain from China, is successfully created for the Medici in Florence

Tasso, in Gerusalemme Liberata ('Jerusalem Liberated'), turns the first crusade into a romantic epic

The new and more accurate Gregorian calendar is introduced by Gregory XIII in the papal states

Venice opens the first modern bank (the Banco della Piazza di Rialto) for safe deposits and credit transfers

The dome of St Peter's is finished, completing nearly a century of construction on Europe's largest church

Dafne is performed in Florence, becoming the first example of a new art form - opera

A performance in the Oratory in Rome, with music by Emilio de' Cavalieri, is in effect the first oratorio

Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age

Pietro Annigoni paints his best-known portrait, depicting the young British queen Elizabeth II in the Italian Renaissance style