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15th, 16th Centuries
Gallery
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Johannes Gutenberg
Gutenberg's Type
Gutenberg's Type
Indulgence
15th Century
Indulgence
Color Printing
1st book printed
in color, by
Fust and Schoeffer,
1457

Peruvian Quipu cords
carried messages

Martin Behaim's
globe, 1492

Xylographic woocut,
The Nuremberg Chronicles, 1493


Michelangelo's
David, 1504

Sir Richard Southwell
by Hans Holbein, the Younger, 1536

Camera obscura
invented circa 1544, (from 1838 drawing)

Globe Theater
First performance, 1599
1400-1599
1400: Geoffrey Chaucer, whose writing celebrated medieval life, dies
1403: In Korea, a book is printed from movable type.
1400: In England, allegorical poem Piers Plowman criticizes upper class corruption.
1400: From Florence comes the Italic script, a flowing handwriting.
1401: Italian Renaissance in architecture begins in Florence under the Medicis.
1408: Italian sculptor Donatello's David.
1410: The illustrated Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
1415: Czech reformer Jan Hus is burned at the stake in Germany.
1418: The earliest surviving dated woodcut in Europe.
1420: Life improves for dukes. One recipe calls for 300 doves, 200 chickens, four pigs.
1420: European artists begin painting with oils.
1423: Europeans use xylography (block printing) to produce books.
1430: Block-printed books published in Holland, Germany.
1430: Start of Renaissance music era: sacred music, secular madrigals; lute is favored.
1434: Artist Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Wedding Portrait.
1436: Leone Alberti writes first book on painting to consider both theory and technique.
1440: Possible date of Johnannes Gutenberg's first printing effort.
1441: First artist to use oil-based paints, Jan van Eyck, dies.
1441: Painter Fra Filippo Lippi, The Coronation of the Virgin.
1446: The simplifed Korean phonetic alphabet, hangul, with 11 vowels, 28 consonants.
1447: Italian painter Fra Guido Angelico's frescoe, The Annunciation.
1448: Gutenberg sets up a printing shop in Mainz.
1450: A few newsletters begin circulating in Europe.
1450: In Germany, Nicholas of Cusa invents concave lenses for near-sightedness.
1450: Africans carry culture with them as 400 years of slave exports to West begins.
1450: Korea's King Sejong leads a golden age of scientific and humanist learning.
1451: Gutenberg's press prints an old German poem.
1452: Metal plates are used in printing in Europe.
1452: Gutenberg begins printing the 42-line Bible in two volumes.
1453: Turks take Constaninople, burn and steal books in Constantine Library.
1455: First block-printed Bible, the Biblia Pauperum, published in Germany.
1456: Gutenberg's 42-line Bible is illuminated and bound.
1456: Italian painter Piero della Francesca, The Flagellation of Christ.
1457: First known color printing, a psalter in Mainz.
1464: The king of France establishes a postal system.
1464: Alberti writes pioneering treatise on sculpture.
1465: In Germany, drypoint engravings.
1465: The Doubting of Thomas, sculpture by Andrea del Verrochio.
1465: French poet, also thief and rogue, Francois Villon dies.
1472: Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, is printed.
1474: German astronomer "Regiomontanus" is the first to use printing for science.
1475: Vatican librarian writes first printed recipes. Hummingbird livers, anyone?
1476: William Caxton brings Gutenberg's invention of printing to England,
1477: Caxton prints Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first of a hundred books.
1477: An advertisement appears in English.
1477: Hamburg archduke gives diamond to future wife, starting the tradition.
1477: In Florence, the first book with intaglio illustration, Il Monte Sancto di Dio.
1478: Spanish Inquisition begins.
1480: Caxton prints English fic tion by Chaucer, Malory, others.
1482: Marsilio Ficino's Theologica Platonica combines Christianity, Platonic thought.
1485: Thomas Malory's, Morte d'Arthur creates legend of King Arthur, knights.
1486: Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man states humanistic view.
1482: Artist Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus.
1484: From Portugal, a manual of sea navigation; a set of tables determines latitude.
1485: Alberti's study of architecture is the first printed book on the subject.
1486: A colored, illustrated book is printed in St. Albans, England.
1486: Church-supported The Hammer of the Witches, attacks witchcraft.
1489: German mathematician John Widmann's book introduces "+" , "—" signs.
1489: Aldus Manutius begins career as the greatest publisher of the Renaissance.
1490: Printing of books on paper becomes more common in Europe.
1492: Great patron of knowledge and art, Lorenzo de Medici, dies at 44.
1493: From Germany, print etchings. Italians, Swiss soon follow.
1492: German map-maker Martin Behaim constructs the first globe.
1492: Columbus sets sail, informed by Arab geography book.
1494: Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools) written by Sebastian Brant.
1495: Aldus Manutius' roman typeface; will inspire Garamond, others.
1495: A paper mill is established in England.
1497: In Florence, Savonarola burns books, paintings.
1498: Leonardo da Vinci completes The Last Supper.
1498: The toothbrush.
1498: Music is printed in Venice using movable type.
1499: Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpts the Pieta.
 
1500: In England, the growth of middle class literacy.
1500: Book title pages show publisher's imprint, date, page numbers.
1500: In Europe, a portable clock.
1500: During Ming Dynasty China, letter carriers serve private citizens.
1500: Arithmetic + and - symbols are used in Europe.
1500: By now approximately 35,000 books have been printed, some 10 million copies.
1501: From Aldus Manutius' publishing house, italic type.
1501: Aldus Manutius designs a small book to replace large codex.
1502: The pocketwatch.
1504: Michelangelo completes his sculpture, David.
1506: Leonardo da Vinci finishes painting the Mona Lisa.
1507: Map shows the New World, called America, as separate continent.
1508: Lucas Cranach adds to art of chiaroscuro woodcut engraving prints.
1508: Dutch, German artists produce colored woodcuts.
1509: Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, satirizes behavior of Church clergy.
1510: Venice leads a new art renaissance.
1510: The viola da bracchio, earliest form of the violin, appears in Italy.
1510: Dutch artist Hieronymous Bosch completes The Garden of Earthly Delights.
1511: Raphael completes the Vatican frescoe, The School of Athens.
1512: After five years, Michelangelo completes work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
1513: Machiavelli's The Prince offers cold-blooded advice for getting, keeping power.
1514: German artist Albrecht D�rer's engraving, St. Jerome in His Study.
1515: Military incursions into Italy help bring the Florentine Renaissance to France.
1516: Sir Thomas More's Utopia describes an ideal state, a humanist vision.
1516: Arguably the best poetry of the Renaissance: Ariosto's epic, Orlando Furioso.
1517: Martin Luther nails his "Ninety-five Theses" on a church door in Wittenberg.
1519: Leonardo da Vinci dies after lifetime of incomparable art and inventive writing.
 
1520: A written history in Arabic of a city state in East Africa.
1520: One of the world's greatest artists, Raphael, dies at age 37.
1521: Niccol� Machiavelli's On the Art of War intertwines politics and battle.
1521: Cambridge University Press is founded.
1522: Martin Luther publishes German translation of New Testment.
1523: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Erasmus and Dance of Death.
1524: Erasmus' Freedom of the Will attacks Luther's doctrine, upholds moral freedom.
1525: William Tyndale publishes first translation of the New Testament into English.
1528: Castiglione's book, The Courtier, promotes education for women. It helps.
1530: In Rome, the first printed book of madrigals.
1530: Antonio Correggio paints Jupiter and Io.
1532: With Gargantua, physician Francois Rabelais gives his name to debauchery.
1533: A postmaster in England.
1534: Martin Luther finishes translating Old Testament into German.
1534: The first Frankfurt Bookfair.
1535: Miles Coverdale publishes first English translation of the entire Bible.
1535: John Calvin, Institution of the Christian Religion, explains idea of elect, damned.
1536: Francesco Guicciardini is first author to consider Italy as one country.
1536: New Testament translator William Tyndale is strangled, burned at the stake.
1536: A newspaper is printed: the Gazetta in Venice.
1537: French publishers commanded to send a copy of every book to the royal library.
1537: Gerardus Mercator goes into business as globe and map maker.
1539: First printer in the Americas, Juan Pablos, brings equipment to Mexico.
1539: In India, mystic poet Guru Nanak dies after founding Sikh religion.
1539: Another bible appears in the English vernacular, the Great Bible.
1540: Swiss physician Paracelsus argues for pharmaceutical treatment of illness.
1543: Andreas Vesalius' De Fabrica Corporis Humani corrects Greek medical errors.
1543: Nicolas Copernicus' De revolutionibus places sun at the center of our universe.
1544: Spanish and German couriers are allowed to carry private letters.
1544: Illustration of a camera obscura, used to trace scenes, is published in Holland.
1545: Garamond designs his typeface.
1547: In England, The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge.
1549: In England, the first complete edition of The Book of Common Prayer.
 
1550: Chinese wallpaper brought to Europe.
1550: Milanese scientist Geralamo Cardano describes a camera obscura with a lens.
1552: In Geneva, John Calvin bans dancing, folk medicine, certain clothing.
1553: Papers are written on blood circulation.
1553: Michael Servetus burned at stake for On the Errors of the Trinity.
1554: Anonymous Spanish novel introduces picaresque theme of wandering rogue.
1554: Sculptor Benvenuto Cellini completes Perseus with the Head of Medusa.
1555: In France, Nostradamus' rhymed Centuries offers prophecies.
1555: Popal Vuh, holy book of Toltec-Maya, is translated and published in Europe.
1557: George Wickram writes the first German novel, Der Goldfaden.
1557: Estienne du Terte composes a kind of musical suite.
1558: In Elizabethan age, John Knox, a Scot, publishes blast at female monarchs.
1558: Giovanni della Porta recommends camera obscura as an aid to artists.
1558: Child's speller written in England as spelling consistency gradually emerges.
1559: Pope Paul IV creates the Index of Prohibited Books; bans books of Erasmus.
1560: In Italy, the camera obscura shrinks from room-sized to portable.
1560: French diplomat Jean Nicot brings tobacco to France. Name gives us "nicotine."
1560: Legalized, regulated private postal systems grow in Europe.
1562: Counter-Reformation attacks secular and instrumental music.
1563: The word "Puritan" is coined as an insult to strict Protestant English.
1563: In Elizabethan England, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, an anti-Catholic propaganda tract.
1565: The graphite pencil.
1567: Pieter Bruegel paints The Peasant Wedding.
1568: Daniele Barbari describes camera obscura with lens and diaphragm.
1568: Pioneer cartographer Gerardus Mercator draws a projection map of the world.
1570: Women forbidden to sing on stage; castration preserves their sound.
1572. Artist Friedrich Risner builds portable, room-size camera obscura.
1573: Artist Paolo Veronese, The Feast in the House of Levi.
1576: Titian paints the Pieta in the last year of his life.
1577: Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle will give Shakespeare material for plays.
1577: Giovanni Palestrina composes his most famous mass, Missa Papae Marcelli.
1579: El Greco completes painting The Disrobing of Christ.
1579: Thomas North's translation of Plutarch gives Roman material to Shakespeare.
 
1580: The first of humanist Michel de Montaigne's essays is published.
1582: The Gregorian calendar improves on the Julian calendar. Not all adopt it.
1582: Roman Catholic scholars publish Douay version of the New Testament.
1582: A dictionary of hard English words is published.
1584: Printing introduced to the New World, in Peru.
1588: In England, Timothy Bright invents a shorthand.
1588: English madrigals, songs of love and sadness, are popular.
1588: Christopher Marlowe's play, Dr. Faustus.
1588: Signal fires report the arrival of the Spanish Armada in the Engish Channel.
1589: Marlowe's play, The Jew of Malta.
 
1591: Algebra text by Franciscus Vieta of France introduces x and y.
1592: Thomas Kyd introduces revenge theme in play, The Spanish Tragedy.
1593: William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis.
1593: The word "earthling" appears in print.
1593: A book is printed in the Philippines, Doctrina Christiana.
1594: Performances of: Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, The Taming of a Shrew.
1594: Shakespeare's performance of The Comedy of Errors.
1594: Leipzig starts a bookfair.
1594: In Venice, artist Jacopo Tintoretto finishes The Last Supper.
1595: Richard II (possible date).
1596: A Midsummer's Night Dream, King John (possible date).
1596: Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene is published.
1597: Shakespeare completes the Sonnets (possible date).
1597: The Merchant of Venice (possible date).
1597: Listing of Romeo and Juliet in Stationers' Register.
1597: Publication of Richard III.
1597: Love's Labor's Lost performed.
1597: Henry IV, parts one and two (possible date)
1597: The Merry Wives of Windsor may have been performed at court.
1597: First real chemistry text published by Libavus of Germany.
1598: In Denmark, Tycho Brahe's writings advance astronomy.
1598: Reference made to Two Gentlemen of Verona.
1598: Possible date of Shakespeare's Henry V.
1598: First Italian opera, Dafna, is performed.
1598: Michelangelo Caravaggio paints The Calling of St. Matthew.
1599: The Globe Theatre is built.
1599: Julius Caesar is performed.
1599: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It (estimated date).
 
Caxton's 1484 illustration of Canterbury Tales
Caxton's 1484 woodcut
illustrating Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales		 Dosso Dossi's Circe ...
Dosso Dossi's
Circe and Her Lovers
in a Landscape,
c. 1514		 Pieter Brueghel's Peasants' Dance
Pieter Brueghel's
Peasants' Dance,
c. 1560
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Sources for the timeline and accompanying information.

Copyright © Irving Fang and Kristina Ross, 1995-1996. All rights reserved.