1588 in literature

Events

• January 1 - The Children of Paul's perform at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England, probably acting Lyly's Gallathea.
• February 2 - The Children of Paul's return to the English court, probably with Lyly's Endymion.
• February 28 - The gentlemen of Gray's Inn perform Thomas Hughes' play The Misfortunes of Arthur before Queen Elizabeth I of England, at Greenwich Palace.
• Venice's Biblioteca Marciana is completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi on the Piazza San Marco after more than a century of construction following a plan by the late Jacopo Sansovino.
• John Dee finishes Libri mysteriorum I-XVIII (Spiritual Diaries).

New books

• William Allen - An Admonition to the nobility and people of England
• John Dee - De heptarchia mystica
• Robert Greene - Pandosto
• Thomas Hariot - A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
• Thomas Nashe - The Anatomie of Absurditie
• William Rankins - The English Ape
• Welsh Bible (translation by William Morgan)

New drama

• Thomas Hughes - The Misfortunes of Arthur
• George Peele - The Battle of Alcazar (date first performed)

Poetry

• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto - Two Prayers and a Sailor's Lilt Aboard the Spanish Armada
• Heinrich Meibom - Parodiarum horatianarum libri III et sylvarum libri II
• Jean de Sponde - Essai de quelques poèmes chrétiens

Births

• April 5 - Thomas Hobbes, philosopher (died 1679)
• April 15 - Claudius Salmasius, Classical commentator (died 1653)
• September 8 - Marin Mersenne, theologian and philosopher (died 1648)
• date unknown
  • Leonard Digges (II), poet and translator (died 1635)
  • Francis Higginson, colonial Puritan writer (died 1630)
  • Johannes Maccovius, theologian (died 1644)

Deaths

• February 24 - Johann Weyer, Dutch demonologist (born c. 1515)
• September 3 - Richard Tarlton, Elizabethan actor (born 1530)
• November 1 - Jean Daurat, French poet (born 1508)
• date unknown
  • Sperone Speroni, Humanist scholar and dramatist (born 1500)
  • Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher (born 1509)
  • Christian Wursteisen, theologian and historian (born 1544)

See also

• Marprelate Controversy