1566 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1566.

Events

• September 2 – The stage collapses during a performance of Richard Edwardes' play Palamon and Arcite at Oxford, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Three deaths are caused. The show goes on and "the Queen laughed heartily thereat."
• Ordonnance of Moulins in France prohibits writing, printing or selling of defamatory books and requires all books published to carry a seal of state approval.

New books

Prose

• Historia Caroli Magni (12th century forged chronicle – first printing, at Frankfurt)
• Magdeburg Centuries, volume IX
• François de Belleforest (translated from Matteo Bandello) – Histoires tragiques begins publication)
• Diego de Landa – Relación de las cosas de Yucatán
• William Painter – Palace of Pleasure
• The Flower Triod (Триод Цветни)

Drama

• George Gascoigne – Supposes (translation into English prose from Ludovico Ariosto's ', for performance by gentlemen of Gray's Inn in London)
• (with Francis Kinwelmersh) – Jocasta (translation from Lodovico Dolce's Giocasta, a version of Euripides' The Phoenician Women, for performance by gentlemen of Gray's Inn)
• Gismund of Salerne (written and produced for Queen Elizabeth I of England by the gentlemen of Inner Temple in London)