1576 in literature
The following literary events and publications occurred in the year 1576.
Events
- December – James Burbage opens The Theatre, the second permanent public playhouse in London, ushering in the great age of Elizabethan drama.
- unknown dates
- *The composer Richard Farrant opens the first Blackfriars Theatre in London, presenting plays performed by the Children of the Chapel.
- *The composer Thomas Whythorne writes a Booke of songs and sonetts with longe discourses sett with them, an early example of autobiographical writing in English.
New books
Prose
- Jean Bodin – Les Six livres de la République
- Ulpian Fulwell – Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery
- Étienne de La Boétie – Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
- George Pettie – A Petite Palace of Pettie His Pleasure
- Peter Martyr Vermigli – Loci Communes
- George Whetstone – ''The Rocke of Regard''
Drama
- Luigi Pasqualigo – Il Fedele
- George Wapull – The Tide Tarrieth No Man published
Poetry
- See 1576 in poetry
- Tulsidas – Ramcharitmanas
- The Paradise of Dainty Devices, the most popular of the Elizabethan verse miscellanies
Births
- January 12 – Petrus Scriverius, Dutch historian
- May 27 – Caspar Schoppe, German controversialist
- June 6 – Giovanni Diodati, Bible translator
- October – John Marston, English dramatist and poet
- October 30 – Enrico Caterino Davila, Italian historian
- unknown dates
- *William Ames, English philosopher
- *Johann Bogermann, Dutch translator
- *Samuel Collins, theologian
- *Charles Fitzgeoffrey, Elizabethan poet
- *Goldastus, Swiss Calvinist historian
- *John Weever, English poet and antiquary
Deaths
- January 19 – Hans Sachs, German poet and dramatist
- February 10 – Wilhelm Xylander, German classical scholar
- March 18 – Johann Stössel, German Lutheran theologian
- May 2 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish theologian
- June 30 – Franciscus Sonnius, Flemish theologian
- October 14 – Konrad Heresbach, Calvinist writer
- unknown dates
- *Basil Faber, German theologian
- *Aloysius Lilius, Italian philosopher
- *Lancelot Ridley, English theologian
- *Mavro Vetranović, Croatian Benedictine poet and author