1587 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1587.

Events

April 14 – A clandestine Roman Catholic printing press is discovered in a cave on the Little Orme on the North Wales coast, where it has been used by the recusant Robert Pugh and his chaplain, Father William Davies, to print the first part of Y Drych Cristianogawl, the first book to be printed in Wales. Attributed to G. R. of Milan, the book is given a false imprint of "Rouen, 1585".
Autumn – Poet Torquato Tasso travels to Rome to stay with his friend Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
October 31 – Leiden University Library opens its doors after its foundation in 1575.
Late – The first part of Christopher Marlowe's drama Tamburlaine the Great is performed in London by the Admiral's Men, with Edward Alleyn in the lead. Marlowe is known to be engaged in confidential government work.
The Rose Theatre is built by Philip Henslowe in Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames.
The chapbook Historia von D. Johann Fausten, printed by Johann Spies in Frankfurt, is the first published version of the Faust story.

George Gifford – A discourse of the subtill practises of deuilles by witches and sorcerers
Raphael Holinshed – Holinshed's Chronicles, 2nd edition, revised
John Penry – The Æquity of an Humble Supplication
William Rankins – ''A Mirror of Monsters''