Events Timeline

Orlando includes short event entries, freestanding and embedded in author profiles, about moments and processes relevant to literary history and organized into four categories: Women writers, Writing Climate, Political Climate, and Social Climate. Explore the timelines by searching for date(s) and/or words or phrases associated with them.

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1483: William Caxton printed his own English translation...

Writing climate item

1483

William Caxton printed his own English translation of The Golden Legend (an internationally popular collection of stories of the saints and martyrs dating from about 1260).
Newman, Barbara. “My Feet Are Cut Off”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, No. 23, 3 Dec. 2009, pp. 38-9.
38-9

9 April 1483: King Edward IV died unexpectedly; his young...

National or international item

9 April 1483

King Edward IV died unexpectedly; his young son Edward V was proclaimed king of England.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
41-2
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
102

25-26 June 1483: The child King Edward V was deposed, and...

National or international item

25-26 June 1483

The child King Edward V was deposed, and Richard III assumed the throne of England.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
42
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
102

2 September 1483: William Caxton dated his edition of John...

Writing climate item

2 September 1483

William Caxton dated his edition of John Gower 's only poem in English, Confessio Amantis.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
2 September 2008

31 July 1485: Fourteen years after the death of the author,...

Writing climate item

31 July 1485

Fourteen years after the death of the author, Sir Thomas Malory , a printer who was probably William Caxton dated his edition of Le Morte d'Arthur, the most famous English collection of Arthurian romances...

22 August 1485: King Richard III was killed at the battle...

National or international item

22 August 1485

King Richard III was killed at the battle of Bosworth Field; Henry Bolingbroke seized the throne of England and reigned as Henry VII .
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
42
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 77

1486: The Boke of St Albans, a treatise on hunting,...

Writing climate item

1486

The Boke of St Albans, a treatise on hunting, was printed: persistent rumour attributes it to one Dame Juliana Berners , or Julyan Barnes , who only possibly existed.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

1487: As the European witch craze gathered strength,...

Building item

1487

As the European witch craze gathered strength, the Malleus Maleficarum (meaning the hammer of the witches) was published.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

1487: Abduction and rape, hitherto defined as separate...

Building item

1487

Abduction and rape, hitherto defined as separate crimes, were legally merged; this did not lessen Parliament's emphasis on the financial effects of violating a woman of property.
Schwarz, Joan I. “Eighteenth-Century Abduction Law and Clarissa”. Clarissa and Her Readers, edited by Carol Houlihan Flynn and Edward Copeland, AMS Press, 1999, pp. 269-08.
275-7

16 June 1487: The forces of Lambert Simnel (claimant to...

National or international item

16 June 1487

The forces of Lambert Simnel (claimant to the throne, self-proclaimed Earl of Warwick, who had some Irish supporters) were defeated by those of Henry VII .
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
232

1492: John Tate first began making paper in England,...

Writing climate item

1492

John Tate first began making paper in England, at Stevenage in Hertfordshire.
Norris, F. H. Paper and Paper Making. Oxford University Press, 1952.
1

2 January 1492: At the battle of Granada in Spain (actually...

National or international item

2 January 1492

At the battle of Granada in Spain (actually the climax of a three-week siege) Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain defeated the Moors. They expelled the Jews the same year.
Windschuttle, Keith. The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering our Past. Encounter Books, 2000.
61

Marguerite de Navarre: 11 April 1492

Writing climate item
Author event in Marguerite de Navarre

11 April 1492

Marguerite d'Angoulême (later Marguerite de Navarre ) was born in the castle of Angoulême in France, of which province her father was ruler.
Freer, Martha. The Life of Marguerite d’Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. Burrows Brothers, 1895, 2 vols.
1:1
Putnam, Samuel. Marguerite of Navarre. Coward-McCann, 1935.
9
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. Five Famous French Women. Cassell, 1905.
167

12 October 1492: Christopher Columbus is said to have discovered...

National or international item

12 October 1492

Christopher Columbus is said to have discovered the New World; the discovery was in fact a major disappointment to him, since what he was seeking was a trade-route to the riches of Asia...

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: 1493

Writing climate item
Author event in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

1493

Renaissance humanist Conrad Celtes or Celtis unearthed the manuscript containing the poems and plays of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim , which had been totally forgotten in the several centuries since her death.
Wilson, Katharina M. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim. E. J. Brill, 1988.
103
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

1494: The Irish parliament passed Poynings's Laws,...

National or international item

1494

The Irish parliament passed Poynings 's Laws, which decreed that all English statutes should be valid in Ireland as well, making Ireland unmistakably a colonial possession.
Curley, Thomas. “Johnson and the Irish: A Post-Colonial Survey of the Irish Literary Renaissance in Imperial Great Britain”. The Age of Johnson, edited by Paul J. Korshin and Jack Lynch, Vol.
12
, AMS Press, 2001, pp. 67-197.
71

1494: The University of Aberdeen (also known as...

Building item

1494

The University of Aberdeen (also known as King's College, Aberdeen ) was founded by William Elphinstone , Bishop of Aberdeen, primarily as a school of law.
Rashdall, Hastings. Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Editors Powicke, Sir Frederick Maurice and Alfred Brotherston Emden, Clarendon, 1987, 3 vols.
II: 318-9
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
1335
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Hector Boece

1495: In a bonfire of the vanities in Florence,...

Writing climate item

1495

In a bonfire of the vanities in Florence, Italy, Girolamo Savonarola destroyed texts by Ovid , Dante , Boccaccio and others.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
319
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Editorial Materials”. Casa Guidi Windows, edited by Julia Markus, Browning Institute, 1977, p. Various pages.
78

By 1495: A syphilis epidemic began raging through...

Building item

By 1495

A syphilis epidemic began raging through Europe. (It was then known as the pox, from the noticeable symptoms of one stage in the disease's progress, and was not to be generally called syphilis...

1496: Mandeville's Travels was printed in English,...

Writing climate item

1496

Mandeville's Travels was printed in English, about a hundred and fifty years after its composition in French allegedly by Sir John Mandeville (whose actual, historical existence is highly unlikely).
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

24 April 1497: At a special meeting of Aberdeen town council...

Building item

24 April 1497

At a special meeting of Aberdeen town council on the subject of the syphilis epidemic expected to spread from France, it was resolved to crack down on the town's prostitutes.
Pennington, Hugh. “Too much fuss?”. London Review of Books, 5 Sept. 2003, pp. 30-2.
30

August 1497: Perkin Warbeck, allegedly younger brother...

National or international item

August 1497

Perkin Warbeck , allegedly younger brother of Edward V but probably an impostor, was taken into custody by Henry VII ; he was executed two years later.
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
232

: One of the best-known poems of John Skelton,...

Writing climate item

Autumn 1498

One of the best-known poems of John Skelton , The Bowge of Courte, probably dates from this season. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde the following year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cooper, Helen. “Skeltonics”. London Review of Books, 14 Dec. 2006, pp. 32-4.
32, 33

1500: British female literacy rates at this time...

Writing climate item

1500

British female literacy rates at this time have been estimated as 1%, against a male rate of 10%.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
167

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: 1501

Writing climate item
Author event in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

1501

Tenth-century Hrotsvit of Gandersheim 's Opera Hrosvite (both poems and plays) were first printed, following their rediscovery by Conrad Celtes or Celtis , with a frontispiece and six further full-page wood-cuts, at least some by Albrecht Dürer .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Gasquet, Francis Aidan et al. “Introduction”. The Plays of Roswitha, translated by. Christopher St John, Benjamin Blom, 1966, p. vii - xiii.
x-xi