1564 in literature

Events

• January – János Zsámboky completes the preface to his Emblemata.
• February 6 – John Calvin, in the throes of his final illness, preaches his last sermon.
• March 1 – Ivan Fyodorov with Pyotr Mstislavets prints the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, the first printed work in the Russian language that can be dated, at the Moscow Print Yard.
• unknown dates
• *A revised edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, authorised by the Council of Trent, is printed in Venice.
• *A chained library with access for the public is attached to the church of St. Walburgis in Zutphen, Netherlands. It will still be extant with its original fittings in the 21st century.

  New books

Prose

• John Dee – Monas Hieroglyphica
• Magdeburger Centurien , volumes VII and VIII
• Girolamo Maggi – Miscellanorum, seu Variarum Lectionum

  Drama

• Vishnu Varamballi – Virata Parva

  Poetry

• See 1564 in poetry

  Births

• February 26 – Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet
• March 9 – David Fabricius, German theologian
• March 20 – Thomas Morton, English polemicist and bishop
• April 26 – William Shakespeare, English dramatist and poet
• Unknown dates
• *Jean D'Espagnet, French lawyer, politician and author
• *Kryštof Harant, Czech nobleman, traveller, humanist, soldier, writer and composer
• *Henry Reynolds, English poet, schoolmaster and literary critic
• *Juan de Aguilar Villaquirán, Spanish writer and translator
• Probable birth year – Henry Chettle, English dramatist and pamphleteer

  Deaths

• March 5 – Friedrich Staphylus, German theologian
• April – Pierre Belon, French naturalist and travel writer
• April 1 – Christoph Froschauer, Swiss printer
• April 9 – Georg Hartmann, German humanist engineer, author and printer
• May 27 – John Calvin, French-born theologian
• August 11 – Edward Ferrers, credited as an English dramatist
• September 26 – Theodor Bibliander, German theologian and publisher