Precious Bodily Fluids - Timeline
1516 Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando) published in Ferrara
1545 Beatriz Bernal's Cristalián de España published anonymously in Valladolid
1553 Death of Rabelais
1554 Matteo Bandello’s novella Giulietta e Romeo published in Lucca
1555 Peace of Augsburg protected Lutheran rights in Germany
1563 Death of Beatriz Bernal
1563 Plague outbreak in London
1565 Cinthio's novella Un Capitano Moro (basis for Shakespeare's Othello) published in Mondovi
1567 Mary Queen of Scot's (second) husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, is murdered in Edinburgh
1571 Cervantes fights in Battle of Lepanto
1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacres spread from Paris to other cities
1575-78 Plague affects all of Italy
1578 "Duel of the Mignons" between the factions of King Henri III and Henri, Duke of Guise
1580 Montaigne's first essays were published in Bordeaux
1580 Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata published in Ferrara; Montaigne visits him there
1581 Prince Vincenzo of Mantua marries the Princess of Parma, Margarita Farnese (annulled in 1583)
1582: Scotsman James Crichton is murdered in Mantua
1584 Cervantes marries Catalina de Salazar y Palacios
1584 Prince Vincenzo marries Eleonora di Francesco de' Medici, from Florence
1586 Plague arrives in Montaigne's area
1587 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire
1588 Pope Sixtus V bans women from speaking and singing in church; castrati begin to fill the gap
1588 Spanish Armada failure
1588 Murder of the Duc de Guise in Blois by the guardsmen of King Henri III
1589 Murder of King Henri III
1590 Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa arranges for the murder of his wife Donna Maria d’Avalos and her lover, the Duke of Andria, in Naples
1590 Monteverdi moves to Mantua
1592 Death of Montaigne at his family estate
1595 The most likely year Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet first performed in London - but set in Verona
1595 Death of Torquato Tasso in Rome
1592 Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy: or Hieronimo is Mad Again
1597 Death of Alfonso II d'Este - the end of the Ferrara dynasty
1598 Edict of Nantes granting religious freedom in France
1598-1602 Worst plague years in Spain
1599 Monteverdi marries Claudia Cattaneo
1601 Shakespeare's Hamlet performed in London but set in Denmark
1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth of England
1603-4 Worst plague years in London
1604 Shakespeare's Othello performed in London but set in Venice and Cyprus
1605 Cervantes' Don Quixote published in Madrid
1606 Shakespeare's King Lear performed in London
1607/8/10 Virginia colony/Quebec colony/Santa Fe colony
1607 Monteverdi's L'Orfee performed in Mantua; his wife dies later in the year
1613 Death of Carlo Gesualdo at his castle in Avellino
1614 Fake Don Quixote sequel by Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda of Tordesillas (pseudonym for an unknown writer) published in Tarragona
1615 Don Quixote sequel published in Madrid
1616 Deaths of Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Cervantes in Madrid
1628-31 Great plague of France and Milan
1643 Monteverdi dies in Venice
1653 Sir Thomas Urquhart publishes The Works of Rabelais (Books I and II) in London