1556 in literature

	… 1546; 1547; 1548; 1549; 1550; 1551; 1552; ; 1553; 1554; 1555; 1556; 1557; 1558; 1559; ; 1560; 1561; 1562; 1563; 1564; 1565; 1566 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1556.

Events

Unknown dates
- The first printing press in India is introduced by Jesuits at Saint Paul's College, Goa.^[1]
- The first written evidence of Yakshagana dance-drama is found on an inscription at the Lakshminarayana Temple, Hosaholalu in India.^[2]
- Augustus, Elector of Saxony, establishes a royal state library in Dresden, predecessor of the Saxon State and University Library Dresden.^[3]

March 7 – Guillaume du Vair, French lawyer and philosopher (died 1621)
April 27 – François Béroalde de Verville, French novelist and poet (died 1626)
July 25 (baptised) – George Peele, English dramatist and poet (died 1596)
August 10 – Philipp Nicolai, German poet and composer (died 1608)
November 15 – Jacques Davy Duperron, French poet, cardinal and politician (died 1618)
November 25 (baptised) – John Heminges, English actor and editor of the First Folio (died 1630)^[4]
Unknown date – John Paul Nazarius, Italian theologian (died 1645)

April 26 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and teacher (born 1490)
May 7 – Hieronymus Andreae, German printer and publisher (date of birth unknown)
July 31 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish theologian, founder of the Jesuits (born 1491)
October 21 – Pietro Aretino, Italian satirist (born 1492)^[5]
October 31 – Johannes Sleidanus, Luxembourgeois historian (born 1506)
November 14 – Giovanni della Casa, Florentine poet (born 1503)
December 23 – Nicholas Udall, English dramatist (born 1504)^[6]
Unknown dates
- Fuzûlî, Ottoman poet and philosopher (born c.1483)
- Oddur Gottskálksson, Icelandic translator (born 1514/1515)^[7]

^ Geoffrey C. Gunn (2003). First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500 to 1800. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-7425-2662-4.
^ Martha Bush Ashton, Bruce Christie (1977). Yakshagana, a Dance Drama of India. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. pp. 21–22. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
^ Sir Frederic George Kenyon (1930). Libraries & Museums. E. Benn. p. 27.
^ Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964, p 213
^ Edward Hutton (1923). Pietro Aretino: The Scourge of Princes. Houghton Mifflin. p. 229.
^ John A. Wagner; Susan Walters Schmid (2012). Encyclopedia of Tudor England. ABC-CLIO. p. 1120. ISBN 978-1-59884-298-2.
^ Daisy L. Neijmann A History of Icelandic Literature, p. 177.