1597

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1597 (MDXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Julian calendar, the 1597th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 597th year of the 2nd millennium, the 97th year of the 16th century, and the 8th year of the 1590s decade. As of the start of 1597, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–June

• January 24 – Battle of Turnhout: Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands.
• February 5 – In Nagasaki, Japan, 26 people are martyred. They practiced Catholicism and were taken captive after all forms of Christianity were outlawed the previous year.
• February 8 – Sir Anthony Shirley, England's "best-educated pirate", raids Jamaica.
• March 11 – Amiens is taken by Spanish forces, but retaken by France on September 25.
• March 18 – Tycho Brahe's stipend is stopped.
• March 29 – Tycho Brahe leaves Ven and moves to Copenhagen (Farvergården).
• April 4 – Christian Friis and Axel Brahe go to Ven to check complaints, and a commission is established to investigate Tycho Brahe's leadership.
• April 22 – The vicar on Ven is dismissed: he had followed Tycho's orders not to perform an exorcism.
• April 23 – Probable first performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.
• April 27 – Johannes Kepler marries Barbara Muhleck.
• June – Tycho Brahe is not allowed to make observations from The Watermill Tower, and he is not allowed to perform chemical experiments at his house in Farvergade.
• June 1 – Tycho writes a recommendation supporting Longomontanus, who is planning to study in Germany.
• June 2 – Tycho leaves Copenhagen and goes to Rostock.
• June 10 – Tycho is removed from his job working at Epiphany Chapel in Roskilde.
• June 16 – Tycho flees and becomes a servant of the king of Spain.

July–December

• July – The Isle of Dogs (a play now lost) is written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, and performed at the Swan Theatre.
• July 10 – Tycho Brahe's famous letter to the king Christian IV is sent from Rostock.
• July 14 – Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie is declared an outlaw after the collapse of a Catholic plot.
• August 13 – Beginning of the Siege of Namwon.
• August 17 – Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.
• August 24 – Christian IV of Denmark refuses to let Tycho Brahe return to Denmark.
• August 28 – Battle of Chilcheollyang: The Japanese fleet defeats the Koreans. It is the only Japanese naval victory in the Imjin War.
• September – Tycho Brahe leaves Rostock, where plague is spreading, and travels to Wandsbæk.
• October – John Gerard, a Jesuit priest, escapes from the Tower of London.
• October 20 – Tycho starts new observations in Wandsbæk, where he writes his famous elegy.
• October 26 – Battle of Myeongnyang: The Koreans, commanded by Yi Sunsin, are victorious over a Japanese invasion fleet.
• December 15 – Johannes Kepler writes a letter to Tycho about his book, Mysterium Cosmographicum.
• December 31 – Tycho writes his preface to the Emperor Rudolf II in his book, Mecanica.

Date unknown

• Jacopo Peri writes Dafne, now recognised as the first opera.
• Bali is discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman.
• Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.
• Yaqob succeeds his father Sarsa Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.
• The first edition of Francis Bacon's Essays is published.
• Andreas Libavius publishes Alchemia, a pioneering chemistry textbook.^[1]

Andreas Libavius's Alchemia, an early chemistry text, published 1597

• 12 million pesos of silver cross the Pacific. Although it is unknown just how much silver flowed from the Spanish base of Manila in the Philippines to the Ming Dynasty of China, it is known that the main port for the Mexican silver trade—Acapulco—shipped out 150,000 to 345,000 kg (4 to 9 million taels) of silver annually from this year to 1602.
• A Dutch Expedition commanded by Frederick de Houtman returns to Amsterdam after having successfully reached the Spice Islands. This achievement opens the Spice trade, which had until then been monopolised by the Portuguese, to the Dutch, who in the next years launch several more expeditions to the Indies.
• Tobias Hess corresponds with Simon Studion and agrees with him that the Papacy must fall in 1604.

• Serb Uprising of 1596–97

Births

January–March

• January 12 – François Duquesnoy, Flemish Baroque sculptor in Rome (d. 1643)
• January 25 – Johann Philipp, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, German Duke (d. 1639)
• January 31 – John Francis Regis, French priest of the Society of Jesus (d. 1640)
• February 24 – Vincent Voiture, French poet (d. 1648)
• March 1 – Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (d. 1652)
• March 10 – Ercole Gennari, Italian drawer and painter (d. 1658)
• March 18 – Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, French nobleman, founder of Montreal and an order of nursing Sisters (d. 1659)
• March 21 – Juan Alonso y Ocón, Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of La Plata o Charcas (d. 1656)
• March 27 – William Hyde, President of the English College, Douai (d. 1651)

April–June

• April 9 – John Davenport, English Puritan clergyman, co-founder of the American colony of New Haven (d. 1670)
• April 13 – Giovanni Battista Hodierna, Italian astronomer (d. 1660)
• April 23 – Alvise Contarini, Italian diplomat, nobleman (d. 1651)
• May 13 – Cornelis Schut, draughtsman, engraver, painter (d. 1655)
• May 15 – Squire Bence, English politician (d. 1648)
• May 25 – Veit Erbermann, German theologian (d. 1675)
• May 31 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (d. 1654)
• June 9 – Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, painter of the Dutch Golden Age (d. 1665)

July–September

• July 2 – Theodoor Rombouts, painter (d. 1637)
• July 13 – Sebastian Stoskopff, French painter (d. 1657)
• July 22 – Virgilio Mazzocchi, Italian Baroque composer (d. 1646)
• July 29 – Abdias Treu, German mathematician and academic (d. 1669)
• August 20
  • Girolamo Grimaldi-Cavalleroni, Catholic cardinal (d. 1685)
  • Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic, Polish poet (d. 1677)
• August 21 – Roger Twysden, English antiquarian and royalist (d. 1672)
• August 29 – Henry Gage, Royalist officer in the English Civil War (d. 1645)
• September 23 – Francesco Barberini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1679)
• September 28 – Justus Sustermans (d. 1681)

October–December

• October 7 – Captain John Underhill, early English settler and soldier in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1672)
• October 13 – Otto Louis of Salm-Kyrburg-Mörchingen, Swedish general in the Thirty Years' War (d. 1634)
• October 20 – Matthew Hutton, English politician (d. 1666)
• November 15 – Juan Tellez-Girón y Enriquez de Ribera, 4th Duke of Osuna (d. 1656)
• November 19 – Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, wife of George William (d. 1660)
• December 16
  • George Albert I, Count of Erbach-Schönberg (d. 1647)
  • Pieter de Neyn, Dutch painter (d. 1639)
• December 22 – Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1659)
• December 23
  • Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (d. 1639)
  • Martin Opitz, German poet (d. 1639)
• December 24 – Honoré II, Prince of Monaco (d. 1662)
• date unknown
  • Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña, Spanish missionary and explorer (d. 1676)
  • Johan van Heemskerk, Dutch poet (d. 1656)
  • Cornelis Jol, Dutch naval commander and privateer (d. 1641)
  • Wang Wei, Chinese poet (d. 1647)

Deaths

• January 19 – Pratap Singh, Maharana of Mewar, Indian statesman (b. 1540)
• January 29 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist (b. 1530)
• February 2 – James Burbage, English actor
• February 5 – Paul Miki, Japanese Catholic saint (b. 1564)
• February 6 – Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1529)
• June 6 – William Hunnis, English poet
• June 9 – José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1534)
• June 20 – Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer (b. c. 1550)
• July 8 – Luís Fróis, Portuguese missionary (b. 1532)
• October 4 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1550)
• October 9 – Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (b. 1537)
• November 1 – Edward Kelley, English spirit medium (b. 1555)
• December 21 – Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (b. 1521)

References