This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1576.

• December – James Burbage opens The Theatre, the second permanent public playhouse in London (and the first to have a substantial life – 22 years), ushering in the great age of Elizabethan drama.^[1]
• unknown dates
  • The composer Richard Farrant opens the first Blackfriars Theatre in London, presenting plays performed by the Children of the Chapel.^[2]
  • The composer Thomas Whythorne writes a Booke of songs and sonetts with longe discourses sett with them [sic], an early example of autobiographical writing in English.

• Jean Bodin – Les Six livres de la République (The Six Books of the Republic)
• Ulpian Fulwell – Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery (dialogues)
• Étienne de La Boétie (died 1563) – Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (Discours de la servitude volontaire, published as Le Contr'un)
• George Pettie – A Petite Palace of Pettie His Pleasure
• Peter Martyr Vermigli (died 1562; edited by Robert le Maçon) – Loci Communes
• George Whetstone – The Rocke of Regard

• Luigi Pasqualigo – Il Fedele
• George Wapull – The Tide Tarrieth No Man published^[3]

• See 1576 in poetry
• Tulsidas – Ramcharitmanas
• The Paradise of Dainty Devices, the most popular of the Elizabethan verse miscellanies

• January 12 – Petrus Scriverius, Dutch historian (died 1660)^[4]
• May 27 – Caspar Schoppe, German controversialist (died 1649)^[5]
• June 6 – Giovanni Diodati, Bible translator (died 1649)^[6]
• October – John Marston, English dramatist and poet (died 1634)^[7]
• October 30 – Enrico Caterino Davila, Italian historian (died 1631)^[8]
• unknown dates
  • William Ames, English philosopher (died 1633)^[9]
  • Johann Bogermann, Dutch translator (died 1637)
  • Samuel Collins, theologian (died 1651)
  • Charles Fitzgeoffrey, Elizabethan poet (died 1638)
  • Goldastus, Swiss Calvinist historian (died 1635)
  • John Weever, English poet and antiquary (died 1632)

• January 19 – Hans Sachs, German poet and dramatist (born 1494)^[10]
• February 10 – Wilhelm Xylander, German classical scholar (born 1532)^[11]
• March 18 – Johann Stössel, German Lutheran theologian (born 1524; died in prison)
• May 2 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish theologian (born 1503)
• June 30 – Franciscus Sonnius, Flemish theologian (born 1506)
• October 14 – Konrad Heresbach, Calvinist writer (born 1496)
• unknown dates
  • Basil Faber, German theologian (born 1520)
  • Aloysius Lilius, Italian philosopher (born c. 1510)^[12]
  • Lancelot Ridley, English theologian^[13]
  • Mavro Vetranović, Croatian Benedictine poet and author (born 1482)