1528
Castiglione's Book of the Courtier Published
Baldassare Castiglione's dialogue on the perfect courtier, set at the court of Urbino twenty years earlier, appeared in print in Venice. It prescribed a graceful nonchalance called sprezzatura and was devoured by ambitious gentlemen from Lisbon to Cracow. The idea of the Renaissance gentleman was in their hands. The concept of sprezzatura became one of European culture's most influential ideas, shaping aristocratic behavior from England to Russia.
Cabeza de Vaca Shipwrecked in Texas
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and a few companions washed up on the Gulf coast of what is now Texas after a Spanish expedition to Florida collapsed in mutiny and hurricane. He would spend eight years walking across the Southwest and northern Mexico, living as a trader and healer among native peoples.
Babur Conquers Bengal
The Mughal emperor Babur, still consolidating his grip on Hindustan barely two years after Panipat, dispatched forces eastward into the humid river country of Bengal. The sultanate there crumbled with surprising speed. Babur's diary, the Baburnama, records his disgust with the climate and his wonder at the fertility of a land that could feed empires without trying.
Narvaez Expedition Lands in Florida
Panfilo de Narvaez landed in Tampa Bay with four hundred men and marched inland in search of gold. Starvation, hostile Apalachee, and hurricanes reduced them to eating their horses. Only four, including Cabeza de Vaca, would survive an eight-year walk back to Spanish Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca's subsequent eight-year odyssey produced one of the most extraordinary travel narratives in Western literature.