1597

Decades: 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s - 1590s - 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s

Years: 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 - 1597 - 1598 1599 1600 1601 1602

• January 24 - Battle of Turnhout. Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands
• The first opera is considered to have been written.
• Bali discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman

• Pieter Saenredam, Dutch painter

• Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer.