Basque literature
Although the first instances of coherent Basque phrases and sentences go as far back as the San Millán glosses of around 950, the large-scale damage done by periods of great instability and warfare, such as the clan wars of the Middle Ages, the Carlist Wars and the Spanish Civil War, led to the scarcity of written material predating the 16th century. The earliest surviving traces of Basque literary activity go back to the 16th century, but significant production does not seem to have set in until the 17th century.