1521 in literature

Template:Short description This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1521.Template:Year nav topic5

Events

January 3 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther, by the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 14 – Martin Luther writes to Johann von Staupitz, saying that he has burned the papal bull.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 9 – Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga arrives in Rome to campaign against Erasmus; later in the year he publishes an account of his journey from Spain.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
June (probably 29 or 30) – Neacșu's letter, the oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language (in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet), is approximately dated to this month.
August 13 – Marko Marulić's poem Judita (Judith, written 1501), a landmark in Croatian literature, is printed in Venice by Guglielmo da Fontaneto.

unknown date – John Siberch is active in Cambridge, the city's earliest known printer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Codex Ňuu Tnoo - Ndisi Nuu
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi – Commentaria cum amplissimus additionibus super anatomiam Mundini (published in Bologna), containing the first printed anatomical illustrations taken from nature
Goražde Psalter
Henry VIII of England – Defence of the Seven Sacraments (Assertio Septem Sacramentorum)
Niccolò Machiavelli – The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra)
Piri Reis – Kitab-ı Bahriye

Alexander Barclay – The Boke of Codrus and Mynalcas, the author's "Fourth Eclog"<ref name=cocel>Template:Cite book</ref>
Henry Bradshaw – The Life of St. Werburgh<ref name=cocel/>
Andrew Chertsey, The Passyon of Oure Lorde, translated from French with additional verses inserted and introductory poem by Robert Copland (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)<ref name=cocel/>
Christmas Carols, including "A caroll of huntynge" and "A carol bringyng in the bores heed"<ref name=cocel/>
Robert Copland – Introductory verse to The Myrrour & the Chyrche (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)<ref name="chedpd">Template:Cite web</ref>

Approximate year

Template:Sic (A Book of a Ghostly Father, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)<ref name=cocel/><ref name=chedpd/>
John Skelton, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng"<ref name=cocel/><ref>Reprinted in Skelton's Certain Books (1545).</ref>

May 8 – Peter Canisius, German theologian (died 1597)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
unknown dates
- Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder, English statesman and poet (died 1565)
- Xu Wei (徐渭), Chinese painter, poet and dramatist (died 1593)
probable
- Anne Askew, English poet and Protestant martyr (burned at the stake 1546)
- Jorge de Montemor, Portuguese novelist and poet writing in Spanish (died 1561)
- Pontus de Tyard, French poet and priest, a member of La Pléiade (died 1605)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

May 10 – Sebastian Brant, German satirical poet and humanist (born c. 1457)
unknown date– Jean Bourdichon, French illuminator of manuscripts (born 1457/9)