1540 in literature

Template:Short description Template:Year nav topic5 Template:Use British English This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1540.

Events

• July 22 – Klemens Janicki is appointed poeta laureatus by Pope Paul III.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• December 13 – John Standish's religious work Template:Proper name is printed by Elisabeth Pickering, the first work known to be printed in London by a woman.<ref name=Pickering>Template:Cite book</ref>
• unknown dates
  • The first known book from the first printing press in North America, set up in Mexico City, is published, Manual de Adultos.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Sir David Lyndsay's Middle Scots satirical morality play A Satire of the Three Estates is given a private first performance.
  • Lazare de Baif travels with Pierre de Ronsard to Alsace, where they meet northern humanists.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

New books

Prose

Template:Proper name

• Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo – Template:Lang Book 1 (translated into French by Nicolas de Herberay des Essarts at request of Francis I of France)
• Hector Boece – Historia Scotorum (translated into Middle Scots by John Bellenden at request of James V of Scotland)
• Rösslin – The Byrth of Mankynde (Template:Lang, translation attributed to Richard Jonas) <ref>First printed book in English on obstetrics and first book published in England with engraved plates. Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Georg Joachim Rheticus – De libris revolutionum Copernici narratio prima (abstract of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium)

Poetry

• Tontada Siddhesavara – Shatsthala Jnanamrita<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Souterliedekens (Dutch metrical psalter dedicated to and perhaps compiled by Willem van Zuylen van Nijevelt)

Approximate year

• Sir Thomas More – Lady Fortune<ref name=cocel>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Girolamo Schola – Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Births

• January 26 – Florent Chrestien, French satirist and Latin poet (died 1596)
• June 11 – Barnabe Googe, English pastoral poet and translator (died 1594)
• unknown dates
  • Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, French soldier, historian and poet (died 1614)
  • Rhys Cain, Welsh-language poet (died 1614)
  • Frei Agostinho da Cruz (brother of Diogo Bernardes), Portuguese poet (died 1619)<ref name=npepap>Template:Cite book</ref>

Deaths

• May 6 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish humanist polymath (born 1493){{#if: |

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• May 22 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and statesman (born 1483)
• October 5 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German Latin poet (born 1488)
• October – Robert Redman, London printer<ref name=Pickering/>