1521 in literature
# 1521 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1521.

## Events

* January 3 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther, by the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
* January 14 – Martin Luther writes to Johann von Staupitz, saying that he has burned the papal bull.
* 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.
* 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.

## New books

### Prose

* 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

### Poetry

* Alexander Barclay – The Boke of Codrus and Mynalcas, the author's "Fourth Eclog"
* Henry Bradshaw – The Life of St. Werburgh
* 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)
* Christmas Carols, including "A caroll of huntynge" and "A carol bringyng in the bores heed"
* Robert Copland – Introductory verse to The Myrrour & the Chyrche (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)

Approximate year

* A boke of a Ghoostly fader (A Book of a Ghostly Father, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)
* John Skelton, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng"

## Births

* May 8 – Peter Canisius, German theologian (died 1597)
* 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)

## Deaths

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