1540 in literature

Events

• July 22 – Klemens Janicki is appointed poeta laureatus by Pope Paul III.
• December 13 – John Standish's religious work ** is printed by Elisabeth Pickering, the first work known to be printed in London by a woman.
• unknown dates
  • The first known book from the first printing press in North America, set up in Mexico City, is published, Manual de Adultos.
  • 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.

New books

Prose

• Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo – Amadis de Gaula 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 (De partu hominis, translation attributed to Richard Jonas)
• Georg Joachim Rheticus – De libris revolutionum Copernici narratio prima (abstract of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium)

Poetry

Main article: 1540 in poetry

• Tontada Siddhesavara – Shatsthala Jnanamrita
• Souterliedekens (Dutch metrical psalter dedicated to and perhaps compiled by Willem van Zuylen van Nijevelt)

Approximate year

• Sir Thomas More – Lady Fortune
• Girolamo Schola – Capituli di M. Girolamo Schola sopra varii suggetti

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)

Deaths

• May 6 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish humanist polymath (born 1493)
• 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

References

References

1. John Flood. (8 September 2011). "Poets Laureate in the Holy Roman Empire: A Bio-bibliographical Handbook". Walter de Gruyter.
2. (3 November 2016). "A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650". Taylor & Francis.
3. "The Press in Colonial America". A Publisher’s History of American Magazines — Background and Beginnings.
4. (1974). "French Poetry of the Renaissance". Southern Illinois University Press.
5. Ballantyne, J. W.. (October 1906). "The ''Byrth of Mankynde'' (Its Author and Editions)". The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire.
6. Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. (2002). "A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar". Indian Branch, Oxford University Press.
7. (2004). "The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature". Oxford University Press.
8. "Poems on everyday things". [[Bodleian Library]].
9. Preminger, Alex. (1993). "The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics". MJF Books/Fine Communications.