14th century in literature
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in the 14th century.
See also: 14th century in poetry, 13th century in literature, 15th century in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
- 1323 – The name Pléiade is adopted by a group of fourteen poets in Toulouse.
- 1324: 3 May – The Consistori del Gay Saber, founded the previous year in Toulouse to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the Old Occitan troubadors, holds its first contest. Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari wins the violeta d'or for a sirventes in praise of the Virgin Mary. At about this date, Raimon de Cornet writes Doctrinal de trobar in support of the aims of the Gay Saber.
- 1327
- *Between 20 January and 21 September – The deposed King Edward II of England perhaps writes the "Lament of Edward II".
- *6 April – Tuscan writer Petrarch sees a woman he names Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon, which awakes in him a lasting passion. He writes a series of sonnets and other poems in Italian dedicated to her up to about 1368, which are collected into Il Canzoniere, an influential model for Renaissance culture.
- *27 August – Death of Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester in England. His books are bequeathed to the University of Oxford where they are installed in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, forming the university's first library.
- 1329: February – French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut is brought to the Siege of Medvėgalis by John of Bohemia so the king's crusading deeds can be commemorated in song and poetry.
- c. 1330 – Production of the Macclesfield Psalter in East Anglia.
- 1331 – Production of the Nuremberg Mahzor.
- 1341: 8 April – Petrarch becomes poet laureate at a ceremony in Rome.
- 1357 – The Polychronicon concludes, Ranulf Higden having ceased work on it at least a dozen years earlier.
- 1360 – The future English writer Geoffrey Chaucer is captured by the French during the Reims campaign of the Hundred Years' War and ransomed by King Edward III of England.
- 1362: September – Petrarch's library is donated to the Republic of Venice, although subsequently dispersed.
- 1368
- *The new Hongwu Emperor in China halts government taxation on books.
- *The Bibliothèque nationale de France is founded as the Royal Library at the Louvre Palace in Paris by Charles V of France.
- 1370–1398 – Approximate date of production of the earliest part of the Sankt Florian Psalter, one of the earliest surviving texts to use the Polish language.
- 1372 – Old Permic alphabet introduced by Stephen of Perm.
- 1374 – Ludolph of Saxony completes his Vita Christi, which appears first in book form in 1474 and becomes an influence on St Ignatius Loyola in the early 16th century.
- 1377 – Production of the earliest known copy of the Laurentian Codex.
- 1382 – Earliest recorded appearance of Wycliffe's Bible.
- 1384 – Henry of Langenstein writes his letter, De scismate, to Echard von Dersch, Bishop of Worms.
- 1386: October – Geoffrey Chaucer is obliged to give up most of his official offices in London and retires to Kent where he may work on The Canterbury Tales.
- 1388 – Revision of Wycliffe's Bible is completed by John Purvey, and Wyclif's followers, known as Lollards, begin to be persecuted in England.
- 1390–1 – Production of the Book of Ballymote in Ireland.
- 1390s – Production of the Yellow Book of Lecan in Ireland.
- 1397 – Production of the Kiev Psalter in Kiev Rus.
- 1398 – The early 13th century carved wooden text of the Tripitaka Koreana is moved to the Haeinsa Buddhist temple in modern-day South Korea, where it will remain into the 21st century.
- Undated
- *The prose original of the Amadis de Gaula is produced, perhaps by the knight Vasco de Lobeira or the troubador João de Lobeira.
- *Madhava Kandali produces the Saptakanda Ramayana, one of the earliest written examples of the Assamese language and the first translation from Sanskrit into one of the modern regional Indo-Aryan languages.
New works
- c. 1300
- *Anonymous – Gesta Romanorum
- *Taliesin – Book of Taliesin, Middle Welsh. Taliesin is a Brythonic bard of Sub-Roman Britain believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Celtic British kings.
- *Marguerite Porete – The Mirror of Simple Souls
- *Rustichello da Pisa – The Travels of Marco Polo
- c. 1300–10
- *Gona Budda Reddy – Ranganatha ramayan
- Early to mid-14th century
- *Shihāb al-Dīn Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayri – The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition
- *Anonymous Middle English writer from southern England
- **King Alisaunder
- **Of Arthour and of Merlin
- **Richard Coer de Lyon
- **The Seven Sages of Rome
- *Pseudo-Bonaventure – Meditations on the Life of Christ
- *Der Busant
- *Long Life of Saint Gerard
- 1307
- *John of Gaddesden – Rosa Medicinæ
- c. 1308–21
- *Dante Alighieri – Divine Comedy
- c. 1309–24
- *Speculum Humanae Salvationis
- *The Book of Dede Korkut
- 1310
- *Amir Khusrow – Khazain-ul-Futuh
- 1310–1320
- *Queen Mary Psalter
- 1312
- *Jacques de Longuyon – Les Voeux du paon
- 1315–16
- *Amir Khusrow – Duval Rani–Khizr Khan
- 1316–18
- *Amir Khusrow – Noh-Sepehr
- 1318
- *Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari – Guilhem de la Barra
- c. 1320–35
- *Erikskrönikan
- c. 1320–30
- *Jacob of Liège – Speculum musicae
- 1320
- *Dante Alighieri – Quaestio de Aqua et Terra
- *Amir Khusrow – Tughluq Nama
- 1320–23
- *William of Pagula – Oculus Sacerdotis
- c. 1321
- *Liber Legum Regum Antiquorum
- c. 1321–23
- *Sānguózhì Pínghuà
- c. 1329–32
- *Yoshida Kenkō – Tsurezuregusa
- 1330
- *Robert of Basevorn – The Form of Preaching
- *'Michael' – Kildare Poems
- c. 1330–40
- *Perceforest
- 1330–43
- *Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita – The Book of Good Love
- ca. 1330–1400
- *Luo Guanzhong – Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- 1335
- *Matthew Blastares – Syntagma Canonum
- *Lê Tắc – An Nam chí lược
- *Don Juan Manuel – Tales of Count Lucanor
- 1335–40
- *Giovanni Boccaccio – Il Filostrato
- 1338–14
- *Petrarch – Africa
- 1340
- *Michael of Northgate – Ayenbite of Inwyt
- c. 1340
- * Anonymous - The Ointment Seller
- c. 1340–41
- *Giovanni Boccaccio – Teseida
- c. 1340–1349
- *Dafydd ap Gwilym – The Girls of Llanbadarn and The Seagull
- 1345
- *Richard de Bury – The Philobiblon
- 1346
- *Toqto'a – History of Song
- c. 1350
- *Baudouin de Sebourc
- *Prick of Conscience
- *White Book of Rhydderch
- *The Tale of Gamelyn
- c. 1352
- *Bahubali Pandita of Sringeri – Dharmanathapuranam
- *Wynnere and Wastoure
- 1353
- *Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron
- c. 1355
- *Giovanni Boccaccio – Corbaccio
- c. 1360–84
- *John of Fordun – Chronica Gentis Scotorum
- 1365
- *Mpu Prapanca – Nagarakretagama
- c. 1367
- *William Langland – Piers Plowman
- 1369
- *Geoffrey Chaucer – The Book of the Duchess
- 1370
- *Bureau of History of the Ming dynasty, under direction of Song Lian – History of Yuan
- 1371
- *The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- *Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry – The Book of the Knight of the Tower
- *Kakuichi – The Tale of the Heike
- *Ibn Marzuq – The Correct and Fine Traditions About the Glorious Deeds of our Master Abu 'l-Hasan
- c. 1374
- *Beatrijs
- 1375
- *John Barbour – The Brus
- 1376
- *John Wycliffe – De civili dominio
- 1377
- *Ibn Khaldun – Muqaddimah
- 1378
- *Qu You – Jiandeng Xinhua
- 1381
- *Amarkosh
- 1382
- *Jacobus de Teramo – Consolatio peccatorum, seu Processus Luciferi contra Jesum Christum
- *Red Book of Hergest
- c. 1383
- *Sofonii of Razan – Zadonshchina
- 1384
- *Terç del Crestià, volume 3 of Lo Crestià
- Late 1380s
- *Walter Hilton – The Scale of Perfection
- 1387
- *John Trevisa – translation of Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon, including "Dialogue on Translation Between a Lord and a Clerk"
- 1389
- *Gopalraj Vamshavali
- c. 1390
- *Anonymous – The Forme of Cury
- 1390
- *John Gower – Confessio Amantis
- 1390s
- *Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales
- 1395
- *Lady Julian of Norwich – Revelations of Divine Love, first published book in English language to be written by a woman.
- *Mangaraja II – Mangaraja Nighantu
- *'Pearl Poet'
- **Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- **Pearl
- **Cleanness
- **Patience
- *Sayana – commentary on the Vedas.
- *Ipomadon
- *South English Legendary
- *Völsunga saga
- *Water Margin
- c. 1399
- *Christine de Pizan
- **Cent Ballades d'Amant et de Dame, Virelyas, Rondeaux
- **L'Épistre au Dieu d'amours
- **L'Épistre de Othéa a Hector
- Unknown
- *Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana
- *Epic of Sundiata
- *Grettis saga
- *Kavi Malla – Manmathavijaya
- *Peterborough Psalter
Drama
- Li Qianfu – Circle of Chalk
- c. 1350 – Misteri d'Elx
- Late 14th century – Ordinalia
Births
- 1303 – Bridget of Sweden, Swedish mystic, writer and saint
- 1304 – Petrarch Tuscan poet
- 1313 – Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer
- c. 1315 or 1317 – Hafez, Persian poet
- 1320 – Lalleshwari, Kashmiri Hindu poet
- 1332: May 27 – Ibn Khaldun, North African historiographer and philosopher
- c. 1332 – Catherine of Vadstena, Swedish mystic, writer and saint
- 1333 – Kan'ami, Japanese Noh actor
- c. 1340–45 – Walter Hilton, English mystic writing in Latin and English
- c. November 1342 – Julian of Norwich, English religious writer and mystic
- 1343 – Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet
- 1347 – Catherine of Siena, Italian theologian and saint
- 1348 – Jan of Jenštejn, Archbishop of Prague, writer, composer and poet
- c. 1363 – Zeami Motokiyo, Japanese Noh actor and playwright
- 1364 – Christine de Pizan, Venetian-born Middle French court poet and writer
- c. 1368 – Thomas Hoccleve, English poet and clerk
- c. 1373 – Margery Kempe, English mystic and autobiographer
- 1378 – Zhu Quan, Prince of Ning, Chinese military commander, feudal lord, historian and playwright
- 1384 – Enrique de Villena, Spanish writer, theologian and poet
- 1393 – John Capgrave, English historian and scholastic theologian
- 1398 – Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, Castilian politician and poet
Deaths
- After 1306 – Adam de la Halle, French trouvère poet
- 1308 – Duns Scotus, Scottish philosopher and theologian
- 1309 – Angela of Foligno, Italian mystic and saint
- 1310: 1 June – Marguerite Porete, French mystic
- 1315: 10 March – Agnes Blannbekin, Austrian Beguine and Christian mystic
- c. 1315 – Ramon Llull, Majorcan polymath and novelist in Catalan
- 1321: 14 September – Dante Alighieri, Italian poet
- 1325:
- *7 January – King Denis of Portugal, poet
- *October – Amir Khusrow, Sufi poet
- 1345: April 14 – Richard de Bury, English bishop and bibliophile
- 1349: September – Richard Rolle, English hermit, mystic and religious writer
- c. 1350 – Yoshida Kenkō, Japanese author and Buddhist monk
- 1364: 12 March – Ranulf Higden, English chronicler
- 1373: 23 July – Bridget of Sweden, Swedish mystic, writer and saint
- 1374: 19 July – Petrarch, Italian poet
- 1375: 21 December – Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian poet
- 1377: April – Guillaume de Machaut, French poet and composer
- 1380:
- *29 April – Catherine of Siena, Italian theologian and saint
- *2 December – John of Ruysbroeck, Flemish mystic
- 1381: 24 March – Catherine of Vadstena, Swedish mystic, writer and saint
- 1384:
- * 8 June – Kan'ami, Japanese Noh playwright and actor ;
- * December – John Wycliffe, philosopher, translator and theologian ;
- * Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, Persian Sūfī, poet scholar.
- 1392 – Lalleshwari, Kashmiri Shaivite poet and mystic
- 1395: 13 March – John Barbour, Scottish poet
- 1396: 24 March – Walter Hilton, English Augustinian mystic writing in Latin and English
- 1400: 15 December – Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet
In literature
- Arthur Conan Doyle's novel Sir Nigel is set in 1350–56; The White Company in 1366–67.
- Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose is set in 1327.
- Walter Scott's novel Castle Dangerous is set around 1306; The Fair Maid of Perth around 1396.