1509 in literature

Events

• unknown dates
• *Alexander Barclay's The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde and Henry Watson's The Shyppe of Fooles appear. Both are English verse translations ultimately deriving from Sebastian Brant's satire Das Narrenschiff.
• *Desiderius Erasmus writes The Praise of Folly while staying with Thomas More in England.
• *The early 14th-century verse romance Richard Coer de Lyon is first published, by Wynkyn de Worde in England.

  New books

Prose

• Desiderius Erasmus – Stultitiae Laus
• Fortunatus
• Francesco Guicciardini – Storie fiorentine
• Manjarasa – Samyukta Koumudi
• Luca Pacioli – De divina proportione

  Drama

• Ludovico Ariosto – I suppositi

  Poetry

• Stephen Hawes
• *
• *
• *

  Births

• April 25 – Thomas Vaux, English court poet
• July 10 – John Calvin, French Protestant religious leader and writer
• August 3 – Étienne Dolet, French humanist writer
• unknown dates
• *Kanaka Dasa, Indian Kannada poet, philosopher, musician and composer from Karnataka
• *William Turner, English ornithologist and cleric

  Deaths

• June 28 – John Filipec, Bohemian royal advisor and later monk, proprietor of a printing press
• unknown date
• *Aliénor de Poitiers, Burgundian courtier and writer
• *Juraj Šižgorić, Croatian poet writing in Latin