1521 in literature

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 – Neacșu's letter, the oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language, is approximately dated to this month.
• August 13 – Marko Marulić's poem Judita, 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, containing the first printed anatomical illustrations taken from nature
• Goražde Psalter
• Henry VIII of England – Defence of the Seven Sacraments
• Niccolò Machiavelli – The Art of War
• 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
• Christmas Carols, including "A caroll of huntynge" and "A carol bringyng in the bores heed"
• Robert Copland – Introductory verse to The Myrrour & the Chyrche

• John Skelton, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng"

  Births

• May 8 – Peter Canisius, German theologian
• unknown dates
• *Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder, English statesman and poet
• *Xu Wei, Chinese painter, poet and dramatist
• probable
• *Anne Askew, English poet and Protestant martyr
• *Jorge de Montemor, Portuguese novelist and poet writing in Spanish
• *Pontus de Tyard, French poet and priest, a member of La Pléiade

  Deaths

• May 10 – Sebastian Brant, German satirical poet and humanist
• unknown date– Jean Bourdichon, French illuminator of manuscripts