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
• Hector Boece – Historia Scotorum
• Rösslin – The Byrth of Mankynde
• Georg Joachim Rheticus – De libris revolutionum Copernici narratio prima

  Poetry

• Tontada Siddhesavara – Shatsthala Jnanamrita
• Souterliedekens

• 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
• June 11 – Barnabe Googe, English pastoral poet and translator
• unknown dates
• *Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, French soldier, historian and poet
• *Rhys Cain, Welsh-language poet
• *Frei Agostinho da Cruz, Portuguese poet

  Deaths

• May 6 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish humanist polymath
• May 22 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and statesman
• October 5 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German Latin poet
• October – Robert Redman, London printer