1547 in literature

Events

• July 20 – On the death of the Alsatian scholar Beatus Rhenanus, his personal collection of around 670 books is bequeathed to the Humanist Library of Sélestat, where it remains intact in the 21st century.
• unknown date – Japanese Buddhist poet and diplomat Sakugen Shūryō leads a mission sent by the Ashikaga shogunate to the court of the Jiajing Emperor in Beijing.

  New books

Prose

• Certain Sermons or Homilies Appointed to Be Read in Churches, book 1
• Andrés de Olmos – Arte para aprender la lengua mexicana
• Martynas Mažvydas – The Simple Words of Catechism
• Catherine Parr – The Lamentation of a Sinner
• William Salesbury – A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe
• "Lucas Shepeherd" – John Bon and Mast Parson
• Gian Giorgio Trissino – Italia liberata dai Goti

  Drama

• Lodovico Dolce – Didone

  Poetry

• See 1547 in poetry

  Births

• September – Mateo Alemán, Spanish novelist, poet and biographer
• September 22 – Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin, German philologist, poet, playwright and polymath
• September 29 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
• Unknown dates
• *Cristóbal Mosquera de Figueroa, Spanish poet
• *Conrad Vetter, German Jesuit preacher and polemical writer
• Probable year – Maciej Stryjkowski, Polish historian and poet

  Deaths

• January – Pietro Bembo, Italian scholar and poet
• January 19 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a founder of English Renaissance poetry
• February 25 – Vittoria Colonna, Italian noblewoman and poet
• March 16 – François Vatable, French humanist scholar
• October or November – John Redford, English composer, poet and playwright
• Unknown dates
• *Edward Hall, English historian, politician and lawyer
• *Valentin Ickelshamer, German grammarian
• *Johannes Mensing, German Dominican theologian