1554 in literature

Events

• January 25 – Missionary, writer and poet José de Anchieta is one of the founders of the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
• unknown date – Publication of Menno Simons' Uytgangh ofte bekeeringhe begins the Dutch Golden Age of literature.

  New books

Prose

• Matteo Bandello
• *Novelle
• *Prima Parte
• Edmund Bonner – Profitable and Necessary Doctryne
• Charles Estienne – Praedium Rusticum
• Johannes Magnus – Historia de omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus
• Tepetlaoztoc Codex
• Lazarillo de Tormes
• Adrianus Turnebus's edition of Corpus Hermeticum
• Approximate year:
• Título de Totonicapán

  Poetry

• Anacreontea

  Births

• October 20 – Bálint Balassi, Hungarian poet
• November 11 – Luis de la Puente, Spanish theologian
• November 30 – Sir Philip Sidney, English soldier and poet
• Unknown date – Anrakuan Sakuden, Japanese poet
• probable – Sir Walter Raleigh, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

  Deaths

• January 16 – Christiern Pedersen, Danish scholar, writer and printer
• April 23 – Gaspara Stampa, Italian poet
• June 24 – Feliciano de Silva, Spanish writer
• September 8 – Johann Wild, German Bible commentator