1554 in science

Astronomy

• Flemish astronomer Johannes Stadius' first published work, Ephemerides novae at auctae, appears in Cologne

  Biology

• Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi creates a herbarium.
• Flemish herbalist Rembert Dodoens publishes his herbal Cruydt-Boeck in Antwerp.
• The guinea pig is first described in the West by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner.
• French physician Guillaume Rondelet begins publication of Libri de piscibus marinis in Lyon, a standard work on marine zoology.
• Hippolito Salviani begins publication of Aquatilium animalium historiae in Rome, a foundation of modern ichthyology.
• French anatomist Charles Estienne publishes a collection of tracts on agriculture, Praedium Rusticum.

  Exploration

• November – English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.
• French Franciscan voyager André Thévet publishes his account of an embassy to Constantinople in .

  Metallurgy

• Spanish merchant Bartolomé de Medina introduces the patio process, using mercury amalgamation to extract silver from ore, in Pachuca, New Spain.

  Physics

• Venetian mathematician Giambattista Benedetti publishes two editions of Demonstratio proportionum motuum localium, developing his new doctrine of the speed of bodies in free fall.

  Technology

• Completion of the Church of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, Rome, designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, the first church of the Italian Renaissance to have an elliptical dome.

  Births

• 22 March - Catherine de Parthenay, French noblewoman and mathematician
• November – Jakob Christmann, German orientalist and astronomer
• Probable date
• * James Lancaster, English navigator
• * Walter Ralegh, English explorer

  Deaths

• February 21 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist
• September 22 – Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, Spanish conquistador
• Tan Yunxian, Chinese physician
• unknown date – Sir Hugh Willoughby, English explorer