1502 in literature

• June – England's Poet Laureate John Skelton is believed to have been tried, in a case brought by the London Prior of St Bartholomew's, and subsequently imprisoned, possibly at the instigation of Cardinal Wolsey.{{Cite book |author=William Nelson |title=John Skelton, laureate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNsmAQAAMAAJ |date=1 January 1964 |publisher=Russell & Russell |page=77}}
• unknown dates
• Aldine Press editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, Herodotus' Histories (in Greek and Italian parallel text) and Sophocles are published in Venice.
• The English poet Stephen Hawes is appointed Groom of the Chamber to King Henry VII of England.{{cite book|author1=Arthur F. Kinney|author2=David W. Swain|author3=Eugene D. Hill|author4=William A. Long|title=Tudor England: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA332|date=17 November 2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-74530-0|pages=332}}

• Niccolò Machiavelli – Discourse about the Provision of Money (Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro){{cite book|author=Niccolò Machiavelli|title=Delphi Collected Works of Niccolò Machiavelli (Illustrated)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IGL1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT303|date=22 January 2017|publisher=Delphi Classics|isbn=978-1-78656-065-0|pages=303}}
• Shin Maha Thilawuntha – Yazawin Kyaw{{cite book|author=Patrick Arthur Pranke|title=The "Treatise on the Lineage of Elders" (Vaṃsadīpanī): Monastic Reform and the Writing of Buddhist History in Eighteenth-century Burma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Og0eAQAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=University of Michigan|isbn=978-0-496-69378-8|page=203}}

• Gil Vicente – Monólogo do Vaqueiro ("Monologue of the Cowboy"){{cite book|author=Constantin C. Stathatos|title=A Gil Vicente Bibliography (2005–2015)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hu9oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|date=1 September 2018|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-61146-277-7|pages=1}}

{{main|1502 in poetry}}

• Pietro Bembo – Terzerime (published by Aldus Manutius)
• Conradus Celtis – Amores
• Baptista Mantuanus – Sylvae
• Jacopo Sannazaro – Arcadia (pirated edition)

• Guillaume Bigot, French writer, doctor, humanist and poet in French and Latin (died 1550)
• probable – Benedetto Varchi, Florentine humanist, historian and poet in Latin (died 1565){{cite book|author=Philip Ward|title=The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FYYYAAAAIAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-866114-6|page=572}}

• February – Olivier de la Marche, French poet and chronicler (born 1426)
• March 14 – Felix Fabri (Felix Faber), Swiss Dominican theologian and travel writer (born c. 1441){{Cite book |author1=David Thomas |author2=John A. Chesworth |title=Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History: Volume 6. Western Europe (1500-1600) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-3iBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA605 |date=17 December 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-28111-0 |pages=605}}
• unknown dates
• Jalaladdin Davani, Iranian philosopher, theologian, jurist and poet (born 1426)
• Henry Medwall, English dramatist (born c. 1462){{Cite book |author=Ian Ousby |title=The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43oBE1nJXaMC&pg=PA255 |date=23 February 1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43627-4 |pages=255}}
• Octavien de Saint-Gelais, French churchman, poet and translator (born 1468){{Cite book |author=Thomas Adolphus Trollope |title=A Summer in Western France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCzORbltoFsC&pg=PA291 |year=1841 |publisher=Henry Colburn, Publisher |pages=291}}
• Sōgi (宗祇), Japanese Zen monk and renga poet (born 1421){{cite book|author=Paul S. Atkins|title=Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFkEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA188|date=28 February 2017|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-5870-4|pages=188}}
• probable
• Gwerful Mechain, Welsh erotic poet (born c. 1460){{Cite book |author=John T. Koch |title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cHdQC1cXLEC&pg=PA400 |year=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-964-6 |pages=400}}
• Bonino Mombrizio, Milanese lawyer, bureaucrat, philologist, humanist, editor of ancient writings and poet in Latin (born 1424)

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}