1521 in literature

• January 3 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther, by the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.{{cite book|author=Michael M. Tavuzzi|title=Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini Da Prierio, 1456-1527|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V58f64kc4EQC&pg=PA80|year=1997|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-1976-4|pages=80}}
• January 14 – Martin Luther writes to Johann von Staupitz, saying that he has burned the papal bull.{{cite book|author=Frederick Kiefer|title=Writing on the Renaissance Stage: Written Words, Printed Pages, Metaphoric Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekDP160ZKIC&pg=PA53|year=1996|publisher=University of Delaware Press|isbn=978-0-87413-595-4|pages=53}}
• February 9 – Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga arrives in Rome to campaign against Erasmus; later in the year he publishes an account of his journey from Spain.{{cite book|author=Desiderius Erasmus|title=The Correspondence of Erasmus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8I2apo6rB0C&pg=PA454|year=1988|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-2607-1|pages=454}}
• June (probably 29 or 30) – Neacșu's letter, the oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language (in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet), is approximately dated to this month.
• August 13 – Marko Marulić's poem Judita (Judith, written 1501), a landmark in Croatian literature, is printed in Venice by Guglielmo da Fontaneto.

Image:Judita-str1.gif's Judita]]

• unknown date – John Siberch is active in Cambridge, the city's earliest known printer.{{cite book|author1=George Watson|author2=J. D. Pickles|author3=Ian R. Willison|title=The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 1, 600-1660|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GwFJe0eFWMQC&pg=PA965|date=29 August 1974|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20004-2|pages=965}}

• Codex Ňuu Tnoo - Ndisi Nuu
• Jacopo Berengario da Carpi – Commentaria cum amplissimus additionibus super anatomiam Mundini (published in Bologna), containing the first printed anatomical illustrations taken from nature
• Goražde Psalter
• Henry VIII of England – Defence of the Seven Sacraments (Assertio Septem Sacramentorum)
• Niccolò Machiavelli – The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra)
• Piri Reis – Kitab-ı Bahriye

{{main|1521 in poetry}}

• Alexander Barclay – The Boke of Codrus and Mynalcas, the author's "Fourth Eclog"{{Cite book |editor=Cox, Michael |title=The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-860634-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordchr00coxm}}
• Henry Bradshaw – The Life of St. Werburgh
• Andrew Chertsey, The Passyon of Oure Lorde, translated from French with additional verses inserted and introductory poem by Robert Copland (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)
• Christmas Carols, including "A caroll of huntynge" and "A carol bringyng in the bores heed"
• Robert Copland – Introductory verse to The Myrrour & the Chyrche (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde){{Cite web |url=http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ats/engpo5-toc.html |work=Academic Text Service (ATS) |title=Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database – Tudor Poetry, 1500-1603 |publisher=Stanford University Library |accessdate=2009-09-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608071217/http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ats/engpo5-toc.html |archivedate=2011-06-08 |url-status=dead}}

Approximate year

• {{sic|hide=y|A boke of a Ghoostly fader}} (A Book of a Ghostly Father, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)
• John Skelton, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng"Reprinted in Skelton's Certain Books (1545).

• May 8 – Peter Canisius, German theologian (died 1597){{cite book|author=Francis Sales Betten|title=From Many Centuries: A Collection of Historical Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juSxAAAAIAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Books for Libraries Press|page=121}}
• unknown dates
• Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder, English statesman and poet (died 1565)
• Xu Wei (徐渭), Chinese painter, poet and dramatist (died 1593)
• probable
• Anne Askew, English poet and Protestant martyr (burned at the stake 1546)
• Jorge de Montemor, Portuguese novelist and poet writing in Spanish (died 1561)
• Pontus de Tyard, French poet and priest, a member of La Pléiade (died 1605){{cite book|author=Marie Boas Hall|title=The Scientific Renaissance 1450-1630|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IaS8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT105|date=2 April 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-14499-3|pages=105}}

• May 10 – Sebastian Brant, German satirical poet and humanist (born c. 1457)
• unknown date– Jean Bourdichon, French illuminator of manuscripts (born 1457/9)

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}