1539 in literature

• April – Printing of the Great Bible (The Byble in Englyshe) is completed; it is distributed to churches in England.{{cite book |last1=Palmer |first1=Alan |last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica |year=1992 |title=The Chronology of British History |publisher=Century Ltd |location=London |pages=145–148 |isbn=0-7126-5616-2}} Prepared by Myles Coverdale, it contains much material from the Tyndale Bible – unacknowledged as the Tyndale version is officially deemed heretical.
• Unknown dates
• Game Place House in Great Yarmouth becomes the first place in England to be used regularly as a public theatre.{{cite book |first=Patrick |last=Robertson |title=The Shell Book of Firsts |location=London |publisher=Ebury Press |year=1974 |isbn=0-7181-1279-2 |page=189}}
• Marie Dentière writes an open letter to Marguerite of Navarre, sister of King Francis I of France. This Epistre tres utile (very useful letter) calls for an expulsion of Catholic clergy from France.
• The first printing press in North America is set up in Mexico City. The first known book from it, Manual de Adultos, appears in 1540.{{cite web |title=The Press in Colonial America |work=A Publisher's History of American Magazines — Background and Beginnings |url=http://www.themagazinist.com/uploads/Part_4_Colonial_Printers_and_Papers.pdf |accessdate=2013-08-22 |archive-date=2016-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627035434/http://themagazinist.com/uploads/Part_4_Colonial_Printers_and_Papers.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• Teseo Ambrogio's Introductio in Chaldaicam lingua, Syriaca atq Armenica, & dece alias linguas, published in Pavia, introduces several Middle Eastern languages to Western Europe for the first time.

• Robert Estienne – Alphabetum Hebraicum
• Martin Luther – On the Councils and the Church

{{Main|1539 in poetry}}

• February 27 – Franciscus Raphelengius, Flemish-born Dutch scholar, printer and bookseller (died 1597){{in lang|nl}} [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa002186601_01/_jaa002186601_01_0012.htm Some biographical information]
• March 5 – Christoph Pezel, German theologian (died 1604)
• April 12 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish Peruvian mestizo chronicler (died 1616)
• December 5 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (died 1604)
• December 20 – Paulus Melissus, German writer in Latin, translator and composer (died 1602)
• Unknown dates
• Olivier de Serres, French writer on agriculture and horticulture (died 1619)
• Jean de Tournes, French author, printer and bookseller (died 1615)
• Richard White of Basingstoke, English jurist and historian (died 1611)

• March 5 – Kaspar Ursinus Velius, German scholar, poet and historian (born c. 1493)
• May 7 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (born 1466)
• July 5 – Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian religious writer, leader of the Counter-reformation and saint (born 1502){{cite web |url=http://www.barnabites.com/stanthonyzaccaria |title=St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria |publisher=Barnabites |location=Bethlehem, PA |accessdate=2019-06-24 |archive-date=2019-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610061125/http://www.barnabites.com/stanthonyzaccaria |url-status=dead }}
• July 12 – Ferdinand Columbus, Spanish bibliographer and cosmographer (born 1488)
• August 10 – Lanspergius, German Carthusian monk and ascetic writer (born 1489)
• November 25 – Johann Alexander Brassicanus, German author and teacher (born c. 1500)
• Unknown date – Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, Spanish author of an agricultural treatise (born 1470)

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