1571 in literature

• October 7 – Naval Battle of Lepanto: Miguel de Cervantes's left arm is rendered useless; Venetian playwright Luigi Pasqualigo commands a galleon.
• unknown dates
• Michel de Montaigne retires from public life and isolates himself in the tower of the Château de Montaigne.
• First printing in the Irish language, Aibidil Gaoidheilge agus Caiticiosma, a primer printed by John Kearney in Dublin.{{cite book|editor1=Moody, T. W. |editor2=Martin, F. X. |year=1967|title=The Course of Irish History|publisher=Mercier Press|location=Cork|page=371}}
• Laurentian Library in Florence opens to scholars.{{cite book|author1=Diana Gisolfi|author2=Staale Sinding-Larsen|title=The Rule, the Bible, and the Council: The Library of the Benedictine Abbey at Praglia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZnpAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=College Art Association|isbn=978-0-295-97661-7|page=26}}
• Edict of Gaillon in France places enforcement of censorship laws with the state Chancellor's office instead of the University of Paris.{{cite book|last=Pottinger|first=David Thomas|title=The French Book Trade in the Ancien Régime, 1500–1791|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzQZAAAAIAAJ|year=1958|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=7385496598|page=59}}
• A tidal wave affects parts of Lincolnshire, England. It would be the subject of Jean Ingelow's narrative poem "The High-Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire" (c.1883).{{cite book|author=William White (of Sheffield.)|title=History, Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire, and the City and Diocese of Lincoln: Comprising a General Survey of the County : and Separate Historical, Statistical and Topographical Descriptions of All the Wapentakes, Hundreds, Sokes, Boroughs ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VplQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA21|year=1872|publisher=W. White|pages=21}}

• François de Belleforest – La Pyrénée (or La Pastorale amoureuse) (the first French "pastoral novel")
• Bishop John Jewel – Second Book of Homilies
• Alistair mac Riean -- "Ye Historie of Thomas Sincaet, a Pyrate."
• Alonso de Molina
• Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana
• Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana

• Richard Edwards – Damon and Pythias

• See 1571 in poetry

• May 4 – Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian (born 1511)
• May 29 – Joachim Mörlin, German Lutheran theologian (born 1514)
• July 17 – Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (born 1516)
• November 24 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech poet and translator (born 1523)
• December 28 – John Hales, English writer and administrator (born c. 1516)
• Unknown dates
• Lodovico Castelvetro, Italian literary critic (born c. 1505)
• Bartolomeo Maranta, Italian literary theorist (born 1500)
• Andrés de Olmos, Spanish grammarian (born c. 1485)

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{{Year in literature article categories}}