1544 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1544.

Events

• Summer – The engraver and publisher Cornelis Bos relocates from Antwerp to Paris, after becoming involved with an antisacerdotalist, free-thinking spiritualist sect. In his absence, he is declared to be exiled by the Council of Brabant.
• December 31 – Eleven-year-old Princess Elizabeth of England presents her stepmother, Catherine Parr, with a manuscript book entitled The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul.
• unknown dates
• The University of Paris prohibits the printing of any book not approved by the appropriate University officials.
• The first (partial) Latin translation of Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon, made by Annibal della Croce (Crucejus), is published in Lyon.

New books

Prose

• Cardinal John Fisher – Psalmi seu precationes (posthumous) in an anonymous English translation by its sponsor, Catherine Parr, queen of King Henry VIII of England
• John Leland – Assertio inclytissimi Arturii regis Britanniae
• Sebastian Münster – Cosmographia
• Guillaume Postel – De orbis terrae concordia
• Domingo de Vico – Los Proverbios de Salomón, las Epístolas y los Evangelios de todo el año, en lengua mexicana ("The Proverbs of Solomon, the Epistles and Gospels for the whole year, in the Mexican tongue"; later prohibited by the Spanish Inquisition)
• Sefer HaYashar, printed in Venice
• Michael Stifel – Arithmetica integra
• Tripartito del Christianissimo y consolatorio doctor Juan Gerson, the first Mexican book with woodcut illustrations, published by Juan Pablos.
• William Turner – Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia (Brief and Succinct Account of Chief Birds Mentioned by Pliny and Aristotle; first English book devoted wholly to birds)
• Vidus Vidius – Chirurgia

Poetry

• See also 1544 in poetry
• Clément Marot – Œuvres (definitive edition)

Births

• May 24 – William Gilbert, astronomer and natural philosopher (died 1603)

Deaths

• September 12 – Clément Marot, French poet (born 1496)
• December – Denis Janot, French printer
• Unknown dates
• Pedro Damiano, Portuguese chess player and writer (born 1480)
• Nilakantha Somayaji, Keralan mathematician and astronomer (born 1444)

References