1559 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1559.

Events

• April – The Act of Uniformity sets the order of prayer in accordance with a new version of the Book of Common Prayer.
• Before August – Pope Paul IV promulgates the Pauline Index, an early version of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

New books

Prose

• Jacques Amyot (translator)
• Daphnis et Chloë, from Longus' Daphnis and Chloe
• Vies des hommes illustres, from Plutarch's Parallel Lives (begins)
• Joachim du Bellay – Discours au roi
• Realdo Colombo – De Re Anatomica
• Jorge de Montemayor – Diana
• Die Magdeburger Centurien (Magdeburg Centuries, first three volumes, publication continues up to 1574)

Drama

• Jasper Heywood – Translation of Seneca the Younger's Troas

Poetry

• See 1559 in poetry

Births

• February 18 – Isaac Casaubon, Genevan classicist and church historian (died 1614)
• October 12 – Jacques Sirmond, Jesuit scholar (died 1651)
• December – Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, dramatist and poet (died 1613)
• unknown dates
• Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Spanish historian (died 1623)
• Christopher Holywood, Jesuit writer (died 1626)
• John Penry, Protestant pamphleteer and martyr (died 1593)

Deaths

• January – Steven Mierdman, printer (born c. 1510)
• May 19 – Pierre Doré, theologian (born c. 1500)
• August 15 – Luigi Lippomano, hagiographer (born 1500)
• August 25 – Nicholas Tacitus Zegers, Bible exegete (born c. 1495)
• September 7 – Robert Estienne, printer (born 1503)
• Probable year of death – Sebastián Fox Morcillo, philosopher

References