1561 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1561.

Events

• August 21 – Completion of the Peresopnytsia Gospels.
• September – Serbian Orthodox hieromonks Jovan Maleševac and Matija Popović begin a collaboration with Protestant reformer Primož Trubar to print the New Testament and other religious books in Cyrillic at Urach in Germany.
• First publication (anonymously in London) of William Baldwin's Beware the Cat (written 1553), an early example of extended fiction (and specifically of horror fiction) in English. This edition appears to have been suppressed and no copies survive.
• The Tian Yi Ge library in Ningbo is established by Fan Qin in Ming dynasty China.

New books

Prose

• Gabriele Fallopius – Observationes anatomicae
• Sir Thomas Hoby – The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano) (translation)
• Julius Caesar Scaliger – Poetices
• John Calvin – Institution of the Christian Religion (English translation by Thomas Norton)

Drama

• Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville – Gorboduc

Poetry

• See 1561 in poetry

Births

• January 22 – Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, scientist and statesman (died 1626)
• June – Samuel Harsnett, English religious writer and archbishop (died 1631)
• July 11 – Luís de Góngora y Argote, Spanish poet (died 1627)
• August 14 – Sir Christopher Heydon, English writer on astrology (died 1623)
• October 27 – Mary Sidney, English poet and translator (died 1621)
• Unknown dates
  • Gaspar Aguilar, Spanish poet and dramatist (died 1623)
  • Bernardo de Balbuena, Spanish-born Latin American poet (died 1627)
  • John Harington, English writer (died 1623)

Deaths

• February 26 – Jorge de Montemayor, Portuguese novelist and poet (born c. 1520)
• March 19 – Lady Jane Seymour, English writer (born c. 1541)
• March 25 – Conrad Lycosthenes, Alsatian humanist and encyclopedist (born 1518)
• July 5 – Ambrosius Pelargus, German theologian (born c. 1493)
• October 21 – Johannes Vasaeus, Flemish teacher and historian (born 1511)
• October 28 – Jakob Beurlin, German Lutheran theologian (born 1520)
• December 10 – Caspar Schwenckfeld, German theologian and preacher (born c. 1490)
• Unknown dates
  • Marie Dentière, Genevan theologian (born 1495)
  • Claude Garamond, French publisher (born 1480)