1508 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1508.

Events

• April 4 – John Lydgate's poem The Complaint of the Black Knight becomes the first book printed in Scotland.
• The earliest known printed edition of the chivalric romance Amadis de Gaula, as edited and expanded by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, is published in Castilian at Zaragoza.
• Elia Levita completes writing the Bovo-Bukh in Yiddish.

New books

Prose

• Desiderius Erasmus – Adagiorum chiliades (2nd ed., Venice)
• Johannes Trithemius – De septem secundeis

Drama

• Ludovico Ariosto – La Cassaria
• The World and the Child (possible date)

Poetry

• William Dunbar
  • The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy, and Other Poems
  • The Goldyn Targe

Births

• April 3 – Jean Daurat, French poet and scholar, member of La Pléiade (died 1588)
• April 23 – Georg Sabinus, German poet, diplomat and academic (died 1560)
• June 13 – Alessandro Piccolomini, Italian humanist philosopher, translator and playwright (died 1579)
• December 21 – Thomas Naogeorgus, German Protestant reformer and Latin-language playwright (died 1563)
• Unknown dates
  • Marin Držić, Croatian dramatist, author and poet (died 1567)
  • Primož Trubar, Slovene Protestant reformer, pioneer of Slovenian written language (died 1586)

Deaths

• February 4 – Conrad Celtes, German and Latin-language poet (born 1459)
• May 13 – Martial d'Auvergne, French poet (born 1420)
• June 6 - Ercole Strozzi, Italian poet, murdered (born 1471)

References