1472

Year 1472 (MCDLXXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

January–December

 * February 20 – Orkney and Shetland are returned by Norway to Scotland, as a result of a defaulted dowry payment.
 * March 4 – A mount of piety is established in Siena (Italy), origin of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest surviving retail bank.
 * April 11 – The first printed edition of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy is published in Foligno.
 * June
 * 20-year-old Leonardo da Vinci is admitted as a master in his own right to the artists' Guild of Saint Luke in Florence.
 * (approximate date) – Volterra, a town in Italy, is sacked by Florentine soldiers for challenging the power of Lorenzo de' Medici.
 * July 3 – The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, England, commonly known as York Minster, is declared complete and consecrated.
 * December 31 – The city council of Amsterdam prohibits snowball fights: "Neymant en moet met sneecluyten werpen nocht maecht noch wijf noch manspersoon." ("No one shall throw with snowballs, neither men nor (unmarried) women.")

Undated

 * The Kingdom of Fez is founded by the Wattasid dynasty with Sultan Abu Abd Allah al-Sheikh Muhammad ibn Yahya as its first ruler.
 * An extensive slave trade begins in modern Cameroon as the Portuguese sail up the Wouri River.
 * Fernão do Po claims the central-African islands Bioko and Annobón for Portugal.
 * Possible discovery of the island of "Bacalao" (perhaps Newfoundland off North America) by João Vaz Corte-Real.
 * First printing of Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi) probably concludes posthumously in Augsburg; it will reach 100 editions and translations by the end of the century.
 * Johannes de Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi (written c. 1230) is first published in Ferrara, the first printed astronomical book.
 * Pietro d'Abano's medical texts Conciliator differentiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur and De venenis eorumque remediis (written before 1315) are first published.

Births

 * January 17 – Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Italian condottiero and Duke of Urbino (d. 1508)
 * February 15 – Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (d. 1503)
 * March 28 – Fra Bartolomeo, Italian artist (d. 1517)
 * April 5 – Bianca Maria Sforza, Pavian-born Holy Roman Empress as consort to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1510)
 * April 10 – Margaret of York, English princess (d. 1472)
 * May 31 – Érard de La Marck, prince-bishop of Liège (d. 1538)
 * August 11 – Nikolaus von Schönberg, German Catholic cardinal (d. 1537)
 * October 19 – John Louis, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken (d. 1545)
 * October 31 – Wang Yangming, Chinese Neo-Confucian scholar (d. 1529)
 * November 24 – Pietro Torrigiano, Italian sculptor of the Florentine school (d. 1528)
 * December 10 – Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (d. 1481)
 * date unknown
 * Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (d. 1553)
 * Alfonsina Orsini, Regent of Florence (d. 1520)
 * Barbro Stigsdotter, Swedish noblewoman and heroine (d. 1528)

Deaths

 * March 30 – Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy (b. 1435)
 * April 25 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet and philosopher (b. 1404)
 * May 24 – Charles de Valois, Duke de Berry, French noble (b. 1446)
 * May 30 – Jacquetta of Luxembourg, English duchess, daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg (b. 1416)
 * June 4 – Nezahualcoyotl, Aztec poet (b. 1402)
 * July 15 – Johann II of Nassau-Saarbrücken, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1429–1472) (b. 1423)
 * July 25 – Charles of Artois, Count of Eu, French military leader (b. 1394)
 * November 18 – Basilios Bessarion, Latin Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1403)
 * December 11 – Margaret of York, English princess (b. 1472)
 * date unknown – Afanasy Nikitin, Russian traveller
 * probable
 * Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran
 * Hayne van Ghizeghem, Flemish composer (b. c. 1445)
 * Michelozzo, Italian architect and sculptor (b. c. 1396)