1502 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1502.

Events

 * June – England's Poet Laureate John Skelton is believed to have been tried, in a case brought by the London Prior of St Bartholomew's, and subsequently imprisoned, possibly at the instigation of Cardinal Wolsey.
 * unknown dates
 * Aldine Press editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, Herodotus' Histories (in Greek and Italian parallel text) and Sophocles are published in Venice.
 * The English poet Stephen Hawes is appointed Groom of the Chamber to King Henry VII of England.

Prose

 * Niccolò Machiavelli – Discourse about the Provision of Money (Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro)
 * Shin Maha Thilawuntha – Yazawin Kyaw

Drama

 * Gil Vicente – Monólogo do Vaqueiro ("Monologue of the Cowboy")

Poetry

 * Pietro Bembo – Terzerime (published by Aldus Manutius)
 * Conradus Celtis – Amores
 * Baptista Mantuanus – Sylvae
 * Jacopo Sannazaro – Arcadia (pirated edition)

Births

 * Guillaume Bigot, French writer, doctor, humanist and poet in French and Latin (died 1550)
 * probable – Benedetto Varchi, Florentine humanist, historian and poet in Latin (died 1565)

Deaths

 * February – Olivier de la Marche, French poet and chronicler (born 1426)
 * March 14 – Felix Fabri (Felix Faber), Swiss Dominican theologian and travel writer (born c. 1441)
 * unknown dates
 * Jalaladdin Davani, Iranian philosopher, theologian, jurist and poet (born 1426)
 * Henry Medwall, English dramatist (born c. 1462)
 * Octavien de Saint-Gelais, French churchman, poet and translator (born 1468)
 * Sōgi (宗祇), Japanese Zen monk and renga poet (born 1421)
 * probable
 * Gwerful Mechain, Welsh erotic poet (born c. 1460)
 * Bonino Mombrizio, Milanese lawyer, bureaucrat, philologist, humanist, editor of ancient writings and poet in Latin (born 1424)