1521 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1521.

Events

 * January 3 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther, by the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
 * January 14 – Martin Luther writes to Johann von Staupitz, saying that he has burned the papal bull.
 * February 9 – Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga arrives in Rome to campaign against Erasmus; later in the year he publishes an account of his journey from Spain.
 * June (probably 29 or 30) – Neacșu's letter, the oldest surviving dateable document written primarily in the Romanian language (in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet), is approximately dated to this month.
 * August 13 – Marko Marulić's poem Judita (Judith, written 1501), a landmark in Croatian literature, is printed in Venice by Guglielmo da Fontaneto.
 * unknown date – John Siberch is active in Cambridge, the city's earliest known printer.

Prose

 * Codex Ňuu Tnoo - Ndisi Nuu
 * Jacopo Berengario da Carpi – Commentaria cum amplissimus additionibus super anatomiam Mundini (published in Bologna), containing the first printed anatomical illustrations taken from nature
 * Goražde Psalter
 * Henry VIII of England – Defence of the Seven Sacraments (Assertio Septem Sacramentorum)
 * Niccolò Machiavelli – The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra)
 * Piri Reis – Kitab-ı Bahriye

Poetry

 * Alexander Barclay – The Boke of Codrus and Mynalcas, the author's "Fourth Eclog"
 * Henry Bradshaw – The Life of St. Werburgh
 * Andrew Chertsey, The Passyon of Oure Lorde, translated from French with additional verses inserted and introductory poem by Robert Copland (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)
 * Christmas Carols, including "A caroll of huntynge" and "A carol bringyng in the bores heed"
 * Robert Copland – Introductory verse to The Myrrour & the Chyrche (published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)

Approximate year
 * A boke of a Ghoostly fader [sic] (A Book of a Ghostly Father, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde)
 * John Skelton, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng"

Births

 * May 8 – Peter Canisius, German theologian (died 1597)
 * unknown dates
 * Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder, English statesman and poet (died 1565)
 * Xu Wei (徐渭), Chinese painter, poet and dramatist (died 1593)
 * probable
 * Anne Askew, English poet and Protestant martyr (burned at the stake 1546)
 * Jorge de Montemor, Portuguese novelist and poet writing in Spanish (died 1561)
 * Pontus de Tyard, French poet and priest, a member of La Pléiade (died 1605)

Deaths

 * May 10 – Sebastian Brant, German satirical poet and humanist (born c. 1457)
 * unknown date– Jean Bourdichon, French illuminator of manuscripts (born 1457/9)