1523 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1523.

Events

 * June 9 – Simon de Colines, a Paris printer, is fined for printing Commentarii initiatorii in quatuor Evangelia, a Biblical commentary by Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, without approval from the Paris Faculty of Theology.
 * Laurentian Library in Florence commissioned from Michelangelo by the Medici Pope Clement VII.

New books

 * Pietro Aron – Thoscanello de la musica
 * Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples – Nouveau Testament, translation of the New Testament into French
 * Anthony Fitzherbert
 * Diversité de courtz et leur jurisdictions
 * The Boke of Husbandrie
 * The Boke of Surveyinge and Improvements
 * Martin Luther
 * Das allte Testament Deutsch, translation of the Pentateuch into German
 * The Adoration of the Sacrament (Vom Anbeten des Sakraments des heiligen leichnams Christi)
 * Maximilianus Transylvanus – De Moluccis Insulis, the first published account of the Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation

New poetry

 * Alexander Barclay – The Mirror of Good Manners, translating Dominic Mancini's De quatuor virtutibus (approximate date)
 * Hans Sachs – Die Wittenbergische Nachtigall (The Wittenberg Nightingale)
 * John Skelton – The Garland of Laurel

New drama

 * Farsa de Inês Pereira (The Farce of Inez Pereira)

Births

 * February 13 – Valentin Naboth, German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer (died 1593)
 * February 20 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech Christian humanist writer (died 1571)
 * March 16 – Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier, French Protestant Hebraist, tutor of Queen Elizabeth I of England (died 1572)
 * March 21 – Kaspar Eberhard, German theologian (died 1575)
 * unknown date – Girolamo Maggi, Italian polymath (died 1572)

Deaths

 * August 29 – Ulrich von Hutten, German scholar, poet and reformer (born 1488)
 * October – William Cornysh, dramatist, poet, actor and composer (born 1465)
 * unknown date – Stephen Hawes, English poet (born c. 1474)