1559 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1559.

Events

 * April – The Act of Uniformity sets the order of prayer in accordance with a new version of the Book of Common Prayer.
 * Before August – Pope Paul IV promulgates the Pauline Index, an early version of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Prose

 * Jacques Amyot (translator)
 * Daphnis et Chloë, from Longus' Daphnis and Chloe
 * Vies des hommes illustres, from Plutarch's Parallel Lives (begins)
 * Joachim du Bellay – Discours au roi
 * Realdo Colombo – De Re Anatomica
 * Jorge de Montemayor – Diana
 * Die Magdeburger Centurien (Magdeburg Centuries, first three volumes, publication continues up to 1574)

Drama

 * Jasper Heywood – Translation of Seneca the Younger's Troas

Poetry

 * See 1559 in poetry

Births

 * February 18 – Isaac Casaubon, Genevan classicist and church historian (died 1614)
 * October 12 – Jacques Sirmond, Jesuit scholar (died 1651)
 * December – Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, dramatist and poet (died 1613)
 * unknown dates
 * Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Spanish historian (died 1623)
 * Christopher Holywood, Jesuit writer (died 1626)
 * John Penry, Protestant pamphleteer and martyr (died 1593)

Deaths

 * January – Steven Mierdman, printer (born c. 1510)
 * May 19 – Pierre Doré, theologian (born c. 1500)
 * August 15 – Luigi Lippomano, hagiographer (born 1500)
 * August 25 – Nicholas Tacitus Zegers, Bible exegete (born c. 1495)
 * September 7 – Robert Estienne, printer (born 1503)
 * Probable year of death – Sebastián Fox Morcillo, philosopher