1559 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

 * The Catholic Church creates the first Index Librorum Prohibitorum, ("Index of Prohibited Books"). Included on the list is Pier Angelo Manzolli's Zodiacus Vitae a poem first published probably in the early 1530s.

Works published

 * Joachim du Bellay, Discours au Roi et Le Poète courtisan satire, France
 * Antonio Minturno, De poeta ("On Poetry"), Italian criticism (generally thought to be a source of Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesie 1595)
 * Jorge de Montemayor, La Diana, pastoral romance, Portuguese
 * Marguerite de Navarre, Heptaméron, poems and stories in the manner of Boccaccio's Decameron; posthumously published, France
 * Olivier de Magny, Les Odes d'Olivier de Magny, de Cahors en Quercy, A. Wechel

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * December – Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola (died 1613), Spanish poet, playwright and chronicler, brother of poet Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola
 * George Chapman (died 1634), English dramatist, translator, and poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * Nicolas Denisot (born 1515), French Renaissance poet and painter
 * Yang Shen (born 1488), Chinese poet
 * Wen Zhengming (born 1470), Chinese poet, painter and calligrapher