1503 in literature

This article presents a list of literary events and publications during 1503.

Events

• Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ is re-published in an English translation.
• An edition of Euripides Tragoediae is published.
• Approximate year – Hours of James IV of Scotland produced, probably in Ghent.

New books

• Niccolò Machiavelli
  • A Description of the Manner in which Duke Valentino put Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, Lord Pagola and the Duke of Gravina to Death (Descrizione del modo tenuto dal Duca Valentino nello ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, il Signor Pagolo e il duca di Gravina Orsini)
  • On the method of dealing with the Rebellious Peoples of Valdichiana (Del modo di trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati)

New poetry

• William Dunbar – The Thrissil and the Rois
• Jean Lemaire de Belges – La Plainte du Désiré
• Approximate year – "Robin Hood and the Potter" (ballad)

Births

• March 22 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Florentine author (died 1584)
• June 28 – Giovanni della Casa, Florentine Latin-language writer on etiquette and poet (died 1556)
• November 17 – Bronzino, born Agnolo di Cosimo, Florentine Mannerist painter and poet (died 1572)
• December 14 or 21 – Nostradamus, French apothecary and astrologer (died 1566)
• December 20 – Cosimo Bartoli, Italian diplomat, mathematician, philologist, humanist and translator (died 1572)
• Robert Estienne, French printer (died 1559)
• Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Spanish poet, novelist, historian and diplomat, governor of Granada (died 1575).
• Approximate year
  • Nicholas Bourbon, French court preceptor and poet (died 1550)
  • Benedetto Varchi, Florentine Latin-language humanist historian and poet (died 1565)
  • Thomas Wyatt, English lyrical poet and diplomat (died 1542)

Deaths

• February 14 – Annamacharya, Indian Hindu sant and Telugu poet (born 1408)
• September 17 – Iovianus Pontanus, Italian Latin-language humanist and poet (born 1426)
• Unknown date – Antonio Bonfini, Italian-born humanist historian and poet (born 1434)

References