This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1508.
Events
- April 4 – John Lydgate's poem The Complaint of the Black Knight becomes the first book printed in Scotland, from the Chepman and Myllar Press in Edinburgh.
- unknown date
- The earliest known printed edition of the chivalric romance Amadis de Gaula, as edited and expanded by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo (died c. 1505), is published in Castilian at Zaragoza.
- Elia Levita completes writing the Bovo-Bukh in Yiddish.
- Estimated date of Manuscript D of Leonardo da Vinci's treatise on painting.
New books
Prose
- Desiderius Erasmus – Adagiorum chiliades (2nd ed., Venice)
- Johannes Trithemius – De septem secundeis
Drama
- Ludovico Ariosto – La Cassaria
- The World and the Child (possible date)
Poetry
- William Dunbar
- The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy, and Other Poems
- The Goldyn Targe
Births
- April 3 – Jean Daurat (or Dorat), French poet and scholar, member of La Pléiade (died 1588)
- April 23 – Georg Sabinus, German poet, diplomat and academic (died 1560)
- June 13 – Alessandro Piccolomini, Italian humanist philosopher, translator and playwright (died 1579)
- December 21 – Thomas Naogeorgus, German Protestant reformer and Latin-language playwright (died 1563)
- Unknown dates
- Marin Držić, Croatian dramatist, author and poet (died 1567)
- Isabel de Josa, Catalan writer (died 1575)
- Primož Trubar, Slovene Protestant reformer, pioneer of Slovenian written language (died 1586)
Deaths
- February 4 – Conrad Celtes, German and Latin-language poet (born 1459)
- May 13 – Martial d'Auvergne, French poet (born 1420)
- June 6 – Ercole Strozzi, Italian poet, murdered (born 1471)
- August 27 – Hieronymus Münzer, co-author of the Nuremberg Chronicle (born 1437/47)
References
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