1571 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1571.

Events

October 7 – Naval Battle of Lepanto: Miguel de Cervantes's left arm is rendered useless; Venetian playwright Luigi Pasqualigo commands a galleon.
unknown dates
- Michel de Montaigne retires from public life and isolates himself in the tower of the Château de Montaigne.
- First printing in the Irish language, Aibidil Gaoidheilge agus Caiticiosma, a primer printed by John Kearney in Dublin.^[1]
- Laurentian Library in Florence opens to scholars.^[2]
- Edict of Gaillon in France places enforcement of censorship laws with the state Chancellor's office instead of the University of Paris.^[3]
- A tidal wave affects parts of Lincolnshire, England. It would be the subject of Jean Ingelow's narrative poem "The High-Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire" (c.1883).^[4]

François de Belleforest – La Pyrénée (or La Pastorale amoureuse) (the first French "pastoral novel")
Bishop John Jewel – Second Book of Homilies
Alistair mac Riean -- "Ye Historie of Thomas Sincaet, a Pyrate."
Alonso de Molina
- Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana
- Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana

May 4 – Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian (born 1511)
May 29 – Joachim Mörlin, German Lutheran theologian (born 1514)
July 17 – Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (born 1516)
November 24 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech poet and translator (born 1523)
December 28 – John Hales, English writer and administrator (born c. 1516)
Unknown dates
- Lodovico Castelvetro, Italian literary critic (born c. 1505)
- Bartolomeo Maranta, Italian literary theorist (born 1500)
- Andrés de Olmos, Spanish grammarian (born c. 1485)