1563 in literature

Events

• February 12–14 – The French poet Pierre de Bocosel de Chastelard is twice caught hiding under the bed of Mary, Queen of Scots – at Holyrood and then at Rossend). He is arrested by the Earl of Moray on his second attempt and executed at St Andrews Castle on February 22.
• March 27 – As part of the English Reformation, the House of Commons passes legislation approving Bible translations into Welsh. This allows Henry Denham to publish his Welsh New Testament in 1567.
• c. April – A year into the French Wars of Religion, Pierre de Ronsard composes two defenses of French Catholicism against the Huguenots. On the Huguenot side, anonymous leaflets parody his "remonstrance" genre until a ban on libels is placed by Charles IX of France.
• April – As a hostage at Iperoig in Tupi territory, José de Anchieta composes De Beata Virgine Dei Matre, a devotional poem that is among the early accomplishments in Brazilian literature.
• April 3 – From the Electoral Palatinate, Caspar Olevian reports to John Calvin that the Heidelberg Catechism will be ready "by next market day". The contributors, including Olevian, Zacharias Ursinus, and Calvin himself, are not mentioned in print, "so that the Germans would not refuse to read it."
• May – The Ottoman poet and historian Mustafa Âlî accepts a post in Aleppo Eyalet. On his way there he visits his mentor, Ramazanoğlu Piri Mehmet Paşa, in Adana.
• June 27 – Gómez Suárez de Figueroa fails to return to his native Peru from Seville. After November, he begins signing his name Garcilaso de la Vega, a step toward Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, his literary signature.
• August – Michel de Montaigne writes a letter to his father describing the death of his friend Étienne de La Boétie.
• c. September/November – In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł commissions the Brest Bible from various translators, as the first complete translation into Polish. It becomes the standard edition for the Polish Lutheran and Reformed churches.
• November 5 – Outside Suceava, Moldavia, Prince Iacob Heraclid, a Renaissance humanist, is lynched by crowds after a siege; the rival pretender, Ștefan Tomșa, probably delivers the first blow.
• December – Primož Trubar of the South Slavic Bible Institute draws up a plan to sustain the Reformation in Italy with translations from Martin Luther.
• December 4 – The closure of the Council of Trent marks the official start of the Counter-Reformation and encouragement of artistic Mannerism, which sometimes extended to literature. Though its full impact is delayed to 1587, it is visible in the Republic of Venice: by 1567, most books put out by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari are devotional.
• At Basel in the Old Swiss Confederacy, the Dutch physician Johann Weyer publishes De praestigiis daemonum, with its rationalist interpretation of witchcraft. It proposes that accused witches are "deluded victims" rather than instruments of the Devil. Though rejected by "witch-hunters", De praestigiis sells well and will inspire Reginald Scot's refutation of magic. Also in Basel, Pietro Perna prints Bernardino Ochino's Dialogi XXX criticizing the Radical Reformation. Their apparent preaching of polygamy is used against him by the Daig, causing him and his family to be banished from the city.
• John Foxe's Actes and Monuments, known later as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, becomes "the most influential book" of the Elizabethan era "upon the formation of English Protestant identity and nationhood."
• Printing is brought to Goa and Portuguese India, probably by the Society of Jesus, producing Garcia de Orta's Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India. With its rhyming preface by Luís de Camões, it is "the third in a European language to be printed in Asia."
• The future John of the Cross is tonsured a Carmelite at Medina del Campo in the Crown of Castile.
• In the Kingdom of Poland, Stanisław Orzechowski publishes Rozmowa, albo Dyjalog około egzekucyjej polskiej korony, with allegorical engravings and designs resembling hieroglyphs. It defends the Catholic Church in Poland as an ideal political model, so marking Orzechowski's own transition from Lutheranism.

  New books

Prose

• Brest Bible
• Heidelberg Catechism
• Ten Articles of Religion
• João de Barros – Terceira Década da Ásia
• Pierino Belli – De re militari et de bello
• Francesco Cattani da Diacceto – Opera omnia
• Coresi – Apostolul românesc
• John Foxe – Actes and Monuments
• Richard Grafton – Abridgement of the Chronicles of England
• Joseph Karo – Shulchan Aruch
• Bernardino Ochino – Dialogi XXX
• Garcia de Orta – Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India
• Stanisław Orzechowski – Rozmowa, albo Dyjalog około egzekucyjej polskiej korony
• Pierre Viret – Les Cauteles et canon de la Messe
• Johann Weyer – De praestigiis daemonum

  Poetry

• José de Anchieta – De Beata Virgine Dei Matre
• Barnaby Googe – Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets
• Klemens Janicki
• *Vitae regum Polonorum
• *In Polonici vestitus varietatem et inconstantiam dialogus
• Dinko Ranjina – Pjesni razlike
• Pierre de Ronsard
• *Remonstrance au peuple de France
• *Responce aux injures et calomnies, de je ne sçay quels predicans et ministres de Geneve

  Births

• January 6 – Martin Becanus, Flemish Catholic theologian and polemicist
• January 19 – Leonhard Hutter, German Lutheran theologian
• January 30 – Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch Calvinist theologian
• April 15 – Guru Arjan, Sikh Guru and compiler of scriptures
• June 30 – Silvestre de Balboa, Canarian and Cuban poet
• July 16 – Manuel Godinho de Erédia, Portuguese and Malay historian
• August 14 – Johannes Malderus, Flemish Catholic theologian
• November 11 – Martinus Smiglecius, Polish logician, Catholic theologian, and economist
• November 28 – Hosokawa Tadaoki, Japanese samurai and poet
• December 19 – William Howard, English antiquarian and publisher
• Unknown dates
• *Abdias Assheton, English historian and biographer
• *William Baldwin, English Catholic theologian
• *Louise Bourgeois Boursier, French midwife and essayist
• *Theophilos Corydalleus, Greek philosopher and translator
• *Henry Cuffe, English translator and poet
• *Matija Divković, Bosnian Catholic theologian and printer
• *Michael Drayton, English poet
• *Scipione Gentili, Italian-born legal scholar, translator, and critic
• *Heo Nanseolheon, Korean poet
• *Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, Dutch historian and travel writer
• *Naw'i Khabushani, Indo-Persian poet
• *Christoph Knoll, Silesian-born Lutheran theologian and poet
• *Pierre Matthieu, French poet and dramatist
• *Adriaan van Meerbeeck, Flemish historian and translator
• *Valeria Miani, Paduan playwright
• *Robert Naunton, English politician and historian
• *Mavro Orbini, Ragusan chronicler
• *Thomas Preston, English Catholic theologian and polemicist
• *John Ross of the Inner Temple, English poet
• *John Stradling, English poet and translator
• *Josuah Sylvester, English poet
• *Daniel Tilenus, Silesian-born Arminian theologian
• *Clemens Timpler, German philosopher
• *Yi Su-gwang, Korean encyclopedist
• Approximate year – Robert Armin, English actor and comic author

  Deaths

• c. January–June – Matija Popović, Serb scribe and printer
• January – Seydi Ali Reis, Ottoman navigator, geographer, and travel writer
• January 12 – Macarius of Moscow, Russian Orthodox theologian, essayist, and illuminator
• February 2 – Lawrence Torrentinus, Dutch and Italian humanist and printer
• February 22 – Pierre de Bocosel de Chastelard, French poet
• March 2 – Ercole Gonzaga, Mantuan Catholic theologian
• March 11 – Jacopo Nardi, Florentine historian
• March 13 – Hieronymus Froben, Swiss printer
• March 17 – Girolamo Seripando, Italian and Aragonese Catholic theologian
• March 27 – Heinrich Glarean, Swiss poet and humanist
• April 18 – Francisco Marroquín, Guatemalan Catholic theologian and translator
• April 30 – Henry Stafford, English translator, publisher, and polemicist
• May 21 – Martynas Mažvydas, Lithuanian compiler, poet, and editor
• July 9 – Richard Smyth, English Catholic theologian
• July 24 – Giambattista Gelli, Florentine historian and philosopher
• August 18 – Étienne de La Boétie, French philosopher
• August 30 – Wolfgang Musculus, Lorrainian-born Calvinist theologian
• November – John Bale, English historian
• November 5 – Iacob Heraclid, Maltese-born humanist and military theorist
• December 29
• *Sebastian Castellio, French Calvinist theologian
• *Thomas Naogeorgus, German dramatist and Lutheran theologian
• Unknown dates
• *John Barret, English Protestant theologian
• *Walter Deloenus, Dutch translator and Anabaptist theologian
• *Marcantonio Genua, Genoan philosopher
• *Felipe de Guevara, Spanish art critic and humanist
• *Gerard Legh, English writer on heraldry
• *Jean Poldo d'Albenas, French historian and translator
• *Pedro de Soto, Spanish Catholic theologian
• *John Véron, Huguenot polemicist and lexicographer
• Probable year – Arthur Brooke, English poet
• Approximate year
• *William Baldwin, English writer, editor and theatrical director
• *Gaspar Correia, Portuguese Goan historian