1538 in literature

Events

• December 20 – Pietro Bembo is made a Cardinal.

  New books

Prose

• Hélisenne de Crenne – Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amours
• Sir Thomas Elyot – The dictionary of syr Thomas Eliot knyght
• Paracelsus – Astronomia Magna or the whole Philosophia Sagax of the Great and Little World
• William Turner – Libellus de re herbaria

  Drama

• John Bale
• *Kynge Johan, the earliest known English historical drama
• *Three Laws of Nature, Moses and Christ, corrupted by the Sodomytes, Pharisees and Papystes most wicked
• Georg Wickram – Der treue Eckart

  Poetry

• Sir David Lyndsay – The Complaynte and Testament of a Popinjay
• Clément Marot – Œuvres de Clément Marot

  Births

• December 10 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet, dramatist and diplomat

  Deaths

• unknown dates
• *Germain de Brie, French humanist scholar and poet
• * Pierre Gringoire, French poet and playwright