1571 in literature

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.
• *Laurentian Library in Florence opens to scholars.
• *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".

  New books

Prose

• François de Belleforest – La Pyrénée
• Bishop John Jewel – Second Book of Homilies
• Alonso de Molina
• *Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana
• *Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana

  Drama

• Richard Edwards – Damon and Pythias

  Poetry

• See 1571 in poetry

  Deaths

• May 4 – Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian
• May 29 – Joachim Mörlin, German Lutheran theologian
• July 17 – Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian
• November 24 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech poet and translator
• December 28 – John Hales, English writer and administrator
• Unknown dates
• *Lodovico Castelvetro, Italian literary critic
• *Bartolomeo Maranta, Italian literary theorist
• *Andrés de Olmos, Spanish grammarian