— Opening lines from Gavin Douglas' Eneados, a translation, into Middle Scots of Virgil's Aeneid
Joachim du Bellay accompanies (and is secretary to) his cousin, Cardinal Jean du Bellay, on a visit to Rome which lasts until August 1557. In Rome, the poet continues to write works which will be published in 1558.
Olivier de Magny:
Les Amours 102 sonnets addressed to "Castianire", often identified as Louise Labe, preceded by a sonnet often attributed to her; Paris: Estienne Groulleau, France
Hymne sur la naissance de Madame, fille du roi très chrestien Henry, Arnoul L'Angelier, Paris; France
Pierre de Ronsard, Livret de Folâtries
Ludovico Ariosto, Carminum Lib. Quatuor, also known as Carmina, edited by Giovanni Battista Pigna
Jami, Rose Garden of the Pious (illustrated version in the Arthur Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.)
Anonymous, Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, Great Britain
Gavin Douglas, Scottish poet (who wrote in Middle Scots):
Eneados ("Aeneid"), translated from the Latin of Virgil's Aeneid 1512–1513; with Book 13 by Maffeo Vegio; the first complete translation of any major work of classical antiquity into an Anglic language; the first printed edition, published in London by the press of William Copland; the edition displays an anti–Roman Catholic bias, in that references (in the prologues) to the Virgin Mary, Purgatory, and Catholic ceremonies are altered or omitted; 66 lines of the translation, describing the amour of Dido and Aeneas, are omitted as indelicate.
The Palis of Honoure, publication year uncertain; second edition, substantially changed
March 29 – Vitsentzos Kornaros (died 1613 or 1614), Cretan poet of the Greek Renaissance, writer of the romantic epic poem Erotokritos
John Lyly born this year or 1554 (died 1606), English writer, dramatist and poet
March 17 – Girolamo Fracastoro, also known as "Fracastorius" (born 1478), Italian (Venetian), physician, scholar (in mathematics, geography and astronomy), atomist and Latin-language poet
Also:
Erasmus Alberus (born c. 1500), German
Hanibal Lucić died