1572 in literature

• January 3 – James Burbage, on behalf of Leicester's Men, writes to their patron, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, requesting that they be given the special status of "household servants".^[1]
• unknown dates
  • Vagabonds Act in England prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.^[2]
  • George Gascoigne becomes a "soldier of fortune" in the Low Countries.

• Remy Belleau – La Bergerie (2nd edition)
• Rafael Bombelli – L'Algebra^[3]
• John Field – A View of Popish Abuses yet remaining in the English Church
• Libro d'Oro of Corfu
• Bishops' Bible (revised version)

• Jean de la Taille – Saül le furieux^[4]

• Luís de Camões – Os Lusiadas^[5]
• Fernando de Herrera – Canción por la Victoria del Señor don Juan^[6]
• Thomas Palfreyman – Divine Meditations

• January 7 – Antoine de Gaudier, French Jesuit theologian (died 1622)
• January 22 (earliest possible date) – John Donne, English poet and Dean of St Paul's (died 1631)^[7]
• June 11 (approximate) – Ben Jonson, English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor (died 1637)^[8]
• July 25 – Theodorus Schrevelius, Dutch Golden Age poet (died 1649)

Unknown date – James Mabbe, English scholar, poet and translator (died 1642)

• March 27 – Girolamo Maggi, Italian poet and polymath (born c. 1523)
• April 12 – Jean Crespin, French martyrologist and printer (born c. 1520)
• June 28 – Johannes Goropius Becanus, Dutch humanist writer and linguist (born 1519)
• September 23 – Henry Scrimgeour, Scottish diplomat and book collector (born 1505)
• September – Denis Lambin, French classicist (born 1520)