1580 in literature

• March – Thomas Legge's Latin play about Richard III of England, Richardus Tertius, the first known history play performed in England, is acted by students at St John's College, Cambridge.
• July 12 – The Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed Bible translation into a Slavic language (Old Church Slavonic), is first printed at Ostroh in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (modern-day Ukraine) by Ivan Fyodorov.

• Book of Concord
• Jean Bodin – De la demonomanie des sorciers
• Veronica Franco – Lettere familiari a diversi[1]
• Robert Greene – Mamillia
• John Lyly – Euphues and his England
• Michel de Montaigne – Essais
• Anthony Munday – Zelauto

• Robert Garnier – Antigone
• Thomas Legge – Richardus Tertius

• Luís Vaz de Camões – Luís Vaz de Camões
• Jan Kochanowski – Laments (Treny)

• March 5 – Christophe Justel, French scholar (died 1649)
• April 18 (date of baptism) – Thomas Middleton, English poet and dramatist (died 1627)
• June 9 – Daniel Heinsius, Dutch scholar (died 1655)
• September 17 – Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish Golden Age writer (died 1645)
• October 12 – Hortensio Félix Paravicino, Spanish poet (died 1633)

Uncertain dates

• Charles François d'Abra de Raconis, French theologian (died 1646)
• Manuel de Almeida, Spanish historian (died 1646)
• Francisco de Araujo, Spanish theologian (died 1664)
• Philipp Clüver, German historian (died 1623)
• Ling Mengchu (凌濛初), Chinese vernacular writer (died 1644)
• Francisco Rodrigues Lobo, Portuguese poet (died 1621)
• Francisco de Lugo, Spanish theologian (died 1652)

• May 3 – Thomas Tusser, English poet (born 1524)
• June 10 – Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet (born c.1524)
• June 22 – Hernando de Acuña, Spanish translator (born c.1520)
• August 20 – Jeronymo Osorio, Portuguese historian (born 1506)
• October 8 – Hieronymus Wolf, German historian (born 1516)
• November 3 – Jeronimo Zurita y Castro, Spanish historian (born 1512)

Uncertain dates

• Sebastián de Horozco, Spanish poet and dramatist (born 1510)
• Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, Scottish chronicler (born c.1532)[2]

Probable year

• Raphael Holinshed, chronicler