1502 in literature

• June – England's Poet Laureate John Skelton is believed to have been tried, in a case brought by the London Prior of St Bartholomew's, and subsequently imprisoned, possibly at the instigation of Cardinal Wolsey.^[1]
• unknown dates
  • Aldine Press editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, Herodotus' Histories (in Greek and Italian parallel text) and Sophocles are published in Venice.
  • The English poet Stephen Hawes is appointed Groom of the Chamber to King Henry VII of England.^[2]

Prose

• Niccolò Machiavelli – Discourse about the Provision of Money (Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro)^[3]
• Shin Maha Thilawuntha – Yazawin Kyaw^[4]

Drama

• Gil Vicente – Monólogo do Vaqueiro ("Monologue of the Cowboy")^[5]

Poetry

• Pietro Bembo – Terzerime (published by Aldus Manutius)
• Conradus Celtis – Amores
• Baptista Mantuanus – Sylvae
• Jacopo Sannazaro – Arcadia (pirated edition)

• Guillaume Bigot, French writer, doctor, humanist and poet in French and Latin (died 1550)
• probable – Benedetto Varchi, Florentine humanist, historian and poet in Latin (died 1565)^[6]

• February – Olivier de la Marche, French poet and chronicler (born 1426)
• March 14 – Felix Fabri (Felix Faber), Swiss Dominican theologian and travel writer (born c. 1441)^[7]
• unknown dates
  • Jalaladdin Davani, Iranian philosopher, theologian, jurist and poet (born 1426)
  • Henry Medwall, English dramatist (born c. 1462)^[8]
  • Octavien de Saint-Gelais, French churchman, poet and translator (born 1468)^[9]
  • Sōgi (宗祇), Japanese Zen monk and renga poet (born 1421)^[10]
• probable
  • Gwerful Mechain, Welsh erotic poet (born c. 1460)^[11]
  • Bonino Mombrizio, Milanese lawyer, bureaucrat, philologist, humanist, editor of ancient writings and poet in Latin (born 1424)