1490

Events of 1490

• January 4 : Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered as guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
• December 19 - Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
• Tirant Lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan De Galba is published.
• Yoshitane becomes Ashikaga shogun of Japan.
• Charles John Amadeus of Savoy becomes Duke of Savoy at age 1; his mother Blanche of Montferrato is regent.
• Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.
• John Colet receives his M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.
• The Castle Church in Wittenberg is begun.
• Pedro de Covilham arrives in Ethiopia.
• Catholic missionaries arrive in the African kingdom of Kongo.
• Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.
• Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action in small-bore tubes.
• Leonardo da Vinci develops an oil lamp: the flame is enclosed in a glass tube placed inside a water-filled glass globe.
• The Chinese scholar and printer Hua Sui invents bronze-metal movable type printing in China, although the earlier Wang Zhen had experimented with tin movable type in 1298 and the Koreans had separately innovated bronze movable type.
• Merchants carry coffee from Yemen to Mecca, Arabia (approximate date).

Births

• February 17 - Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France (d. 1527)
• March 24 - Georg Agricola, German scholar and scientist (d. 1555)
• April - Vittoria Colonna, Italian poet (d. 1547)
• May 16 - Duke Albert of Prussia (d. 1568)
• June 28 - Albert of Mainz, German elector and archbishop (d. 1545)
• October - Olaus Magnus, Swedish ecclesiastic and writer (d. 1557)
• October 12 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (d. 1548)
• November 10 - John III, Duke of Cleves (d. 1539)
• date unknown
• Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus (d. 1556)
• Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (d. 1566)
• Jean Salmon Macrin, French poet (d. 1557)
• Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig, German theologian (d. 1561)
• probable
• Adriaen Isenbrant, Flemish painter (d. 1551)
• Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1567)
• John Taverner, English composer and organist (d. 1545)
• Maria De Salinas, Lady Willoughby Spanish Lady in Waiting and friend To Queen Catherine of Aragon

Deaths

• January 27 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (b. 1435)
• March 6 - Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
• March 13 - Charles I of Savoy (b. 1468)
• April 6 - King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (b. 1443)
• May 12 - Joana, Crown Princess of Portugal (b. 1452)
• May 22 - Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent (b. 1416)
• August 11 - Frans van Brederode, Dutch rebel leader (b. 1465)
• September 1 - Beatrix da Silva, Dominican nun
• date unknown
• Martí Joan de Galba, Catalan novelist
• Aonghas Óg, last independent Lord of the Isles
• Tomás de Torquemada, first grand inquisitor of Spain (b. 1420)