Year 1508 (MDVIII ) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar .
Quick Facts Millennium:, Centuries: ...
Close
May 8: Michelangelo Simoni signs contract with Vatican to turn Sistine Chapel ceiling into a painting
December: Sistine Chapel .
January– March
January 24 – Maximilian, King of the Romans , requests permission to march to Rome through Venetian territory, but is denied and begins his Italienzug .
February 2 – During the Glinski rebellion , Lithuanian noble Mykolas Glinskis attacks Grodno (now in Belarus ) and decapitates Jan Zabrzeziński , the top ally of Grand Duke Alexander .[1] [2]
February 4 – Maximilian , King of the Romans, proclaims himself Holy Roman Emperor at the Italian city of Trento , after having been blocked by Venice from traveling to Rome to be crowned by Pope Julius II .[3] [4]
February 20 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , attacks the Republic of Venice and sack Ampezzo the next day.[5]
February 28 – Louis V becomes the new prince elector of the Palatinate upon the death of his father, Philip .[6]
March 2 – The Republic of Venice defeats Maximilian I in the Battle of Cadore .
March 5 – La Cassaria by Ludovico Ariosto , the first Italian language comedy, is premiered at Ferrara .[7]
March 13 – The oldest annual foot race in Europe, the "Red Hose Race", is run for the first time, taking place in Scotland at Carnwath , Lanarkshire .[8] [9]
March 18 – Wilhelm IV becomes the new Duke of Bavaria upon the death of his father, Albrecht IV .[10]
March 22
April– June
April 23 – Prince Mihnea cel Rău , son of Vlad the Impaler , becomes the Voivode of Wallachia , with a palace at Târgoviște (now in Romania), upon the death of his cousin Radu IV the Great .
May 8 – Italian renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni of Florence signs a contract with the Vatican to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling , in return for a promised fee of 3,000 gold ducats (equivalent in 2023 to more than U.S. $600,000).[13]
June 4 – The coronation of Prince Lajos as the designated successor to his father, King Vladislaus II of Hungary , takes place in Székesfehérvár .
June 6 – Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I signs a humiliating armistice with the Republic of Venice, which for the moment stops any of his further plans for Italy.[14]
July– September
July 23 – Upon the death of his father, King Oxlahuh-Tz'i, Hun-Iqʼ becomes one of the two kings of Guatemala 's Kaqchikel Maya civilization. Hun-Iqʼ reigns jointly with King Kablahuh-Tihax until the latter's death on February 4.[15]
July 27 – The process of removing the former layers of paint on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is completed, and Michelangelo begins the next phase of marking the surface for painting.[16]
July 31 – The Emperor of Ethiopia , Na'od , dies in battle.[17] His son Lebna Dengel takes on the regnal name of Dawit II , and becomes the new emperor starting on August 11.[18]
August 12 – The Spanish settlement of Puerto Rico begins when Juan Ponce de León lands on the island.[19] Upon his arrival, Ponce is welcomed by Agüeybaná I , the island's leader a Cacique of the Taíno people.[20] The Spanish explorer soon settles and founds the city of Caparra , near what is now the town of Guaynabo .[21]
September 11 – England is left without a Roman Catholic Cardinal protector when Cardinal Galeotto Franciotti della Rovere dies suddenly.[22] England's King Henry VII dies seven months later before the monarchy and the Pope can agree on a new cardinal protector. The King's successor, Henry VIII , later abolishes the office entirely after Lorenzo Campeggio dies in the course of the English Reformation and the creation of the Church of England .
October– December
October 8 – An inconclusive peace treaty is signed to end the third of the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars .[23]
October 24 – King Louis XII of France convenes court at the Parlement de Normandie building in Rouen .[24]
November 1 – At the age of 16, Prince Wolfgang of the House of Ascania becomes the new ruler of the German principality of Anhalt-Köthen , succeeding his father Waldemar VI. In 1521, he will meet Martin Luther [25] and, in 1525, will introduce the Reformation to his principality, making Anhalt-Köthen only the second nation (after the Electorate of Saxony ) to officially adopt Protestantism .
November 29 – Astronomer Mikołaj Kopernik of Poland is granted benefits by Pope Julius II in order to perform his work.[26]
December 10 – The League of Cambrai is formed as an alliance against the Republic of Venice , between Pope Julius II , Louis XII of France , Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon .[27]
December 29 – Battle of Dabul : Portuguese forces, under the command of Francisco de Almeida , attack Khambhat .
December – Michelangelo begins painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Holy See of Rome, on a commission by Pope Julius II (signed May 10).[28]
Andrea Palladio
February 17 – Bernardo Salviati , Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1568 )[29]
March 6 – Mirza Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad , emperor of the Mughal Empire (d. 1556)[30]
April 3 – Jean Daurat , French writer and scholar (d. 1588 )
April 5 – Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara , Italian noble (d. 1559 )[31]
April 23 – Georg Sabinus , German writer (d. 1560 )[32]
May 8 – Charles Wriothesley , English Officer of Arms (d. 1562 )[33]
June 8 or June 9 – Primož Trubar , Slovenian Protestant reformer who lays the foundations for the Slovenian written language (d. 1586 )[34]
June 12 – Hedwig of Münsterberg-Oels , German noble (d. 1531 )[35]
June 13 – Alessandro Piccolomini , Italian humanist and philosopher from Siena (d. 1579 )[36]
June 29 – Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg , German nobleman (d. 1534 )[37]
September 19 – Maria Paleologa , Italian noblewoman (d. 1530 )
September 23 – Simon Sulzer , Swiss theologian (d. 1585 )[38]
September 25 – Francisco Mendoza de Bobadilla , Spanish Catholic cardinal (d. 1566 )[39]
November 23 – Francis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg , youngest son of Henry the Middle (d. 1549 )[40]
November 26 – Cristofano Gherardi , Italian painter (d. 1556 )[41]
November 30 – Andrea Palladio , Italian architect (d. 1580 )[42]
December 8 – Gemma Frisius , Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555 )[43]
December 21 – Thomas Naogeorgus , German playwright (d. 1563 )[44]
December 24 – Pietro Carnesecchi , Italian humanist (d. 1567 )[45]
date unknown
possible
Ludovico Sforza
February – Robert Lauder of the Bass , governor of Berwick-on-Tweed (b. c. 1440 )
February 4 – Conrad Celtes , German humanist (b. 1459 )[49]
February 16 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio , tyrant of Bologna (b. 1443 )[50]
February 27 – James, Duke of Rothesay , heir to the throne of Scotland (b. 1507 )[51]
February 28 – Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1448 )[52]
March 18 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1447 )[53]
March – Lourenço de Almeida , Portuguese explorer[54]
April 10 – Guidobaldo da Montefeltro , Italian condottiero (b. 1472 )[55]
May 21 – Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney (b. 1451 )[56]
May 27 – Ludovico Sforza , Duke of Milan (b. 1452 )[57]
June 6 – Ercole Strozzi , Italian poet (b. 1473 )[58]
June 15 – Bernard Stewart, 4th Lord of Aubigny (b. c. 1452 )[59]
July 28 or July 29 – Robert Blackadder , Bishop of Glasgow[60]
July 31 – Na'od , Emperor of Ethiopia (in battle)[17]
August 3 – Raphael de Mercatellis , abbot and bibliophile (b. 1437)
September 23 – Beatrice of Naples , queen consort of Hungary (b. 1457 )[61]
October 10 – János Thurzó , Hungarian businessman (b. 1437 )[62]
October 18 – Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell , Lord High Admiral of Scotland[63]
October 23 – Edmund de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros , English politician (b. 1446 )
November 25 – Ursula of Brandenburg, Duchess of Münsterberg-Oels and Countess of Glatz (b. 1450 )[64]
December 10 – René II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1451 )[65]
December 16 – Henry the Younger of Stolberg , Stadtholder of Friesland (1506–1508) (b. 1467 )[66]
December 22 – Eric II, Duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1483 )
date unknown
"History" . Clan Lockhart Society . Retrieved July 9, 2023 .
Yvonne Paris, Michelangelo: 1475–1564 (Parragon, 2009)
Linda Schele and Peter Mathews, The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Maya Temples and Tombs (Simon & Schuster, 1999) p.297
Puerto Rico, U.S.A. Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration. 1980. p. 25. Retrieved July 10, 2023 .
Rimvydas Petrauskas and Jūratė Kiaupienė, Lietuvos istorija. Nauji horizontai: dinastija, visoumenė, valstybė (The History of Lithuania, New Horizons: Dynasty, Unification, State ) (Baltos Lankos, 2009), p. 466
"Držić, Marin" . www.enciklopedija.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved July 10, 2023 .
Filippini, Francesco (1925). Raffaello a Bologna (in Italian). Officine grafiche reggiane. p. 7. Retrieved July 10, 2023 .
Vita, Alessandro del (1958). Amori Dei Borgia (in Italian). Arezzo. p. 142. Retrieved July 10, 2023 .
Paul, James Balfour (1905). The Scots Peerage . D. Douglas. p. 152. Retrieved July 11, 2023 .
Lagardère, V. (April 24, 2012). "al-Wans̲h̲arīsī" . Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition . Brill. Retrieved July 11, 2023 .