Sacrificial hymns of the Aryans, gathered in the Rigveda, become the earliest Sanskrit literature

The Homeric texts, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are written down - probably in Ionia

The poems of the Shi Jing, China's earliest work of literature, are gathered together

Virgil's reputation is established by his ten Eclogues, influenced by the Italian countryside in the region of his birth near Mantua

The first three books of Horace's Odes are published, written on his Sabine farm

A collection of witty love poems, entitled Amores, brings Ovid an early success

Kalidasa, the most distinguished of India's authors in classical Sanskrit, is at the Gupta court in Patna

The classic form of Arabic poetry, predating Islam, evolves as the qasidah

Three of China's most famous poets - Wang Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu - are contemporaries during the T'ang dynasty

An attack on Charlemagne's army, traditionally at the pass of Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, is later the basis for the Chanson de Roland

The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy

Omar Khayyám, mathematician and astronomer, writes four-line verses, or quatrains, in his spare time

The chansons de geste, performed by professional minstrels in castles and manors, celebrate the exploits of Charlemagne and his paladins

The troubadours of Provence develop a new form of love poetry in French, introducing courtly love

A popular French poem, the Chanson de Roland, turns a minor disaster in one of Charlemagne's campaigns into a tale of epic heroism

Chrétien de Troyes and other French authors turn the stories of Arthur and his knights into a romance of courtly love

The Persian poet Sa'di publishes his Bustan ('Orchard'), a collection of moral tales in verse

A new form of poetry is written in northern Italy, described later by Dante as a sweet new style - the dolce stil nuovo

Dante, in exile from Florence, begins work on The Divine Comedy - completing it just before his death, 14 years later

Petrarch glimpses Laura in a church in Avignon and falls helplessly in love with her - or so he tells us

A laurel wreath is placed on the brow of Petrarch in Rome, in a renewal of interest in the classical world

A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman

One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer

The Persian poet Hafiz perfects a form of short poem, the ghazal, dwelling on the pleasures of life with an undercurrent of Sufi mysticism

The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur