1490

Year 1490 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

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).

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

Centuries:	14th century - 15th century - 16th century
Decades:	1460s 1470s 1480s - 1490s - 1500s 1510s 1520s
Years:	1487 1488 1489 - 1490 - 1491 1492 1493