1686 in literature

The year 1686 in literature involved some significant literary events and new works.

Events

• January - John Dryden is recorded as having converted to Roman Catholicism.^[1]

New books

• John Bunyan - A Book for Boys and Girls, or, Country Rhymes for Children
• Gottfried Leibniz
  • Brevis Demonstratio Erroris Memorabilis Cartesii et Aliorum Circa Legem Naturae ("A Brief Demonstration of the Memorable Error of Descartes and Others About the Law of Nature")
  • Discours de Métaphysique
• Bernard de Fontenelle - Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
  • L'Histoire des Oracles
• Ihara Saikaku
  • Twenty Cases of Unfilial Children
  • The Woman Who Spent Her Life in Love.^[2] Also known as The Life of an Amorous Woman.
• Thomas Sydenham - Schedula monitoria de novae febris ingressu

New drama

• Aphra Behn & John Blow - The Lucky Chance
• Thomas d'Urfey - The Banditti, or a Lady's Distress
• Thomas Jevon - The Devil of a Wife
• Francisco Antonio de Bances Candamo - La restauración de Buda

Poetry

• Sarah Fyge (Egerton) - The Female Advocate
• Anne Killigrew - Poems (posthumously published)

Births

• January 17 – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (died 1766)
• August 12 – John Balguy, English philosopher (died 1748)
• September 5 – Antoine Touron, French historian and biographer (died 1775)
• Unknown date – Alban Thomas, Welsh physician and antiquarian (died 1771)

Deaths

• January 31 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist (born 1604)
• February 6 – Dorothy White, English Quaker pamphleteer (born c. 1630)
• February 25 – Abraham Calovius, German Lutheran theologian (born 1612)
• June 23 – Sir William Coventry, English statesman and author (born c. 1628)
• August 13 – Louis Maimbourg, French Jesuit historian (born 1610)
• November 28 - Nicolas Letourneux, French religious writer (born 1640)
• December 6 – Nicola Avancini, Italian Jesuit writer (born 1612)
• Unknown date – John Playford, English publisher (born 1623)

References