1643 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1643.

Events

• June 16 – Parliament issues the Licensing Order of 1643 to control the press — the action against which John Milton protests in his Areopagitica of the following year.
• August 1 – First of Milton's divorce tracts published, anonymously and unlicensed.
• Having had his philosophy condemned by the University of Utrecht, René Descartes begins his long correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.
• Cardinal Mazarin opens the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris to scholars.
• The medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius comes to light, in the possession of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson.
• Miyamoto Musashi begins dictating The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho).
• Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Tommaso Campanella's Civitas Solis, The City of the Sun, are published together in a volume titled Mundus Alter et Idem — the first time, though not the last, that the two works will be bound together.

New books

• Sir Thomas Browne – Religio Medici (the 1st "authorized" edition, after 2 unauthorized in the previous year)
• Sir Kenelm Digby – Observations Upon Religio Medici
• Philip Hunton – A Treatise of Monarchie
• John Milton – Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
• Roger Williams – A Key into the Language of America
• Gabriel de la Vega – La feliz campaña y los dichosos progresos que tuvieron las armas de D. Felipe IV en estos Países Bajos el año de 1642
• Pedro Agerre – Gero

New drama

• Pierre Corneille
  • Le Menteur
  • Polyeucte
• Sir William Davenant – The Unfortunate Lovers published
• Claude de L'Estoile – La belle esclave ("The Beautiful Slave")
• Francisco de Quevedo
  • Entremés de las sombras
  • La mujer de Peribáñez

Poetry

• Ramillete gracioso
• Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant – Albion

Births

• March 26 – Louis Moréri, French encyclopedist and priest (died 1680)
• September 18 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish historian and bishop (died 1715)
• November 1 – John Strype, English historian, biographer and cleric (died 1737)
• November 16 – Jean Chardin, French travel writer (died 1713)
• Unknown date – Thomas Rymer, English historiographer royal (died 1713)

Deaths

• February 9 – Sidney Godolphin, English poet (born 1610)
• April 4 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (born 1583)
• April 12 – Nicolaus Hunnius, German theologian (born 1585)
• April 20 – Christoph Demantius, German poet and composer (born 1567)
• November 29 – William Cartwright, English poet, dramatist and cleric (born 1611)
• Unknown dates
  • Abraham Azulai, Moroccan-born Kabbalistic author (born c. 1570)
  • Thomas Master, English poet, translator and cleric (born 1603)
  • Pedro de Oña, Chilean poet (born 1570)
• Probable year of death
  • Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, Irish chronicler (born c. 1590)
  • Henry Glapthorne, English dramatist (born 1610)