1686 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1686.

List of years in literature (table)
… 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

Events

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

New books

Prose

• Pierre Bayle – Philosophical Commentary (on religious freedom)
• Bernard de Fontenelle
  • Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds)
  • L'Histoire des oracles
• 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
• Ihara Saikaku (井原 西鶴)
  • Twenty Cases of Unfilial Children (本朝二十不孝 Honchō Nijū Fukō)
  • The Life of an Amorous Woman (好色一代女 Kōshoku Ichidai Onna)
• Thomas Sydenham – Schedula monitoria de novae febris ingressu (Schedule of Symptoms of Newly Arrived Fever)

Children

• John Bunyan – A Book for Boys and Girls, or, Country Rhymes for Children

Drama

• Aphra Behn and John Blow – The Lucky Chance
• Thomas d'Urfey – The Banditti
• Thomas Jevon – The Devil of a Wife

Poetry

• Anne Killigrew (posthumously) – Poems

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)[2]

Deaths

• January 31 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist (born 1604)[3]
• February 6 – Dorothy White, English Quaker pamphleteer (born c. 1630)[4]
• February 10 – William Dugdale, English antiquary and herald (born 1605)
• February 25 – Abraham Calovius, German Lutheran theologian (born 1612)
• June 23 – Sir William Coventry, English statesman and author (born c. 1628)
• July 10 – John Fell, English academic and bishop (born 1625)
• August 13 – Louis Maimbourg, French Jesuit historian (born 1610)
• November 25 – Nicolas Steno (Niels Steenson), Danish scientist (born 1638)
• November 28 – Nicolas Letourneux, French religious writer (born 1640)
• December 6 – Nicola Avancini, Italian Jesuit writer (born 1612)

References

1. Benson, Donald R. (Summer 1964). "Theology and Politics in Dryden's Conversion". Studies in English Literature. 4 (3): 393–412. doi:10.2307/449490. JSTOR 449490.
2. Davies, Sir William Llewelyn. "Alban Thomas (1686–1771)". Welsh Biography Online. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
3. William A. Bunch (1975). Jean Mairet: By William A. Bunch. Twayne Publishers. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8057-2565-0.
4. Stephen Ward Angell; Stephen W. Angell; Pink Dandelion (8 July 2015). Early Quakers and their Theological Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-107-05052-5.