1617 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1617 in literature involved some significant events.
Events
- March 4 - Shrovetide riot of the London apprentices damages the Cockpit TheatreCockpit TheatreThe Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
. Impressario Christopher BeestonChristopher BeestonChristopher Beeston was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London. He was associated with a number of playwrights, particularly Thomas Heywood.-Early life:...
rebuilds it, and christens it the Phoenix for its rebirth. - The collected works of John CalvinJohn CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
are published posthumously in GenevaGenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. - Martin Opitz founds the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft at WeimarWeimarWeimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
. - Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
becomes Poet Laureate. - AlcemistAlchemyAlchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
–HermeticistHermeticismHermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...
esoteric thinker Robert FluddRobert FluddRobert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent English Paracelsian physician, astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist...
begins the publication of his life's work, the Utriusque Cosmi...Historia, which in future years proliferates through multiple published Volumes, Tractates, Sections, and Portions, only to remain incomplete at the time of Fludd's death two decades later. - Two pseudonymous publications in the Joseph SwetnamJoseph SwetnamJoseph Swetnam was a Renaissance author and Jacobean fencing master, author of the first complete English fencing treatise.- The Pamphlet Wars :...
anti-feministFeminismFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
controversy appear in 1617: Esther Hath Hang'd Haman by "Esther Sowernam", and The Worming of a Mad Dog by "Constantia Munda". Only Rachel SpeghtRachel SpeghtRachel Speght was a poet and polemicist. She was the first Englishwoman to identify herself, by name, as a polemicist and critic of gender ideology. Speght, a feminist and a Calvinist, is perhaps best known for her tract A Mouzell for Melastomus...
published her response to Swetnam, A Muzzle for Melastomus, under her own name.
New books
- Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
- Los trabajos de Persiles y SigismundaLos Trabajos de Persiles y SigismundaThe Works of Persiles and Sigismunda is a romance or Byzantine novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, his last work and one that stands in opposition to the more famous novel Don Quixote by its embrace of the fantastic rather than the commonplace...
(posthumous) - Robert FluddRobert FluddRobert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent English Paracelsian physician, astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist...
- Utriusque Cosmi...Historia, Tomus Primus ("The History of the Two Worlds, Volume 1") - Barnabe RichBarnabe RichBarnabe Rich , was an English author and soldier, and a distant relative of Lord Chancellor Rich....
- The Irish Hubbub, or the English Hue and Cry
New drama
- Giambattista AndreiniGiambattista AndreiniGiambattista Andreini was an Italian actor and playwright.-Life:Born in Florence to stage stars Isabella Andreini and Francesco Andreini, he had a great success as a comedian in Paris under the name of Leylio...
- The Penitent Magdalene published in MantuaMantuaMantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole... - Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
- The Vision of DelightThe Vision of DelightThe Vision of Delight was a Jacobean era masque written by Ben Jonson. It was most likely performed on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1617 in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace, and repeated on January 19 of that year....
; Lovers Made MenLovers Made MenLovers Made Men, alternatively titled The Masque of Lethe or The Masque at Lord Hay's, was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson, designed by Inigo Jones, and with music composed by Nicholas Lanier... - Thomas MiddletonThomas MiddletonThomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
& William RowleyWilliam RowleyWilliam Rowley was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626...
- A Fair QuarrelA Fair QuarrelA Fair Quarrel is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617.-Performance and Publication:...
published - Théodore de Viau - Pyramus et Thisbe
Births
- May 22 - Johannes Andreas QuenstedtJohannes Andreas QuenstedtJohannes Andreas Quenstedt was a German Lutheran dogmatician in the Lutheran scholastic tradition.Quenstedt was born at Quedlinburg, a nephew of Johann Gerhard...
, dogmatician (died 1688) - July 31 - Nicolás AntonioNicolás AntonioNicolás Antonio was a Spanish bibliographer born in Seville. After taking his degree in Salamanca , he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise De Exilio , and began his monumental register of Spanish writers...
, bibliographer (died 1684) - date unknown
- Ralph CudworthRalph CudworthRalph Cudworth was an English philosopher, the leader of the Cambridge Platonists.-Life:Born at Aller, Somerset, he was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, gaining his MA and becoming a Fellow of Emmanuel in 1639. In 1645, he became master of Clare Hall and professor of Hebrew...
, philosopher (died 1688) - William GurnallWilliam GurnallWilliam Gurnall was an English author and clergyman born at King's Lynn, Norfolk.He was educated at the free grammar school of his native town, and in 1631 was nominated to the Lynn scholarship in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1635 and MA in 1639...
, Christian writer (died 1679) - Pierre PetitPierre Petit (scholar)Pierre Petit was a French scholar, physician, poet and Latin writer.-Life:Born at Paris in 1617, Petit studied medicine at Montpellier, where he took the degree of MD, though he did not practice medicine afterwards...
, scholar, physician, poet and Latin writer (died 1687) - Vavasor PowellVavasor PowellVavasor Powell was a Welsh Nonconformist Puritan preacher, evangelist, church leader and writer.-Life:He was born in Knucklas, Radnorshire and was educated at Jesus College, Oxford...
, Nonconformist writer (died 1670)
- Ralph Cudworth
Deaths
- February 16 - Kaspar UlenbergKaspar UlenbergKaspar Ulenberg was a Catholic convert, theological writer and translator of the Bible.He was born at Lippstadt on the Lippe, Westphalia, in 1549; died at Cologne, 16 Feb., 1617. He was the son of Lutheran parents and was intended for the Lutheran ministry...
, theologian and translator (born 1549) - May 7
- David FabriciusDavid FabriciusDavid Fabricius , was a German theologian who made two major discoveries in the early days of telescopic astronomy, jointly with his eldest son, Johannes Fabricius ....
, theologian (born 1564) - Jacques Auguste de ThouJacques Auguste de ThouJacques Auguste de Thou was a French historian, book collector and president of the Parlement de Paris.-Life:...
, historian (born 1553)
- David Fabricius
- September 25 - Francisco SuárezFrancisco SuárezFrancisco Suárez was a Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian, one of the leading figures of the School of Salamanca movement, and generally regarded among the greatest scholastics after Thomas Aquinas....
, philosopher and theologian (born 1548) - October 12 - Bernardino BaldiBernardino BaldiBernardino Baldi was an Italian mathematician and writer.Baldi descended from a noble family from Urbino, Marche, where he was born...
, mathematician and writer - November 10 - Barnabe RichBarnabe RichBarnabe Rich , was an English author and soldier, and a distant relative of Lord Chancellor Rich....
, soldier and story-teller (born c1540) - date unknown
- Giovanni BoteroGiovanni BoteroGiovanni Botero was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, best known for his work Della ragion di Stato . In this work, he argued against the amoral political philosophy associated with Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, not only because it lacked a Christian foundation but also because...
, political theorist and poet (born 1544) - Thomas CoryatThomas CoryatThomas Coryat was an English traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age. He is principally remembered for two volumes of writings he left regarding his travels, often on foot, through Europe and parts of Asia...
, travel writer (born c1577) - John LayfieldJohn Layfield (theologian)John Layfield, D.D. was an English scholar and translator.Layfield was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood before proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Fellow from 1585 to 1603. He was chaplain to George Clifford, the 3rd Earl of Cumberland on his 1592 voyage to...
, theologian - Henry PerryHenry Perry (writer)Henry Perry was a Welsh Anglican priest and linguistic scholar.-Life:Perry was born in Flintshire, Wales, and was a descendent of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd...
, Anglican priest and linguistic scholar (born c.1560)
- Giovanni Botero