1620 in literature

Events

• September 6 – Thomas Middleton is appointed chronologer of the City of London.
• December 16 – The Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre with Annotations by Henry Ainsworth is the only book taken to New England by the Pilgrim Fathers.
• unknown dates
• John Taylor "The Water Poet" publishes The Praise of Hemp-Seed; with The Voyage of Mr. Roger Bird and the Writer hereof, in a Boat of browne-Paper, from London to Quinborough in Kent. As also, a Farewell to the matchlesse deceased Mr. Thomas Coriat in London, including the first mention in print of the deaths of Shakespeare and Francis Beaumont in 1616.
• The first near-complete English-language translation of Boccaccio's The Decameron, anonymous but attributed to John Florio and based on later French and Italian editions, is published by Isaac Jaggard in London.
• The second version of The Ballad of Chevy Chase appears.
• A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas and Origin and Progress of the Disturbances in the Netherlands by Johannes Gysius are republished in the Netherlands.

  New books

Prose

• Johann Valentin Andreae – De curiositatis pernicie syntagma
• Francis Bacon – Novum Organum
• John Bainbridge's translation of Ptolemy's De Planetarum Hypothesibus
• Jacob Boehme
• *The Threefold Life of Man
• *Forty Questions on the Soul
• *The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
• *The Six Theosophical Points
• *The Six Mystical Points
• Salomon de Caus – Hortus Palatinus
• Miguel de Cervantes translated by Thomas Shelton – Don Quixote
• Nicolaus Hunnius – Examen errorum Photinianorum
• Michael Maier – Septima Philosophica
• Feng Menglong
• *Illustrious Words to Instruct the World
• *The Three Sui Quash the Demons' Revolt
• Bishop William Morgan, revised by Bishop Richard Parry and John Davies – Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan
• Samuel Rowlands – The Night-raven

  Drama

• Anonymous – Swetnam the Woman-Hater published
• Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher – Philaster published
• Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger – The Virgin Martyr
• Ben Jonson
• *News from the New World Discovered in the Moon
• *Pan's Anniversary
• Friedrich Menius – Englishe Comedien und Tragedien
• Thomas Middleton & William Rowley – The World Tossed at Tennis
• Approximate date – Lady Mary Wroth – Love's Victory

  Poetry

Births

• January 29 – Lucy Hutchinson, English biographer and translator
• July 20 – Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder, Dutch poet and scholar
• August 21 – Marchamont Nedham, English journalist and pamphleteer
• October 31 – John Evelyn, English diarist
• November 10 – Ninon de l'Enclos, French author and patron of the arts
• unknown dates
• *Alexander Brome, English poet
• *István Gyöngyösi – Hungarian poet
• probable
• *Mary Forster, English Quaker polemicist
• *William Maurice, Welsh antiquary
• *Melchisédech Thévenot, French polymath

  Deaths

• February 1 – Mario di Calasio, Italian author of Hebrew concordance
• February 19 – Roemer Visscher, Dutch writer
• March 1 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer
• *By August – Nathan Field, English dramatist
• November 6 – Richard Carew, English author and translator
• Unknown date – Prudencio de Sandoval, Spanish Benedictine historian