1686 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1686.Events
Prose
- Pierre Bayle – Philosophical Commentary
- Bernard de Fontenelle
- *Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes
- *L'Histoire des oracles
- Gottfried Leibniz
- *Brevis Demonstratio Erroris Memorabilis Cartesii et Aliorum Circa Legem Naturae
- *Discours de Métaphysique
- Ihara Saikaku
- *Twenty Cases of Unfilial Children
- *The Life of an Amorous Woman
- Thomas Sydenham – Schedula monitoria de novae febris ingressu
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, or a Lady's Distress
- Thomas Jevon – The Devil of a Wife
Poetry
- Anne Killigrew – Poems
Births
- January 17 – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian
- August 12 – John Balguy, English philosopher
- September 5 – Antoine Touron, French historian and biographer
- unknown date – Alban Thomas, Welsh physician and antiquarian
Deaths
- January 31 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist
- February 6 – Dorothy White, English Quaker pamphleteer
- February 10 – William Dugdale, English antiquary and herald
- February 25 – Abraham Calovius, German Lutheran theologian
- June 23 – Sir William Coventry, English statesman and author
- July 10 – John Fell, English academic and bishop
- August 13 – Louis Maimbourg, French Jesuit historian
- November 25 – Nicolas Steno, Danish scientist
- November 28 – Nicolas Letourneux, French religious writer
- December 6 – Nicola Avancini, Italian Jesuit writer
