1644 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1644.

Events

• April 15 – The second Globe Theatre is demolished by the Puritan government to make room for housing.^[1]
• November 23 – The publication in London of Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England.
• December (end) – English Puritan controversialist Hezekiah Woodward is questioned for two days about "scandalous" pamphlets.^[2]
• The publication of The Bloody Tenet of Persecution marks the start of a major controversy between Roger Williams and John Cotton on religious tolerance in a Calvinist context. The controversy plays out through a series of works issued by both men in the coming years, through to Williams' The Bloody Tenet Yet More Bloody (1652).

New books

Prose

• John Milton
  • Areopagitica (tract against censorship)^[3]
  • Of Education
• Roger Williams – The Bloody Tenet of Persecution^[4]
• Francisco de Quevedo
  • Vida de Marco Bruto
  • Vida de San Pablo Apóstol
• Juan Eusebio Nieremberg – Vida del santo padre y gran siervo de Dios el beato Francisco de Borja
• René Descartes – Principia Philosophiae^[5]
• Marin Mersenne – Cogitata physico-mathematica
• Evangelista Torricelli – Opera geometrica^[6]
• Giulio Strozzi (editor) – Le glorie della signora Anna Renzi romana (published in Venice; a tribute to Anna Renzi, the "first diva")^[7]

Drama

• Lope de Vega – Fiestas del Santísimo Sacramento
• Pierre Corneille – Le Menteur
• Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland – Virtue's Triumph^[8]

Births

• August 6 – Louise de la Vallière, French royal mistress, subject of a Dumas novel (died 1710)
• October 2 – François-Timoléon de Choisy, French memoirist (died 1724)
• Unknown dates
  • Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉), Japanese poet (died 1694)
  • Elinor James, English pamphleteer (died 1719)

Deaths

• January 30 – William Chillingworth, English religious controversialist (born 1602)^[9]
• March 5 – Ferrante Pallavicino, Italian satirist (born 1615)^[10]
• March 8 – Xu Xiake (徐霞客), Chinese travel writer and geographer (born 1587)
• September 7 – Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, Italian historian (born 1579)^[11]
• September 8 – Francis Quarles, English poet (born 1592)^[12]
• November 10 – Luís Vélez de Guevara, Spanish dramatist and novelist (born 1579)
• November 21 – Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky, Czech lawyer and writer (born 1580)

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Old Globe Theater History and Timeline. 2012-10-16.
2. Web site: M.. Greengrass. Woodward, Hezekiah (1591/2–1675). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004. Online. 2013-10-25. 10.1093/ref:odnb/29945.
3. Book: Kekewich, Margaret . Princes and peoples : France and British Isles, 1620-1714 : an anthology of primary sources . Manchester University Press in association with the Open University . Manchester New York . 1994 . 9780719045738 . 2 . en.
4. Book: Cogley, Richard . John Eliot's mission to the Indians before King Philip's War . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Mass . 1999 . 9780674475373 . 271 . en.
5. Book: Baigrie, Brian . Picturing knowledge : historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science . University of Toronto Press . Toronto, Ont . 1996 . 9780802074393 . ix.
6. Book: Danilo Capecchi. History of Virtual Work Laws: A History of Mechanics Prospective. 11 May 2012. Springer Science & Business Media. 978-88-470-2056-6. 481.
7. Book: John Whenham. Duet and Dialogue in the Age of Monteverdi. 1982. UMI Research Press. 978-0-8357-1313-9. 279.
8. Tom Cain, ed., The Poems of Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland: from the Fulbeck, Harvard, and Westmorland Manuscripts, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2001.Page 27
9. Book: Christopher Baker. Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1720: A Biographical Dictionary. 2002. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-30827-7. 69.
10. Book: The Encyclopedia Americana: A Universal Reference Library Comprising the Arts and Sciences ... Commerce, Etc.. Scientific American Compiling Dpt. 1905. 129.
11. Book: John Evelyn. The Diary of John Evelyn: 1620-1649. Clarendon Press. 2000. 379.
12. Book: Baker, Christopher . Absolutism and the scientific revolution, 1600-1720 : a biographical dictionary . Greenwood Press . Westport, Conn . 2002 . 9780313308277. 313 .