1716 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1716.

Events

• April 5 – Anne Lefèvre, Madame Dacier, meets Antoine Houdar de la Motte in person.
• May – Voltaire is exiled to Tulle as a result of his lampoon on the regent of France, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
• June 21 – Work begins on construction of the Codrington Library at All Souls College, Oxford, to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor; it will be completed in 1751.
• unknown dates
• Poet John Byrom returns to Britain to teach his own system of shorthand.
• Edmund Curll renews his controversy with Matthew Prior by publishing more of the poet's works without permission.
• The first printed version of the Epic of King Gesar, a Mongolian text, is published in Beijing.

New books

Prose

• Richard Blackmore – Essays upon Several Subjects vol. i
• Thomas Browne – Christian Morals
• Francis Chute (as Mr. Gay) – The Petticoat (part of Edmund Curll's "phantom Gay" hoax)
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury – Several Letters... to a Young Man at the University
• John Dennis – A True Character of Mr. Pope, and his Writings (in response to The Essay on Criticism)
• Theophilus Evans – Drych y Prif Oesoedd (Mirror of the Early Centuries)
• Amédée-François Frézier – Relation du voyage de la Mer du Sud, aux côtes du Chili, du Pérou et de Brésil
• John Oldmixon – Memoirs of Ireland from the Restoration to the Present Times
• ' (approximate date)
• Alexander Pope – The Iliad of Homer vol. ii
• Humphrey Prideaux – The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations
• Jean de la Roque – Voyage dans l’Arabie heureuse
• Andreas Rüdiger – Göttliche Physik (Divine Physics)
• George Sewell – A Vindication of the English Stage
• Johann Georg Walch – Historia critica Latinae linguae
• Zhang Yushu, Chen Tingjing et al. (ed.) – Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典)