<!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE -->
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1701.
Events
- January
- Matthew Prior, English poet, enters Parliament as the member for East Grinstead.
- George Granville's The Jew of Venice, an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, receives its première at Lincoln's Inn Fields, with Thomas Betterton as Bassanio. It is so popular it displaces the original from the stage for the next four decades.
- July 9 – St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, makes a grant for work on Marsh's Library, newly established by Narcissus Marsh (Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)) as the first public library in Ireland (architect: Sir William Robinson) with refugee French Huguenot scholar Élie Bouhéreau as its first librarian.
- September 7 – The Treaty of Den Haag is the catalyst for the War of the Spanish Succession, which will continue and have frequent discussion in literature until 1713.
- unknown date – Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome is established by the Dominican Order.
New books
Prose
- Daniel Defoe, The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England
- John Dennis, The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry
- Wu Jingzi, Chinese scholar and novelist (died 1754)
Deaths
- June 2 – Madeleine de Scudéry, French salonnière (born 1607)
- August 1 – Jan Chryzostom Pasek, Polish memoirist (born 1636)
- August 20 – Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, English playwright (born 1639)
- August 24 – Ahasverus Fritsch, German poet and legal writer (born 1629)
- September 15 – Edmé Boursault, French dramatist (born 1638)