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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
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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
- Onania: or, the heinous sin of self-pollution (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)
Drama
- Joseph Addison – The Drummer
- Barton Booth – The Death of Dido
- Christopher Bullock
- The Cobbler of Preston
- Woman Is a Riddle
- José de Cañizares
- El dómine Lucas
- Marta la Romarantina
- El picarillo de España, señor de la Gran Canaria
- Susanna Centlivre – The Cruel Gift
- Mary Davys – The Northern Heiress
- Benjamin Griffin – The Humours of Purgatory (political satire based on The Taming of the Shrew)
- William Taverner – Everybody Mistaken
- Lewis Theobald – The Perfidious Brother
Deaths
- January 5
- Jean Chardin, French travel writer (born 1643)
- Hippolyte Hélyot, French historian (born 1660)
- January 11
- Pierre Jurieu, French Protestant writer (born 1637)
- René Massuet, French editor (born 1666)
- February 19 – Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, Norwegian poet (born 1634)
- July 24 – Agnes Campbell, Scottish printer (born 1637)
- September 15 – Andrew Fletcher, Scottish politician and writer (born 1653)
- October 21 – Jakob Gronovius, Dutch scholar (born 1645)
- November 14 – Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (born 1646)
- December 31 – William Wycherley, English dramatist (born 1641)
- probable year - Patrick Abercromby, Scottish antiquary and translator (born 1656)
