1623 in literature

Events

• February 2 – The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at the court of King James I of England.
• February 28 – John Hacket's Latin comedy Loiola is staged at Trinity College, Cambridge and repeated on March 12, for King James on his third visit to the University. The play mocks both Catholics, in the person of Ignatius Loyola, and Calvinists, who are represented by Martinus, a canting elder of Amsterdam.
• June 29 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca makes his debut as a playwright, his Amor, honor y poder being performed at the Spanish Court. Two other plays follow this year.
• July 20 – Henry Herbert becomes deputy to Sir John Ashley, Master of the Revels and takes over his duties. Herbert effectively controls professional drama in England from 1623 until the theaters close in 1642.
• Between November 8 and early December – Publication of the "First Folio", a collection of 36 of the plays of Shakespeare, half of which have not previously been printed, compiled posthumously by actors John Heminges and Henry Condell and published by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount in London.
• Procopius's long-lost Secret History is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.
• François le Métel de Boisrobert comes under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu.

New books

• Francis Bacon – De Augmentis Scientiarum
• Jakob Böhme
• *On Election to Grace
• *On Christ's Testaments
• *Mysterium Magnum
• *Clavis
• Tommaso Campanella – Civitas Solis
• William Drummond of Hawthornden – Flowers of Sion
• James Mabbe – Guzmán de Alfarache, translated from the Spanish original by Mateo Alemán
• Giambattista Marini – Adone
• Antonio de León Pinelo – Discurso de la importancia, de la forma, y de la disposicion de la colleccion de las leyes de Indias
• George Wither – Hymnes and Songs of the Church

  New drama

• Anonymous – Fucus Histriomastix
• Richard Brome – A Fault in Friendship, his earliest known play
• Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• *Amor, honor y poder
• *La selva confusa
• *Los Macabeos
• Thomas Dekker – The Wonder of a Kingdom
• Thomas Dekker, John Ford, & William Rowley – The Spanish Gypsy
• Thomas Drue – The Duchess of Suffolk
• John Fletcher and Philip Massinger – The Lovers' Progress
• John Fletcher and William Rowley – The Maid in the Mill
• John Hacket – Loiola
• Ben Jonson – Time Vindicated to Himself and to His Honours
• Philip Massinger
• *The Bondman
• *The Duke of Milan
• Robert Ward – Fucus Histriomastix
• John Webster
• *The Duchess of Malfi
• *The Devil's Law Case

  Poetry

• Martin Opitz – Lob des Feldlebens

  Births

• March 27 – Francesco Negri, Italian priest and travel writer
• June 19 – Blaise Pascal, French philosopher
• October 17 – Francis Turretin, Swiss theologian
• Unknown dates
• *Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, English biographer, poet and philosopher
• *Henri Sauval, French historian

  Deaths

• January 15 – Paolo Sarpi, Venetian church historian
• July 25 – Gaspar Aguilar, Spanish poet and dramatist
• July/August – Tulsidas, Hindu philosopher and poet
• November – William Jaggard, English printer
• November 9 – William Camden, English historian
• November 11 – Philippe de Mornay, French Protestant writer
• December 31 – Philipp Clüver, German historian