1678 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1678.

Events

February â English dramatist Thomas Otway, perhaps escaping from an unhappy love affair with his leading actress, obtains a commission in an English regiment serving in the Franco-Dutch War and is sent in July to Flanders.
February 18 â The first part of English nonconformist John Bunyan's Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, partly written while he was imprisoned for unlicensed preaching, is published in London.
March â The novel La Princesse de ClÃ¨ves, presumed to be by Madame de La Fayette, is published in Paris. It is set in 1558â1559 and an early example of a psychological novel.
November â The English printer Joseph Moxon becomes the first tradesman to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Manuel Ambrosio de Filguera â Si sea lÃcito hacer los autos sacramentales en las iglesias
John Barret â The Christian Temper, or, A Discourse Concerning the Nature and Properties of the Graces of Sanctification
Jacob Boehme â Mysterium Magnum, oder ErkÃ¤rung Ã¼ber das Erste Buch Mosis (Amsterdam & Frankfurt; contains a portrait of Boehme by N. van Werd)
John Bunyan â The Pilgrim's Progress^[1]
Ralph Cudworth â The True Intellectual System of the Universe
Madame de La Fayette (anonymously) â La Princesse de ClÃ¨ves
Sir Thomas Herbert â Threnodia Carolina
Thomas Hobbes â Decameron Physiologicum^[2]
Josiah King â The Examination and Trial of Old Father Christmas Together with his Clearing by the Jury^[3]
The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News out of Hartford-Shire (a woodcut showing what is alleged to be the first crop circle)
The Works of Geber, Englished by Richard Russell.
Thomas Rymer â The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered
Jacob Spon â Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de GrÃ¨ce et du Levant
Aernout van Overbeke â De rym-wercken

Anne Bradstreet â Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning (posthumously published)
Samuel Butler â Hudibras, Part 3
Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter â SjÃ¤lens aandelige Sangoffer ("The Souls Spiritual Offering of Song")

January 10 â Paul Gabriel Antoine, French theologian (died 1743)
July â Thomas Hearne, editor of medieval manuscripts (died 1735)
December 14 â Daniel Neal, English historian (died 1743)
Unknown dates
- Thomas Sherlock, English religious writer and bishop (died 1761)
- William Wogan, Welsh religious writer in English (died 1758)