1623 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1623.

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 I of England 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 December 5 – 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. The first recorded purchase is on December 5, of two copies at £1 each by Sir Edward Dering.
Procopius's long-lost Secret History is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.
François le Métel de Boisrobert comes under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu.

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
Galileo Galilei – Il saggiatore
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
Thomas Scott – Vox Dei
George Wither – ''Hymnes and Songs of the Church''