1643 in literature

• May/June – René Descartes, having had his philosophy condemned by the University of Utrecht, begins his long correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.{{cite book|author1=Daniel Garber|author2=Professor of Philosophy Daniel Garber|author3=Garber Daniel|title=Descartes Embodied: Reading Cartesian Philosophy Through Cartesian Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5EVmvlfgmgC&pg=PA169|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-78973-8|pages=169}}
• June 16 – The Parliament of England issues the Licensing Order of 1643 to control the press – the action against which John Milton protests in his Areopagitica of the following year.
• August 1 – The first of Milton's divorce tracts is published, anonymously and unlicensed.
• unknown dates
• Cardinal Mazarin opens the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris to scholars.{{cite book|author=Rita Benton|title=Directory of Music Research Libraries: pt. 1. France, Finland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherland, Portugal, Sweden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2WXgAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Bärenreiter|isbn=978-3-7618-1482-6|page=383}}
• The medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius comes to light, in the possession of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson.
• Miyamoto Musashi begins dictating The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho).
• Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Tommaso Campanella's Civitas Solis, The City of the Sun, are published together in a volume titled Mundus Alter et Idem – the first time, though not the last, that the two works will be bound together.

• Sir Thomas Browne – Religio Medici (first "authorized" edition, after two unauthorized in the previous year)
• Sir Kenelm Digby – Observations Upon Religio Medici
• Philip Hunton – A Treatise of Monarchie
• John Milton – Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
• Roger Williams – A Key into the Language of America
• Pedro Agerre (Axular) – Gero

• Pierre Corneille
• Le Menteur
• Polyeucte
• Sir William Davenant – The Unfortunate Lovers published
• Claude de L'Estoile – La Belle Esclave (The Beautiful Slave)
• Francisco de Quevedo
• Entremés de las sombras
• La mujer de Peribáñez

• Ramillete gracioso
• Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant – Albion

• March 26 – Louis Moréri, French encyclopedist and priest (died 1680)
• September 18 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish historian and bishop (died 1715){{cite book|author1=T. E. S. Clarke|author2=H. C. Foxcroft|title=A Life of Gilbert Burnet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5f0GBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|date=2 April 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-49501-2|pages=11}}
• November 1 – John Strype, English historian, biographer and cleric (died 1737)
• November 16 – Jean Chardin, French travel writer (died 1713)
• unknown date – Thomas Rymer, English Historiographer Royal (died 1713)

• February 9 – Sidney Godolphin, English poet (born 1610)
• April 4 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (born 1583)
• April 12 – Nicolaus Hunnius, German theologian (born 1585)
• April 20 – Christoph Demantius, German poet and composer (born 1567)
• November 29 – William Cartwright, English poet, dramatist and cleric (born 1611)
• unknown dates
• Abraham Azulai, Moroccan-born Kabbalistic author (born c. 1570)
• Thomas Master, English poet, translator and cleric (born 1603)
• Pedro de Oña, Chilean poet (born 1570)
• probable
• Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, Irish chronicler (born c. 1590)
• Henry Glapthorne, English dramatist (born 1610)

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