This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1671.

Events

• February – Nell Gwyn retires from the stage and moves into a brick townhouse at 79 Pall Mall, London.^[1]
• November 9 – The Duke's Company open their new venue, the Dorset Garden Theatre.
• Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières is awarded the first prize given for poetry by the Académie française.^[2]
• Philosophus Autodidactus, the first Latin translation of Ibn Tufail's 12th century tale Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, prepared by Edward Pococke before 1660, is published for the first time.

New books

Prose

• Edward Bagshaw (attributed) – The Life and Death of Mr Vavasor Powell
• Edward Burrough (died 1663) – The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation: Namely, that True Prophet, and Faithful Servant of God, and Sufferer for the Testimony of Jesus, Edward Burroughs...
• Marie-Catherine de Villedieu – Les Amours des Grands Hommes
• Johann Ferdinand Hertodt – Crocologia
• John Josselyn – New England's Rarities, discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country (London)
• Gottfried Leibniz – Hypothesis Physica Nova (`New Physical Hypothesis')
• Pierre Martin de La Martinière – Voyage des pays septentrionaux (A New Voyage to the North)
• Arnoldus Montanus – De nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld of Beschryving van America (The Unknown New World or Description of the Continent America)
• Isaac Newton – Method of Fluxions
• Jane Sharp – The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifry Discovered

Children

• James Janeway – A Token for Children (two parts)

Drama

• Aphra Behn – The Amorous Prince (adapted from Robert Davenport's The City Nightcap)
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca – El santo rey don Fernando
• John Caryll – Sir Solomon Single
• Pierre Corneille – Tite et Bérénice
• John Corye – The Generous Enemies
• John Crowne
  • Charles VIII of France
  • Juliana
• John Dryden – The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery
• Edward Howard – The Six Days' Adventure
• Elizabeth Polwheele – The Frolicks
• Samuel Pordage – Herod and Mariamne
• Edward Ravenscroft – Mamamouchi
• Edward Revet – The Town Shifts
• Elkanah Settle – Cambyses
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham & others – The Rehearsal
• William Wycherley – Love in a Wood

Poetry

• John Milton – Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes

Births

• April 6 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French dramatist and poet (died 1741)
• September 7 – Antoine Danchet, French dramatist and poet (died 1748)
• November 6 – Colley Cibber, English playwright and Poet Laureate (died 1757)
• Unknown date – Gustaf Adlerfelt, Swedish historian (died 1709)
• Unknown date, possibly 1672 – Sarah Dixon, English poet (died 1765)

Deaths

• January 1 – Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont, French historian and cleric (born 1606)
• January 22 – Odorico Raynaldi, Italian historian (born 1595)
• February 22 – Adam Olearius, German librarian and scholar (born 1603)
• July 14 – Méric Casaubon, Swiss-born English classicist (born 1599)
• September 28 – Jean de Montigny, French philosopher and poet (born 1636)
• December 28 – Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German classicist (born 1611)