This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1770.
Events
February 6 – Voltaire writes to Abbot la Riche; the letter is said to be the source of his famous statement, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." ("Je ne suis pas d’accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai jusqu’à la mort votre droit de le dire.") This is now generally believed to be a misattribution.[1]
December
The Library of the Sorbonne in Paris is opened to the public.[2]
William Duff – Critical Observations on the Writings of the Most Celebrated Geniuses in Poetry
Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge – Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca (approximate year of composition, fully published 1975, a contender for first American novel)
Edward Gibbon – Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid
Immanuel Kant – Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World (De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis, inaugural dissertation)
Catharine Macaulay – Observations on a Pamphlet Entitled, Thoughts on the Present Discontents (in response to Burke)