Thomas Browne Portrait of Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne (October 19, 1605 - October 19, 1682) was an English author of a number of works that disclose his wide learning in various fields of learning including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. A consummate literary craftsman, his works are characterised by erudite learning and a rich, unusual prose style which alternates between rough note-book jottings and the highest eloquence. Browne's literary writings are varied in genre and evince an enquiring curiosity towards the natural world, displaying scientific skepticism and Christian faith as well as tolerance in an often intolerant age. Although often described as suffering from melancholia he was also capable of wit in his writings. The literary critic Robert Sencourt succinctly assessed Browne as "an instance of scientific reason lit up by mysticism in the Church of England." Biography The son of a silk merchant from Upton, Cheshire, Browne was born in the parish of St Michael, Cheapside, in London on October 19, 1605. His father died while he was still young and he was sent to school at Winchester College. In 1623 he went up to Oxford University. Browne graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1626 and received a medical doctorate from the University of Leiden in 1633. He settled in Norwich in 1637 where he practiced medicine and lived until his death in 1682. His first well-known work bore the Latin title Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician). This work was circulated in manuscript among his friends, and it caused Browne some surprise and embarrassment when an unauthorised edition appeared in 1642, since the work contained a number of religious speculations that might be considered unorthodox. An authorised text with some of the controversial matter removed appeared in 1643. The expurgation did not end the controversy; in 1645, Alexander Ross attacked Religio Medici in his Medicus Medicatus (The Doctor, Doctored) and in fact the book was placed upon the Papal index of forbidden reading for Catholics in the same year. In 1646, Browne published Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets, and commonly Presumed Truths, whose title refers to the prevalence of false beliefs and "vulgar errors." A sceptical work that debunks a number of legends circulating at the time in a paradoxical and witty manner, it displays the Baconian side of Browne—the side that was unafraid of what at the time was still called "the new learning." The book is significant in the history of science because its arguments were some of the first to cast doubt on the widely-believed hypothesis of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis. In 1658 Browne published together two Discourses which are intimately related to each other, the first being Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk, occasioned by the discovery of some Bronze Age burials in earthenware vessels found in Norfolk. These inspired Browne to meditate upon the funerary customs of the world and the fleetingness of earthly fame and reputation. Hydriotaphia's (Urn-Burial) 'binary' companion Discourse is The Garden of Cyrus, or, The Quincunciall Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, and Mystically Considered, whose slight subject is the quincunx, the arrangement of five units like the five-spot in dice, which Browne utilises to demonstrate that the Platonic forms exist throughout Nature. Quincunx 1671 Knighthood to death In 1671 King Charles II, accompanied by the Royal Court, visited Norwich. The courtier John Evelyn, who had occasionally corresponded with Browne, took good use of the Royal visit to call upon the learned doctor of European fame and wrote of his visit: His whole house and garden is a paradise & Cabinet of rarieties & that of the best collection, amongst Medails, books, Plants, natural things. During his visit to Norwich King Charles II visited Browne's home. A banquet was held in the Civic Hall St. Andrews for the Royal visit. Obliged to honour a notable local, the name of the Mayor of Norwich was proposed to the King for knighthood. The Mayor, however, declined the honour and proposed the name of Browne instead. Thus, technically speaking, Thomas Browne was only Sir Thomas from 1671 until his death eleven years later in 1682. Sir Thomas Browne died on his 77th birthday, October 19th 1682. His skull became the subject of dispute when in 1835 his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen. It was not re-interred until 4th July 1922 when it was registered in the church of Saint Peter Mancroft as aged 316 years. Literary influence Today Sir Thomas Browne is a little-read and thus a much misunderstood author. There are several factors which have contributed to his obscurity; the complexity of his ornate and labyrinthine thought and his many allusions to the Bible, Classical learning and esoteric authors are however the primary factors as to why reliance upon received information continues upon his name. Browne's paradoxical place in the history of ideas is another factor as to why he remains little-understood; he was as much a scientist as a Christian and as much a promoter of the new inductive science as an adherent of ancient esoteric learning. This is reflected in the vast catalogue of over 1,500 books in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne. The influence of Browne's literary style can sometimes be felt in the writings of Doctor Johnson, who shared Browne's love of the Latinate and wrote a brief Life where he praised Browne as a faithful Christian but gave a mixed reception to his prose: "His style is, indeed, a tissue of many languages; a mixture of heterogeneous words, brought together from distant regions, with terms originally appropriated to one art, and drawn by violence into the service of another. He must, however, be confessed to have augmented our philosophical diction; and, in defence of his uncommon words and expressions, we must consider, that he had uncommon sentiments, and was not content to express, in many words, that idea for which any language could supply a single term." In the nineteenth century Browne's reputation was revived by the Romantics. Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Charles Lamb—who thought of himself as the rediscoverer of Browne—were all admirers. The novelist Herman Melville, heavily influenced by his style, considered him to be "a cracked archangel." In modern times references to Browne can be found in diverse works including the writings of the American natural historian and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, the theosophists Madame Blavatsky, and Eveyln Underhill and the Scottish psychologist R. D. Laing, who opens his work The Politics of Experience with a quotation by him. Virginia Woolf was a prominent admirer, writing in 1923, "Few people love the writings of Sir Thomas Browne, but those that do are the salt of the earth." In 1973 the composer Malcolm Arnold wrote a symphony based upon the rythmical cadences of Browne's literary work Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial. The German born author W.G. Sebald wrote of Browne in his semi-autobiographical novel The Rings of Saturn (1995) whilst the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges alluded to Browne throughout his literary writings, from his very first publication, Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923) until his last years. Such was Borges admiration for Browne as a literary stylist and thinker that late in his life (Interview April 25th 1980) he stated of himself alluding to his self-portrait in Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940)- "I am merely a word for Chesterton, for Kafka, and Sir Thomas Browne—I love him. I translated him into seventeenth century Spanish and it worked very well. We took a chapter out of Urne Buriall and we did that into Quevedo's Spanish and it went very well." Literary works Religio Medici (1643) Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-76) Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658) The Garden of Cyrus (1658) Letter to a Friend (1656; pub. post. 1690) Christian Morals (1670s; pub. post. 1716) Musaeum Clausum Tract 13 of 13 Miscellaneous Tracts first pub. post. 1684 External links The Sir Thomas Browne Page at the University of Chicago: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/index.shtml (This page contains links to all works mentioned and Samuel Johnson's Life of Browne). Minor and shorter works available at http://wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Thomas_Browne A selection of quotations from literary works can be found at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Browne_Thomas_Sir An essay upon Browne's relationship to alchemy can be found at http://levity.com/alchemy/sir_thomas_browne.html Interview with Jorge Luis Borges, April 25 1980, discussing Browne: http://wooster.edu/artfuldodger/borges.html Most Popular Articles: Music    Musical Instruments    Guitar    Classical Music    History    Music Definition    Country Music    Rock Music    Pop Music    Hip Hop    Rap    DJ    Video Games    Casino Games    Poker    Blackjack    Casinos    Real Estate    Loan    Auction    eBay    Marketing    Search Engine Optimization    File Sharing    MP3    Music Industry    Kazaa    Internet    Supermodel    Fashion    Fashion Designers    Erotica    Modeling    Clothing    Boots    Shoes    Diamond Engagement Rings    Diamond    Rugs    Gospel Music    Affiliate    E-Commerce    Radio This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. 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