Selected Writings of Sir Thomas Browne

by Browne,Sir Thom

• ISBN13: 9780415967471
• ISBN10: 0415967473
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-04-11
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

"This selection of Browne's writings presents the full range of his exuberant enthusiasms and his richly textured, allusive language. Physician and philosopher, Browne lived through a period of intellectual ferment, and his works reflect the expanding horizons of the age. He was boundlessly curious about the world. Best known for Religio Medici and Urn Burial, he also wrote tracts, letters to antiquarians, notebooks and observations on natural history. John Evelyn, visiting Browne in 1671, called his house a 'cabinet of rarities', and Claire Preston's selection has that same quality. Here readers will encounter Browne discussing death and resurrection, sneezing, astronomy, ostriches, hieroglyphics, rainbows, and much else."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Browne's Autobiography	vii
Introduction: `Janus in the Field of Knowledge'	1	(8)
A Note on the Text	9	(1)
Further Reading	10	(1)
Religion	11	(22)
Religio Medici: To the Reader
reason and belief
the world as text
man and macrocosm
chaos
death
last things
resurrection
election
learning
harmony
man and microcosm
avarice
precepts for dying
Error	33	(37)
Pseudodoxia Epidemica: To the Reader
popular error
credulity
adherence to antiquity
hieroglyphics
plant lore
animals real and fabulous
dietary law
astronomy
language
divination
sneezing
cosmology
rainbows
oracles
Biblical error
Antiquarianism	70	(45)
Fossils
John Dee
Urn-Burial
a hidden museum
Natural History	115	(24)
Things to investigate
thunder
whispering galleries
magnetism and electricity
swimming and floating
of various animals
animal antipathies
ostriches
storks
marine life
corruption
Signatures	139	(9)
Figures in nature
physiognomy
hieroglyphics
moles
the quincunx
Medicine	148	(3)
Venereal disease
medical gossip
Advice	151	(7)
Tourist advice
financial prudence
charity
self-knowledge
sincerity
humility
L'envoi	158	(1)
List of Proper Names	159