Selected writings

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), physician and philosopher, is celebrated principally for his Religio Medici and his study of burial customs, Urn Burial, masterpieces of English prose. But a portrait of Browne as a seventeenth-century intellectual must include much that is rarely seen except by specialists. The Pseudodoxia Epidemica, for example, tracts, letters to naturalists and antiquarians, notebooks and observations on natural history, are neglected. This modernised edition includes the complete text of Urn Burial, selections from Religio Medici, and much else to give account of Browne as doctor, scientist, philosopher, Christian, political and social being. Designed for those unfamiliar with Browne's sometimes opaque prose, it includes substantial annotation and a full introduction. . Browne's elaborate wit engages us by its reflective, at times outrageous tone. He can parody himself: 'if elegancy still proceedeth...we shall, within few years, be fain to learn Latin to understand English...' He was 'rich in various knowledge, exuberant in conceptions and conceits; contemplative, imaginative, often truly great and magnificent in his style,' Coleridge said. His work has marked generations of English writers.