Thomas Browne | |
|---|---|
 Sir Thomas Browne (c. 1641–1650), attributed toJoan Carlile | |
| Born | 19 October 1605 London, England |
| Died | 19 October 1682(1682-10-19) (aged 77) Norwich, England |
| Alma mater | Winchester College Pembroke College, Oxford University of Padua Leiden University |
| Known for | Religio Medici,Urne-Burial andThe Garden of Cyrus,Pseudodoxia Epidemica,Christian Morals |
Sir Thomas Browne (/braʊn/ "brown"; 19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682) was an Englishpolymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and theesoteric. His writings display a deep curiosity towards thenatural world, influenced by theScientific Revolution ofBaconian enquiry and are permeated by references toClassical andBiblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffused withmelancholia, Browne's writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, uniqueprose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polishedBaroque eloquence.
Thomas Browne was born in the parish ofSt Michael,Cheapside, in London on 19 October 1605. He was the youngest child of Thomas Browne, asilk merchant fromUpton, Cheshire, and Anne Browne, the daughter of Paul Garraway ofLewes,Sussex. He had an elder brother and two elder sisters.[1] The family, who had lived at Upton for several generations, were "evidently people of some importance" who "intermarried with families of position in that neighbourhood", and werearmigerous. Browne's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Henry Birkenhead,Clerk of the Green Cloth toElizabeth I of England andClerk of the Crown for the counties ofCheshire andFlintshire.[2] Browne's father died while he was young, and his mother married Sir Thomas Dutton ofGloucester andIsleworth,Middlesex, by whom she had two daughters.[3]
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Browne was educated atWinchester College.[4] In 1623, he went toBroadgates Hall ofOxford University. Browne was chosen to deliver the undergraduate oration when the hall was incorporated asPembroke College in August 1624. He graduated from Oxford in January 1627, after which he studied medicine atPadua andMontpellier universities, completing his studies atLeiden, where he received amedical degree in 1633. He settled inNorwich in 1637 and practised medicine there until he died in 1682.[5][6]
In 1641, Browne married Dorothy Mileham ofBurlingham St Peter,Norfolk. They had 10 children, six of whom died before their parents.[7]
Browne's first literary work wasReligio Medici(The Religion of a Physician). It surprised him when an unauthorised edition appeared in 1642, which included unorthodox religious speculations. An authorised text appeared in 1643, with some of the more controversial views removed. The expurgation did not end the controversy. The Scottish writerAlexander Ross attackedReligio Medici in hisMedicus Medicatus (1645). Browne's book was placed upon the PapalIndex Librorum Prohibitorum in the same year.[1]
In 1646 Browne published his encyclopaedia,Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenents, and commonly Presumed Truths, the title of which refers to the prevalence of false beliefs and "vulgar errors". A sceptical work that debunks in a methodical and witty manner several legends circulating at the time, it displays theBaconian side of Browne—the side that was unafraid of what at the time was still called the "New Learning". The book is significant in thehistory of science because it promoted an awareness of scientific journalism.[citation needed]
The last works published by Browne were two philosophical Discourses. They are closely related to each other in concept. The first,Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk (1658), was inspired by the discovery in Norfolk of some 40 to 50Anglo-Saxon burial urns.[8] It is a literary meditation upon death, thefunerary customs of the world and the ephemerality of fame. The other discourse in thediptych is antithetical in style, subject matter and imagery.The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, and Mystically Considered (1658) features thequincunx that Browne used to demonstrate evidence ofthe Platonic forms in art and nature.[9][page needed]
Browne believed in the existence ofangels andwitchcraft.[10] He attended the 1662Bury St Edmunds witch trial,[4] where hiscitation of a similar trial in Denmark may have influenced the jury's minds concerning two accused women, who were later found guilty of witchcraft.[11]
In November 1671,King Charles II, accompanied by hisCourt, visited Norwich.[4] The courtierJohn Evelyn, who had occasionally corresponded with Browne, made good use of the royal visit to call upon "the learned doctor" of European fame and wrote of his visit, recording that "his whole house and garden is a paradise and Cabinet of rarities and that of the best collection, amongst Medails, books, Plants, natural things". During his visit, Charles visited Browne's home. Abanquet was held inSt Andrew's Hall for the royal visit. Obliged to honour a notable local, the name of the Mayor of Norwich was proposed to the King forknighthood. The Mayor, however, declined the honour and proposed Browne's name instead.[citation needed]
Browne died on 19 October 1682, his 77th birthday. He was buried in thechancel ofSt Peter Mancroft, Norwich. His skull was removed when his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen in 1840. It was not re-interred in St Peter Mancroft until 4 July 1922 when it was recorded in theburial register as aged 317 years.[12] Browne'scoffin plate, which was stolen the same time as his skull, was also eventually recovered, broken into two halves, one of which is on display at St Peter Mancroft. Alluding to the commonplace opus ofalchemy it reads,Amplissimus Vir Dns. Thomas Browne, Miles, Medicinae Dr., Annos Natus 77 Denatus 19 Die mensis Octobris, Anno. Dni. 1682, hoc Loculo indormiens. Corporis Spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum Convertit. — translated from Latin as "The esteemed Gentleman Thomas Browne, Knight, Doctor of Medicine, 77 years old, died on the 19th of October in the year of Our Lord 1682 and lies sleeping in this coffin. With the dust of his alchemical body he converts lead into gold".[citation needed] The origin of the invented wordspagyrici is from the Greekspao to tear open +ageiro to collect, a signature neologism coined byParacelsus to define his medicine-oriented alchemy; the origins ofiatrochemistry, being first advanced by him.[13]
Browne's coffin-plate verse, along with the collected works of Paracelsus and several followers of the Swiss physician listed in his library, is evidence that although sometimes highly critical of Paracelsus, nevertheless, like the 'Luther of Medicine', he believed inpalingenesis,physiognomy, alchemy,astrology and thekabbalah.[citation needed]
TheLibrary of Sir Thomas Browne was held in the care of his eldest son Edward until 1708. The auction of Browne and his son Edward's libraries in January 1711 was attended byHans Sloane. Editions from the library were subsequently included in the founding collection of theBritish Library.[14]
On 14 March 1673, Browne sent a short autobiography to the antiquarianJohn Aubrey, presumably for Aubrey's collection ofBrief Lives, which provides an introduction to his life and writings:
Browne is widely considered one of the most original writers in the English language. The freshness and ingenuity of his mind invested everything he touched with interest; while on more important subjects his style, if frequently ornate and Latinate, often rises to the highest pitch of stately eloquence. He has aparadoxical and ambiguous place in thehistory of ideas, as equally, a devout Christian, a promoter of the newinductive science, and an adherent of ancientesoteric learning. For these reasons, one literary critic succinctly assessed him as "an instance of scientific reason lit up by mysticism in theChurch of England".[16] However, the complexity of Browne's labyrinthine thought processes, his highly stylised language, his many allusions to Biblical, Classical and contemporary learning, along with esoteric authors, are each contributing factors to why he remains obscure, little-read, and, thus, misunderstood.[citation needed]
A masterneologist, Browne appears at number 69 in theOxford English Dictionary's list of top-cited sources. He has 775 entries in the OED of first usage of a word, is quoted in a total of 4131 entries of first evidence of a word, and is quoted 1596 times as first evidence of a particular meaning of a word. Examples of his coinages, many of which are of a scientific or medical nature, include 'ambidextrous', 'antediluvian', 'analogous', 'approximate', 'ascetic', 'anomalous', 'carnivorous', 'coexistence', 'coma', 'compensate', 'computer', 'cryptography', 'cylindrical', 'disruption', 'ergotisms', 'electricity', 'exhaustion', 'ferocious', 'follicle', 'generator', 'gymnastic', 'hallucination', 'herbaceous', 'holocaust', 'insecurity', 'indigenous', 'jocularity', 'literary', 'locomotion', 'medical', 'migrant', 'mucous', 'prairie', 'prostate', 'polarity', 'precocious', 'pubescent', 'therapeutic', 'suicide', 'ulterior', 'ultimate' and 'veterinarian'.[17]
The influence of his literary style spans four centuries. In the 19th century, Browne's reputation was revived by theRomantics.Thomas De Quincey,Samuel Taylor Coleridge, andCharles Lamb (who considered himself the rediscoverer of Browne) were all admirers. Carlyle was also influenced by him.[18][page needed]
The composerWilliam Alwyn wrote asymphony in 1973 based upon the rhythmical cadences of Browne's literary workHydriotaphia, Urn Burial.[19]
TheArgentinian writerJorge Luis Borges alluded to Browne throughout his literary writings, from his first publication,Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923) until his last years. He described Browne as "the best prose writer in the English language".[citation needed]
In the 18th century,Samuel Johnson, who shared Browne's love of theLatinate, wrote a briefLife in which he praised Browne as a faithful Christian and assessed his prose.
The English authorVirginia Woolf wrote two short essays about him, observing in 1923, "Few people love the writings of Sir Thomas Browne, but those who do are the salt of the earth."[20]
Clive James included an essay on Browne in hisCultural Amnesia collection. James celebrated Browne's style and originality, stating that Browne was "minting new coin" with everything he wrote.
TheNational Portrait Gallery in London has a contemporary portrait byJoan Carlile ofSir Thomas Browne and his wife Dorothy, probably completed between 1641 and 1650.[21]
More recent sculptural portraits includeHenry Alfred Pegram's 1905 statue of Sir Thomas contemplating with an urn in Norwich. This statue occupies the central position in the Haymarket beside St Peter Mancroft, not far from the site of his house. Unveiled on 19 October 1905, it was moved from its original position in 1973 and once more in 2023.
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