Thomas Browne

For other people named Thomas Browne, see Thomas Browne (disambiguation).
Sir Thomas Browne
Born 19 October 1605
London
Died 19 October 1682 (aged 77)
Norwich
Nationality English
Alma mater Pembroke College, Oxford, University of Padua, University of Leiden
Known for Religio Medici, Urne-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Christian Morals
Influences Francis Bacon, Kepler, Paracelsus, Montaigne, Athanasius Kircher, Della Porta
Influenced Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey, Herman Melville, William Osler, Jorge Luis Borges, W. G. Sebald

Sir Thomas Browne (/braʊn/; 19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry, while his Christian faith exuded tolerance and goodwill towards humanity in an often intolerant era.

Browne's works are permeated by frequent references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. While often described as suffering from melancholia, his writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour. Browne's literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence.

Biography

Early life

The son of a silk merchant from Upton, Cheshire, he was born in the parish of St Michael, Cheapside, in London on 19 October 1605.[1] His father died while he was still young and he was sent to school at Winchester College.[2] In 1623 Browne went to Oxford University. He graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1626, after which he studied medicine at Padua and Montpellier universities, completing his studies at Leiden, where he received a medical degree in 1633. He settled in Norwich in 1637 and practiced medicine there until his death in 1682.

Literary works

Thomas Browne with his wife Dorothy, by Joan Carlile, c. 1641 – 1650. From the National Portrait Gallery, London collection.

Browne's first literary work was Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician). This work was circulated as a manuscript among his friends. It surprised him when an unauthorised edition appeared in 1642, since the work included several unorthodox religious speculations. An authorised text appeared in 1643, with some of the more controversial views removed. The expurgation did not end the controversy: in 1645, Alexander Ross attacked Religio Medici in his Medicus Medicatus (The Doctor, Doctored) and, in common with much Protestant literature, the book was placed upon the Papal List of Prohibited Books in the same year.

In 1646, Browne published his encyclopaedia, 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 methodical 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 it promoted an awareness of up-to-date scientific journalism, it cast doubt, for example, on the widely believed hypothesis of spontaneous generation.

Browne's last publication during his lifetime, in 1658, were two philosophical Discourses intrinsically related to each other. The first, Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk, inspired by the discovery of some Bronze Age burials in earthenware vessels found in Norfolk, resulted in a literary meditation upon death, the funerary customs of the world and the ephemerality of fame. The other discourse in the diptych 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 features the quincunx, the arrangement of five units (as with the "five-spot" in dice). It is used by Browne to demonstrate evidence of the Platonic forms in art and nature.

Later life and Knighthood

An illustration of Sir Thomas Browne's house in Norwich

In Religio Medici, Browne confirmed his belief, in accordance with the vast majority of 17th century European society, in the existence of angels and witchcraft. He attended the 1662 Bury St. Edmunds witch trial, where his citation of a similar trial in Denmark may have influenced the jury's minds of the guilt of two accused women, who were subsequently executed for the crime of witchcraft.

In 1671 King Charles II, accompanied by the 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 and Cabinet of rarities and that of the best collection, amongst Medails, books, Plants, natural things".[3]

During his visit, Charles 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 Browne's name instead.[4]

Death and aftermath

Sir Thomas Browne's will, dated 2 December 1679

Sir Thomas Browne died on his 77th birthday, 19 October 1682. His Library 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 by Hans Sloane. Editions from Sir Thomas Browne's Library subsequently became included in the founding collection of the British Library.[5]

His missing skull became the subject of dispute when in 1840 his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen. It was not re-interred until 4 July 1922 when it was registered in the church of Saint Peter Mancroft as aged 317 years.[6] Browne's coffin-plate, 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 of alchemy it reads, Amplissimus Vir,....hoc Loculo indormiens, Corporis spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum Convertit—loosely translated from Latin as, Great Virtues,... sleeping here the dust of his spagyric body converts the lead to gold. The origin of the invented word spagyrici are from the Greek of: Spao to tear open, + ageiro to collect, a signature neologism coined by Paracelsus to define his medicine-oriented alchemy; the origins of iatrochemistry, being first advanced by him. Browne's coffin-plate verse, along with the numerous Paracelsian authors listed as once in his library, are evidence he was a follower, albeit often highly critical, of Paracelsus, and shared with the Swiss physician a deep interest in palingenesis, physiognomy, alchemy and astrology.[7]

Autobiography

On 14 March 1673, Browne sent a short autobiography to the antiquarian John Aubrey, presumably for Aubrey's collection of Brief Lives, which provides an introduction to his life and writings.

...I was born in St Michael's Cheap in London, went to school at Winchester College, then went to Oxford, spent some years in foreign parts, was admitted to be a Socius Honorarius of the College of Physicians in London, Knighted September 1671, when the King Charles II, the Queen and Court came to Norwich. Writ Religio Medici in English, which was since translated into Latin, French, Italian, High and Low Dutch, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into Common and Vulgar Errors translated into Dutch four or five years ago. Hydriotaphia, or Urn Buriall. Hortus Cyri, or de Quincunce. Have some miscellaneous tracts which may be published...(Letters 376)[8]

Literary works

Title-page of 1658 edition of 'Urn-Burial' together with 'The Garden of Cyrus'.

Literary influence

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 rugged and pedantic, often rises to the highest pitch of stately eloquence. His paradoxical place in the history of ideas, as both a promoter of the new inductive science, adherent of ancient esoteric learning as well as being a devout Christian, have greatly contributed to his ambiguity in the history of ideas. For these reasons, the literary critic Robert Sencourt succinctly assessed him as "an instance of scientific reason lit up by mysticism in the Church of England".[9] However, the complexity of Browne's labyrinthine thought processes, his ornate language, along with his many allusions to Biblical, Classical and contemporary learning, along with esoteric authors, are each contributing factors towards accounting for why he remains obscure, little-read and thus, misunderstood.

Browne appears at No. 69 in the Oxford 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'.[10][11]

The influence of his literary style spans four centuries.

"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".[12]

In the 20th century those who have admired the English man of letters include:

I am merely a word for Chesterton, for Kafka, and Sir Thomas Browne — I love him. I translated him into 17th 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.[24]

Portraits and influence in the visual arts

Statue of Sir Thomas Browne in Norwich city centre

In 1932 the English painter Paul Nash was invited to illustrate a book of his own choice, Nash choose Sir Thomas Browne's Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus, providing the publisher with a set of 32 illustrations to accompany Browne's Discourses. A pencil drawing by Nash called "Urne Buriall: Teeth, Bones and Hair" is held by Birmingham Museums Trust.

The National Portrait Gallery in London has a fine contemporary portrait by Joan Carlile of Sir Thomas Browne and his wife Dorothy, Lady Browne (née Mileham). More recent sculptural portraits include Henry Alfred Pegram's statue of Sir Thomas contemplating with urn in Norwich. This statue occupies the central position in the Haymarket beside St. Peter Mancroft, not far from the site of his house. It was erected in 1905 and moved from its original position in 1973. In 2005 Robert Mileham's small standing figure in silver and bronze was commissioned for the 400th anniversary of Browne's birth.

References

  1. ↑ R. H. Robbins, "Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–1682)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 accessed 16 Feb 2013
  2. ↑ Breathnach, Caoimhghín S (January 2005). "Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682)". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 98 (1): 33–6. doi:10.1258/jrsm.98.1.33. PMC 1079241. PMID 15632239.
  3. ↑ The Diary of John Evelyn ed. John Eve pub. Everyman (2003)
  4. ↑ Simon Wilkins Supplementary Memoir citing Francis Blomefield Sir Thomas Browne Collected Works Vol. I pub. 1836
  5. ↑ A Facsimile of the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Sir Thomas Browne and his son Edward's Libraries. Introduction, notes and index by J.S. Finch (E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1986) Page 7
  6. ↑ Colin Dickey. The Fate of His Bones // Cabinet Magazine. Issue 28: Bones. Winter 2007/08.
  7. ↑ Manchester Guardian 19 October 1905
  8. ↑ Preston, Claire (1995). Sir Thomas Browne: Selected Writings. Manchester: Carcanet. pp. i. ISBN 1-85754-690-3.
  9. ↑ Sencourt R., Outflying Philosophy: A Literary Study of the Religious Element in the Poems and Letters of John Donne and in the Works of Sir Thomas Browne., Ardent Media, 1925, p.126
  10. ↑ Sir Thomas Browne and the Oxford English Dictionary, Denny Hilton, OED, accessed February 2013.
  11. ↑ Adam Nicolson, The Century That Wrote Itself, BBC Four, 21 April 2013
  12. ↑ Johnson S., "Life of Browne" in Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, London, 1765
  13. ↑ Reid Barbour, Thomas Browne A Life OUP 2013
  14. ↑ (quoted in the Historical Note, Elizabeth S. Foster, page 661: "He has borrowed Sir Thomas Brown[e] of me," Evert A. Duyckinck wrote his brother on March 18, 1848, "and says finely of the speculations of the Religio Medici that Browne is a kind of 'crack'd Archangel!' Was ever anything of this sort said before by a sailor?" in "Mardi and A Voyage Thither," Northwestern University Press, c. 1970, paper bound edition)
  15. ↑ review by Woolf of the Golden Cockerel edition of the Works of Sir Thomas Browne, published in Times Literary Supplement (1923)
  16. ↑ "Age-Old Fallacies of Thinking and Stinking", in "I Have Landed: Splashes and Reflections in Natural History"
  17. ↑ Isis Unveiled 1877 vol. 1 H.P. Blavatsky p.36
  18. ↑ from Religio medici, cf. Laing R., (1967), The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, p.15
  19. ↑ Naxos B000A17GGK Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra David Lloyd-Jones 2005
  20. ↑ Segall N., (1985), "William Osler and Thomas Browne, a friendship of fifty-two years; Sir Thomas pervades Sir William's library". Korot 8 (11–12): 150–65. PMID 11614038.
  21. ↑ Martens P., (1992). "The faiths of two doctors: Thomas Browne and William Osler". Perspect. Biol. Med. 36 (1): 120–8. PMID 1475152.
  22. ↑ Hookman P., (1995), "A comparison of the writings of Sir William Osler and his exemplar, Sir Thomas Browne". Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 72 (1): 136–50. PMID 7581308
  23. ↑
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Interview by Daniel Bourne in Artful Dodge". 25 April 1980.
  25. ↑ Forster, E.M., Selected Stories, Penguin Classics, 2001, pp.30-46, ISBN 978-0141186191
  26. ↑ Willie Morris, North Towards Home, New York: Vintage; part 3 (page 313 ff); ISBN 0375724605 ISBN 978-0375724602; The quote is from Chapter 5.
  27. ↑ La religión de un médico. El enterramiento en urnas (Hydriotaphia). De los sueños, nota previa, traducción y epílogo de Javier Marías, Barcelona: Reino de Redonda, primera edición de septiembre de 2002, 356 páginas. ISBN 978-84-931471-4-3.

Sources

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