Sir Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne 1605-82, English author and physician, b. London, educated at Oxford and abroad, knighted (1671) by Charles II. His Religio Medici, in which Browne attempted to reconcile science and religion, was written about 1635. After circulating in manuscript, it was first published in a pirated edition (1642); an authorized edition followed (1643). Inspired by the discovery of funeral urns near Norwich, he wrote Hydriotaphia: Urn Burial (1658), a solemn reflection on death and immortality, in which he expressed a belief in the futility of things here on earth. Published with Urn Burial was the more optimistic The Garden of Cyrus, a work devoted to the mystic symbolism of the number five. Browne's philosophy is now primarily of historical interest. It is the quality of his faith and, particularly, his mode of expression that make him one of the outstanding figures in the history of English literature. His other notable works are Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), commonly known as Vulgar Errors, and Christian Morals (1716).

Bibliography: See edition of his works (ed. by G. Keynes, 6 vol., 1928-31); biographies by J. S. Finch (1950) and J. F. Post (1987); studies by J. Bennett (1962), L. Nathanson (1967), and C. A. Patrides, ed. (1982).

Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–82), studied medicine at Montpellier and Padua, received a doctorate from Leiden, and settled in Norwich c.1637 to practise medicine. Religio Medici (1642), first published without his consent, quickly made him famous by its distinctive wit and style. His most ambitious work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646; commonly known as Vulgar Errors), established him as a man of learning. In the 1650s he wrote for friends the shorter tracts Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial, The Garden of Cyrus, and A Letter to a Friend (published 1690); the latter overlapping in content with Christian Morals (1716), a sententious piece which was re-edited in 1756 by Dr Johnson, who prefaced it with a substantial ‘Life’. He was knighted in 1671 by Charles II.