The Major Works (English Library)

by Sir Thomas Browne

  Orion: the hunter beloved of Diana; also the constellation near Taurus

  Orpheus: legendary pre-Homeric poet, founder of the mystic cult Orphism

  Orta, Garcia de (fl. mid 16th cent.): Portuguese naturalist

  Ortelius, Abraham (1527–1598): Flemish cartographer and antiquary

  Orus: see Horus

  Osiris: the Egyptian god of the lower world (see Isis, Horus)

  Osman II: Ottoman emperor (1618–1622)

  Osorius (Jeronimo Osorio da Fonseca, 1506–1580): Portuguese bishop and historian

  Ostorius Scapula, P.: Roman governor in Britain (47–51)

  Osyris: see Osiris

  Ovid (43 B.C.-c. A.D. 17): Roman poet

  Palaephatus (4th cent. B.C.): Greek grammarian who rationalised Greek mythology

  Palamedes: Greek warrior at the siege of Troy, said to have added several letters to the alphabet

  Pantagruel: see Rabelais

  Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541): Swiss physician and chemist

  Paré (Pareus), Ambrose (1510–1590): French surgeon

  Pareus, Johann (1576–1648): German theologian and philologist

  Paris: the Trojan prince who kidnapped Helen of Sparta causing the Trojan War

  Patrick, St (c. 389–c. 461): the ‘Apostle of the Irish’

  Patroclus: friend of Achilles (q.v.), killed by Hector of Troy

  Paul, St (d. c. A.D. 65): the ‘Apostle of the Gentiles’

  Paul V: Pope (1605–1621)

  Paulinus: see Suetonius Paulinus

  Paulo, Padre: see Sarpi

  Paulus Aegineta (fl. ante 700): Greek medical writer

  Pausanias (2nd cent.): Greek traveller and geographer

  Peiresc, Nicolas de (1580–1637): French scholar and naturalist

  Penelope: the faithful wife of Ulysses (q.v.)

  Penthesilea: daughter of Mars and the queen of the Amazons

  Pereskius: see Peiresc

  Periander (625–585 B.C.): Greek statesman, one of the Seven Wise Men

  Perithous: son of Ixion king of the Lapiths

  Perseus: the son of Jupiter and Danaë, slayer of Medusa

  Persius (34–62): Roman satiric poet

  Perucci, Francesco: Italian author of Pompe funebri (1639)

  Peter, St: the Prince of the Apostles

  Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160): author of the standard textbook of medieval theology, the ‘Sentences’

  Peter Martyr (Pietro Martire Vermigli, 1500–1562): Italian Reformer

  Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–1374): Italian poet and humanist

  Petronius (d. c. 66): Roman satirist

  Pettus, Sir John: see p. 389 (headnote)

  Phaëton: struck down by Jupiter on borrowing the chariot of his father Sol (q.v.)

  Phalaris: tyrant of Agrigento (570–554 B.C.); also the canary grass

  Pharamond: the legendary first king of France

  Phavorinus: see Favorinus

  Philes, Manuel (1275?–1345): Byzantine poet

  Philip: one of the seven ‘deacons’ chosen as missionaries (see Acts 6.3 ff., 8.26 ff.)

  Philip II: king of Macedon (359–336 B.C.)

  Philip II: king of Spain (1556–1598)

  Philo (c. 20 B.C.–c. A.D. 50): Jewish thinker and exegete

  Philopoemen (253–183 B.C.): Greek commander

  Philoxenus (5th/6th cent.): Syriac writer

  Phocas: Byzantine emperor (602–610)

  Phocylides (fl. c. 560 B.C.): Greek philosopher and poet

  Phoebus: see Apollo

  Photius (c. 810–895): Patriarch of Constantinople

  Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni (1463–1494): Florentine scholar and mystic

  Picotus (Pichotus), Petrus: French author of De rheumatismo (1577)

  Pictiolus (Antonio Piccioli): Italian writer on chiromancy (1587)

  Pierius: see Valerianus

  Pilate, Pontius: Roman procurator (governor) of Judaea (26–36)

  Pineda, Juan de (1558–1637): Spanish theologian and Biblical exegete

  Pittacus of Mytilene (d. 570 B.C.): warrior and sage

  Plato (427–347 B.C.): the foremost Greek philosopher

  Plautus (254?–184 B.C.): Roman writer of comedies

  Plempius, Vopiscus Fortunatus (1601–1671): Dutch medical writer

  Plethon, Gemistus: see Gemistus Plethon

  Pliny (23–79): Roman scholar, author of the uncritical encyclopedia Natural History

  Plutarch (c. 46–c. 120): Greek biographer and philosopher

  Pluto: the ruler of the infernal regions

  Polonus, Martinus: see Martinus

  Polydorus: see Vergil, P.

  Polyphemus: the one-eyed Cyclops who imprisoned Ulysses and his companions (see Odyssey, IX, 105 ff.)

  Pompey the Great (106–48 B.C.): Roman general and statesman

  Pomponius Mela: see Mela

  Poppaea (d. 65?): wife of Nero (q.v.)

  Porphyry (c. 232–303): Neoplatonist philosopher

  Porta: see della Porta

  Porus (d. 321 B.C.): king of India

  Posthumius: see next entry

  Postumus: Gallic emperor (258–267)

  Prasutagus (d. 61): king of the Iceni, husband of Boadicea (q.v.)

  Prateolus (Gabriel Du Préau, 1511–1588): French theologian and translator

  Prester John (i.e. ‘Presbyter’ John): legendary medieval Christian king of Asia (or ‘Abyssinia’, commonly confused with India)

  Primerose, James (d. 1659): Scottish physician, author of De vulgi erroribus in medicinae (1639, trans. 1651)

  Priscian (5th cent.): Latin grammarian

  Procrustes: a mythical robber who mutilated his captives

  Propertius (fl. c. 30–15 B.C.): Roman poet

  Proteus: the sea god capable of changing his appearance at will

  Psellus, Michael (c. 1019–c. 1078): Byzantine philosopher and historian

  Ptolemy (2nd cent.): Alexandrian astronomer and geographer

  Ptolemy II: king of Egypt (283–246 B.C.), commissioned the Septuagint for Alexandria’s library

  Ptolemy VI Philometor: king of Egypt (181–145 B.C.)

  Ptolomy: see previous entries

  Purchas, Samuel (1575?–1616): English author and collector of travel literature

  Pythagoras (6th cent. B.C.): Greek philosopher and mathematician

  Pythias: see Damon

  Quintilian (1st cent.): Roman rhetorician and critic

  Quintus Curtius (2nd cent.): Roman historian

  Rabelais, François (1494?–1553): French satirist, author of Gargantua et Pantagruel

  Radamanth: see Rhadamanth

  Ralegh, Sir Walter (1552?–1618): English explorer, historian, poet, courtier

  Ramusius (Giovanni Battista Ramusio, 1485–1557): Venetian diplomat and collector of travel literature

  Rapha: the monstrous warrior described in 1 Chronicles 20.6

  Raphael of Urbino (1483–1520): Italian painter and architect

  Regiomontanus (Johann Müller of Königsberg, 1436–1476): see p. 78, note 90

  Regulus, Marcus Atilius (d. 250 B.C.): Roman consul and general

  Remus: twin brother of Romulus the founder of Rome

  Reuben: Jacob’s eldest son (see Genesis 29); also the tribe

  Rhadamanth: a judge of the dead in Hades

  Rhodiginus, Ludovicus (1450?–1525): Italian scholar

  Ringo: i.e. Hringrs Ingildsson, king of Sweden (cf. Harald)

  Rollo (860?-931?): Norse chieftain, 1st Duke of Normandy

  Romulus: the legendary founder of Rome; also, a Roman consul put to death by want of sleep

  Rondelet(ius), Guillaume (1507–1566): French naturalist, professor of anatomy at Montpellier

  Rudolph II: German emperor (1576–1612)

  Salmanasser: see Shalmaneser

  Salmasius, Claudius (1588–1653): French scholar

  Salmoneus: see p. 449 note 9

  Samaria:
the capital of Northern Israel (to 722 B.C.)

  Samson: the last of the great ‘judges’ (see Judges 13 ff.)

  Sandys, George (1578–c. 1644): English poet and traveller

  Sardanapalus (c. 822 B.C.): ruler of Assyria

  Sarpi, Paolo (1552–1623): Venetian historian and theologian

  Saturn (Cronos): the god of agriculture; also the planet

  Saul: the first king of Israel

  Saxo Grammaticus (1150?–1220?): Danish historian

  Scaevola, G. Mucius: legendary Roman hero (6th cent. B.C.), ‘saved his life by the patient tolleration of the burning of his hand’ (Cockeram; see Livy, II, 12)

  Scaliger, Joseph Justus (1540–1609): the great French scholar

  Scaliger, Julius Caesar (1484–1558): Italian philosopher and scholar, father of the former

  Scevola: see Scaevola

  Scipio Major (237–183 B.C.): Roman general, defeated Hannibal in 202 B.C.

  Scipio Mercurii: see Mercurii

  Scribonius Largus: see Largus

  Sedechias: see Zedekiah

  Semiramis: legendary queen of Assyria

  Sempronius: see Giggei

  Seneca (c. 4 B.C.-A.D. 65): Roman statesman, philosopher and playwright

  Seneca the Elder (54? B.C.–A.D. 39): Roman rhetorician, father of the former

  Sennacherib: king of Assyria and Babylonia (705–681 B.C.), father of Esarhaddon (q.v.)

  Septimius Severus: see Severus, Lucius Septimius

  Serapis: a god of the lower world

  Servius (4th cent.): Roman grammarian and commentator on Virgil

  Seth: the third son of Adam

  Severus, Lucius Septimius: Roman emperor (193–211)

  Severus Alexander: see Alexander Severus

  Shalmaneser V: king of Assyria (727–722 B.C.), besieged Samaria (q.v.)

  Sibyl: any inspired prophetess

  Sidney, Sir Philip (1554–1586): English courtier, poet and Critic

  Sidonius Apollinaris, St (c. 432 – c. 480): Bishop of Clermont, poet and letter-writer

  Simonides (557?–467 B.C.): Greek lyric poet

  Siren: any of the sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death by singing (see Odyssey, XII, 165 ff.)

  Sisyphus: condemned to roll a stone uphill, only to have it roll back

  Smith, John, the Cambridge Platonist (1618–1652): philosopher

  Smyrnaeus: see Metrophanes

  Socrates (470?–399 B.C.): Athenian philosopher and teacher

  Sol (Helios): the sun god

  Solinus, G. Julius (early 3rd cent.): Latin grammarian and encyclopedic author

  Solomon: the third king of Israel, accepted as the author of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Wisdom of Solomon

  Solon (638?–558? B.C.): Athenian lawgiver

  Solyman: see Suleiman

  Somnus: i.e. Sleep

  Starkatterus: i.e. Starkaòr the Old, a popular legendary figure

  Statius (45?-96): Roman epic poet

  Stentor: the herald of the loud voice (see Iliad, V, 785)

  Stowe, John (1525–1605): English chronicler and antiquary

  Strabo (c. 63 B.C.-c. A.D. 24): Greek geographer

  Strebaeus (Jacques-Louis Strébée, fl. mid 16th cent.): French classical scholar

  Suarez, Francisco de (1548–1617): Spanish Jesuit theologian, author of Disputationes metapbysicae (1597); see p. 77, note 85

  Sueno: see Sweyn Forkbeard

  Suetonius (2nd cent.): Roman biographer and historian

  Suetonius Paulinus, C.: Roman governor in Britain (59–61)

  Suleiman ‘the Magnificent’: Ottoman emperor (1520–1566)

  Sulla, Lucius Cornelius (138–78 B.C.): Roman general and dictator

  Sweyn Forkbeard: king of Denmark (985?–1014) and conqueror of England

  Sybilla: see Sibyl

  Sydenham, Humphrey (1591–1650?): English divine and author

  Sylla: see Sulla

  Tacitus, Cornelius (52?–post 117): Roman orator, politician, historian

  Tantalus: son of Jupiter; his punishment: eternal hunger and thirst

  Tarquinius Priscus: the fifth king of Rome (617–578 B.C.)

  Tartaret, Pierre (late 15th cent.): see p. 88, note 140

  Tartarus: see Hades

  Taurus: the northern constellation containing the Pleiades

  Taylor, Jeremy (1613–1667): Anglican bishop and writer

  Tellus: the Roman goddess of the earth

  Tenison, Thomas: Archbishop of Canterbury (1694)

  Tertullian (c. 160–c. 220): theologian, Father of the Latin Church

  Tetricus: Gallic emperor (268–273), successor of Victorinus (q.v.)

  Thales of Miletus (c. 640–546 B.C.): Greek philosopher and scientist

  Themistocles (527?–460? B.C.): Athenian statesman and commander of the fleet at Salamis 480)

  Theocritus (3rd cent. B.C.): Greek pastoral poet

  Theodoret (c. 393–c. 458): Bishop of Cyrrhus, prolific exegete, historian, etc.

  Theodoric: king of the Ostrogoths (475–526) and the Romans (493–526)

  Theophrastus (d. c. 287 B.C.): Greek philosopher and naturalist

  Thersites: the deformed and abusive Greek soldier (see Iliad, II, 212 ff.)

  Theseus: the chief mythical hero of pre-classical Attica

  Theudas: the leader of an unsuccessful Jewish insurrection (see Acts 5.36)

  Thucydides (471?–400? B.C.): the greatest historian of antiquity

  Tiberius: second emperor of Rome (14–37)

  Tibullus, Albius (54?-18? B.C.): Roman elegiac poet

  Timon (late 5th cent. B.C.): Athenian misanthrope

  Tiresias: the blind Theban soothsayer

  Tirinus, Jacobus (1580–1636): Flemish Jesuit ecclesiastical writer

  Titius: see Tityus

  Titus: Roman emperor (79–81)

  Tityus: the giant punished by having vultures eat his liver

  Trajan: Roman emperor (98–117)

  Tremellius, Joannes Immanuel (1510–1580): Italian Hebrew scholar

  Tricassus (Patricio Tricasso, 1480?–1550?): Italian chiromancer and physiognomist

  Trismegistus: see Hermes Trismegistus

  Tully: see Cicero

  Twinus, J.: see next entry

  Twyne, John (1501?–1581): English antiquary and author

  Tycho: the god of chance (tyche)

  Tzetzes, Joannes (12th cent.): Byzantine poet and grammarian

  Ulfkell Snilling: leader of the East Anglian forces against Sweyn (q.v.) in 1004

  Ulmus: see Olmo

  Ulysses (Odysseus): the Greek warrior in The Iliad, and protagonist of The Odyssey

  Unguinus: i.e. Yngvi, Swedish king, contemporary with Frotho (q.v.)

  Upton, Nicholas (1400?–1457): English writer on heraldry and the art of war

  Urban VIII: Pope (1623–1644)

  Urbin: see Raphael

  Valens: Eastern Roman emperor (364–378)

  Valerianus (Piero Valeriano, 1477–1558): Italian scholar (Hieroglyphica, 1556 ff., etc.)

  Valla, Lorenzo (c. 1406–1457): Italian scholar and humanist

  van der Linden, Johannes: see Linden

  Varro, Marcus Terentius (116–27 B.C.): Roman scholar

  Vasthi (Vashti): wife of ‘Ahasuerus’ (see Esther 1.9 ff.)

  Vegetius Renatus (fl. 385): Roman military writer

  Venus (Aphrodite): Olympian goddess of love, beauty, etc.; also the planet

  Vergil, Polydore (1470?–1555?): Italian historian of England

  Vespasian: Roman emperor (69–79)

  Victorinus: Gallic emperor (267–268), successor of Postumus (q.v.)

  Victorius, Angelus: Italian author of Medicae Consultationes (1640)

  Vigenère, Blaise de (1523–1596): French scholar

  Virgil (70–19 B.C.): the greatest Roman poet

  Virgil, Polydore: see Vergil

  Virgilius, St (c. 700–784): Bishop of Salzburg and scholar; see p. 94, note 167
/>   Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus (1st cent. B.C.): Roman architect and engineer

  Volupia: the Roman goddess of sensual pleasure

  Vulcan (Hephaestus): Olympian god of fire

  Wayne, Charles: see Charles Wayne

  William I (1027–1087): Norman duke, conqueror of England

  Wormius, Olaus (1588–1654): Danish physician and scholar

  Woverus (Johann von Wovern, 1574–1612): Dutch-German philologist

  Xenophon (c. 434–c. 355 B.C.): Greek historian and essayist

  Xiphilinus, Joannes: Patriarch of Constantinople (1064–1075)

  Zedekiah: king of Judah (see 2 Kings 24.17, Jeremiah 34.5 ff.)

  Zeno of Citium (335–263 B.C.): founder of Stoicism

  Zerubbabel: prince of Judah, restored God’s worship (see Ezra 2.2., 3.2)

  Zeus: see Jupiter

  Zoilus: see p. 436, note 9

  Zoroaster (fl. prob. 6th cent. B.C.): founder of Zoroastrianism, the religion of the ancient Persian peoples

  Zorobabel: see Zerubbabel

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  CONTENTS

  Abbreviations

  A Bibliographical Note

  Background Studies

  The Prose of the English Renaissance: General Studies

  Studies of Browne:

  General Studies

  On Religio Medici

  On Pseudodoxia Epidemica

  On Hydriotaphia and The Garden of Cyrus

  On A Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, the letters, and the minor works

  On Browne’s reputation and influence

  Addenda

  ABBREVIATIONS

  Biblical quotations are from AV unless otherwise indicated. Places of publication are given only if other than London or New York.

  AV: The King James (‘Authorised’) Verison of the Bible (1611)

  BHM: Bulletin of the History of Medicine

  Blount: Thomas Blount, Glossographia: or a Dictionary (1656)

  Browne add.: Browne’s marginal note, added in a later edition

  Browne marg.: Browne’s marginal note to the text

  Browne suppl.: Browne’s supplementary note to Hydriotaphia or The Garden of Cyrus (from the list appended to most copies of a reprint of the 1st edition later in 1658). The abbreviation concerns notes never reprinted; for those that were, see ‘Browne add.’

  BTB: Sir Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of Sir Thomas Browne, 2nd rev. ed. (Oxford, 1968).

  Bullokar: John Bullokar, An English Expositor:… The Interpretation of the Hardest Words (1616)

  CJ: Cambridge Journal

  Cockeram: Henry Cockeram, The English Dictionarie (1623)

  Coleridge: Coleridge on the Seventeenth Century, ed. Roberta F. Brinkley (Durham, N.C., 1955), pp. 438–62