The Major Works (English Library)

by Sir Thomas Browne

  The eight extant manuscripts of Religio Medici are named by M, p. xii, and K, I, 5–6. The manuscript at Pembroke College, Oxford, has been edited by Jean-Jacques Denonain (P), who dates it much earlier than Frank L. Huntley does (MP, LVII [1959], 58–60).

  In addition to the studies listed below, see §§18, 42, 53, 66, 93, 131, 137 176, 187, 190, 197–9, 206, 213, etc.]

  §244. Abramson, Ernst: ‘The Maid of Germany’, TLS, 24 July 1948 (p. 415). See also C.H. Wilkinson, ibid., 21 August 1948 (p. 471). Cf. above, p. 98, note 186.

  §245. Bensly, Edward: ‘A Spanish Quotation in Religio Medici’, N&Q, 12th series, XI (1922), 347. See above, p. 152, note 95.

  §246. Bottrall, Margaret: ‘Browne’s Religio Medici’, in her Every Man a Phoenix: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Autobiography (1958) Ch. III.

  §247. Cook, Elizabeth: ‘The First Edition of Religio Medici’, Harvard Library Bulletin, II (1948), 22–31; cf. Sir Geoffrey Keynes, TLS, 18 April 1952 (p. 265). Discusses the two unauthorised issues of 1642.

  §248. Croll, Morris W.: ‘The Baroque Style in Prose’, as above (§146), Ch. V; repr. in §151. Highly recommended.

  §249. Denonain, J.-J.: ‘Les Problèmes de l’honnête homme vers 1635: Religio Medici et les Conférences du Bureau d’Adresse’, Etudes Anglais, XVIII (1965), 235–7.

  §250. Digby, Sir Kenelm: Observations upon Religio Medici (1643). Usually bound with Religio Medici from 1659. Cf. §343.

  §251. Edelstein, Ludwig: ‘The Golden Chain of Homer’, in Studies in Intellectual History, by G.G. Boas et al. (Baltimore, 1953), pp. 48–66. The background to Browne’s reference (above, p. 84, note 116). Cf. next entry.

  §252. ‘Eirionnach’: ‘Aurea Catena Homeri’, N&Q, 2nd Series, III (1857), 63–5, 81–4, 104–7, and XII (1861), 161–3, 181–3. Cf. previous entry.

  §253. Endicott, N.J.: ‘Some Aspects of Self-Revelation and Self-Portraiture in Religio Medici’, in Essays in English Literature, ed. Millar MacLure and F.W. Watt (Toronto, 1964), pp. 85–102.

  §254. Howell, A.C.: ‘A Doctor Looks at Religion’, The University of North Carolina Extension Bulletin, XXXIV (1954), ii, 45–69.

  §255. Huntley, Frank L.: ‘The Publication and Immediate Reception of Religio Medici’, Library Quarterly, XXV (1955), 203–18; parly reprinted in §198 (Ch. VII and IX).

  §256. Hutchinson, F.E.: ‘Religio Medici’, Theology, L (1947), 423–6. An appreciation.

  §257. Keck, Thomas: Annotations upon Religio Medici, first appended to the ‘Fourth’ edition of Religio Medici (1656), pp. 175–297.

  §258. Low, Anthony: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Social Abacus’, N&Q, new series, XV (1968), 98–9. Cf. above, p. 134, note 7.

  §259. Mackenzie, Norman: ‘The Concept of Baroque and its Relation to Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici and Urn Burial’, ESA, X (1967), 147–66. Cf. §305.

  §260. Mulder, John R.: ‘Religio Medici: Aristotle versus Moses’, as above (§84), pp. 54–62. Highly recommended.

  §261. Patrides, C.A.: ‘Psychopannychism in Renaissance Europe’, SP, LX (1963), 227–9. Cf. §§18, 272.

  §262. Patrides, C.A.: ‘ “The Beast with Many Heads”: Renaissance Views on the Multitude’, Shakespeare Quarterly, XVI (1965), 241–6. Cf. above, p. 134, note 5.

  §263. Patrides, C.A.: ‘The Salvation of Satan’, JHI, XXVIII (1967), 467-478. Cf. above, p. 67, note 32.

  §264. Pritchard, Allan: ‘Wither’s Motto and Browne’s Religio Medici’, PQ, XL (1961), 302–7. On the possible influence of Wither’s ‘crude and naive’ poem (1621).

  §265. Ross, Alexander: Medicus Medicatus: or the Physicians Religion cured, by a lenitive or gentle potion. With some Animadversions upon Sir Kenelme Digbie’s Observations on Religio Medici (1645). Cf. §343.

  §266. Schneck, Jerome M.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, and the History of Psychiatry’, American Journal of Psychiatry, CXIV (1958), 657–60.

  §267. Schonack, Wilhelm: Sir Thomas Brownes ‘Religio Medici’: Ein ver-schollenes Denkmal des englischen Deismus (Tübingen, 1911).

  §268. Shaaber, M.A.: ‘A Crux in Religio Medici’, ELN, III (1966), 263–5. Cf. above, p. 130, note 343.

  §269. Sloane, Cecile A.: ‘Imagery of Conflict in Religio Medici’, ELN, VIII (1971), 260–62.

  §270. Ward, H.G.: ‘Joachim du Bellay and Sir Thomas Browne’, RES, V (1929), 59–60. See above, p. 139, note 30.

  5271. Webber, Joan: ‘Sir Thomas Browne: Art as Recreation’, as above (5169) Ch. VI. Highly recommended.

  §272. Williamson, George: ‘Milton and the Mortalist Heresy’, as above (§131), Ch. VII. Cf. Nathaniel H. Henry, ‘Milton and Hobbes: Mortalism and the Intermediate State’, SP, XLVIII (1951), 234–49, as well as §§18, 261. The intellectual context of Browne’s reference (above, p. 67, note 31).

  On ‘Pseudodoxia Epidemica’

  [1st edition, 1646 (facsimile: Scolar Press, with a textual preface by T.-L. Pebworth, 1972). Revised editions: 2nd, 1650; 3rd and 4th, 1658; 5th, 1659; and 6th, 1672. The present edition reproduces the text of 1650. On translations, see above, p. 491, note 16. A critical text with introduction and commentary is now being prepared for the Clarendon Press by Robin Robbins.

  In addition to the studies listed below, see §§20, 43, 59, 176, 181, 187, 190, 198, 206, 210, 215, 241, 330, etc.]

  §273. Bodemer, Charles W.: ‘Embryological Thought in Seventeenth Century England’, in Bodemer and L.S. King, Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England (Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 3–25.

  5274. Cawley, Robert R.: ‘The Timeliness of Pseudodoxia Epidemica’, in Studies (as above, §181), pp. 1–40.

  §275. Chalmers, Gordon K.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne, True Scientist’, Osiris, II (1936), 28–79. Highly recommended.

  §276. Chalmers, Gordon K.: ‘The Lodestone and the Understanding of Matter in Seventeenth Century England’, Philosophy of Science, IV (1937), 75–95.

  §277. Chalmers, Gordon K.: ‘Three Terms of the Corpuscularian Philosophy’, MP, XXXIII (1936), 243–60. Cf. §54.

  §278. Colie, Rosalie L.: ‘Dean Wren’s Marginalia and Early Science at Oxford’, Bodleian Library Record, VI (1960), 541–51.

  §279. Debus, Allen G.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne and the Study of Colour Indicators’, Ambix, X (1962), 29–36.

  §280. Gordon, George: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’, in his The Lives of Authors (1950), pp. 101–10.

  §281. Guerlac, Henry: ‘The Poet’s Nitre’, Isis, XLV (1954), 243–55. On Browne’s ‘earliest complete statement in English of the gunpowder theory’ (Pseud., II, 5).

  §282. Howell, Almonte C.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne and 17th Century Scientific Thought’, SP, XXII (1925), 61–80.

  §283. L’Estrange, Sir Hamon: Observations on Pseudodoxia Epidemica. Still in manuscript; summarised in W, II, 173–5.

  §284. Merton, E.S.: ‘Old and New Physiology in Sir Thomas Browne: Digestion and Some Other Functions’, Isis, LVII (1966), 249–59. On Pseud., III, 21–2.

  §285. Merton, E.S.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne as Zoologist’, Osiris, IX (1950), 413–34.

  §286. Merton, E.S.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Embryological Theory’, JHM, V (1950), 416–21.

  §287. Merton, E.S.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Scientific Quest’, JHM, III (1948), 214–28; repr. in §206 (Ch. II). Highly recommended.

  §288. Merton, E.S.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Theories of Respiration and Combustion’, Osiris, X (1952), 206–23.

  §289. Merton, E.S.: ‘The Botany of Sir Thomas Browne’, Isis, XLVII (1956), 161–71.

  §290. Oppenheimer, Jane M.: ‘John Hunter, Sir Thomas Browne and the Experimental Method’, BHM, XXI (1947), 17–32. Unfairly contrasted to Hunter in the eighteenth century, Browne is inevitably found wanting as a scientist.

  §291. Patrides, C.A.: ‘Renaissance Ideas on Man’s Upright Form’, JHI, XIX (1958), 256–8. See above, pp. 223 ff.

  §292. Patrides, C.A.: ‘The Cessation of the Oracles: The History of a Legend’, MLR, LX (1965), 500–507. Cf. above, p. 97, note 176, and pp. 253
ff.

  §293. Robinson, John: A Calm Ventilation of Pseudodoxia Epidemica, appended to his Endoxa, or, Some probable Inquiries into Truth (1658), pp. 105–51; translated by the author from his own Latin treatise (1656).

  §294. Ross, Alexander: Arcana Microcosmi: or, The Hid Secrets of Man’s Body disclosed;… with a Refutation of Doctor Browns Vulgar Errors, and the Ancient Opinions vindicated (1651). Especially pp. 143 ff.

  §295. South, Malcolm H.: ‘A Note on Spenser and Sir Thomas Browne’, MLR, LXII (1967), 14–16.

  On ‘Hydriotaphia’ and ‘The Garden of Cyrus’

  [1st edition of the two works, 1658 (facsimile: Noel Douglas Replicas, 1927). Edited by Greenhill (G2), by Huntley (H), and by John Carter (with full apparatus criticus, 1932; without it, Cambridge, 1958; followed by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, 1968). M (followed by R) and E are based on 1658; so is the pressent edition. The first translation of the two works was into Dutch, in 1688.

  In addition to the studies listed below, see §§23, 176, 187, 190, 198, 206, 213, 289, etc.]

  §296. Barnes, William H.: ‘Browne’s Hydriotaphia with a Reference to Adipocere’, Isis, XX (1933), 337–43. Cf. above, p. 295, note 79.

  §297. Cline, James M.: ‘Hydriotaphia’, in Five Studies in Literature, ‘University of California Publications in English’, VIII (1940), 73–100. Highly recommended.

  §298. Evans, Sir John (ed.): Hydriotaphia (1893).

  §299. Finch, Jeremiah S.: ‘Early Drafts of The Garden of Cyrus’, PMLA, LV (1940), 742–7.

  §300. Finch, Jeremiah S.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne and the Quincunx’, SP, XXXVII (1940), 274–82.

  §301. Grundy, Dominick: ‘Skepticism in Two Essays by Montaigne and Sir Thomas Browne’, JHI, XXXIV (1973), 529–42. Juxtaposes De la vanité and Hydriotraphia.

  §302. Heideman, Margaret A.: ‘Hydriotaphia and The Garden of Cyrus: A Paradox and a Cosmic Vision’, UTQ, XIX (1950), 235–46. Highly recommended.

  §303. Huntley, Frank L.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne: The Relationship of the Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus’, SP, LIII (1956), 204–19; revised in §198 (Ch. XIII); repr. in §151. Highly recommended.

  §304. Jaffé, Michael: ‘Sir Thomas Browne at Midnight’, CJ, II (1949), 752–7.

  §305. Mackenzie, Norman: ‘Sir Thomas Browne as a Man of Learning: A Discussion of Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus’, ESA, X (1967), 67–86. Highly recommended. Cf. §259.

  §306. Pande, R.P.: Sir Thomas Browne, with a detailed study and text of ‘Urn Burial’ (Allahabad etc., 1963).

  §307. Parker, Edward L.: ‘The Cursus in Sir Thomas Browne’, PMLA, LIII (1938), 1037–53. Cf. §229.

  §308. Patrides, C.A.: ‘The Numerological Approach to Cosmic Order during the English Renaissance’, Isis, XLIX (1958), 391–7.

  §309. Williamson, George: ‘The Purple of Urn Burial’, MP, LXII (1964), 110–17.

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

  [The present edition reproduces A Letter to a Friend from the 1st (posthumous) edition of 1690 (facsimile: Haslewood Press, 1924); Christian Morals (from the 1st (posthumous) edition of 1716 (ed. John Jeffery); and ‘On Dreams’ from the text transcribed by K. The first two are also edited by Greenhill (G1); and all three in E. For the letters, see K, vol. IV: and for the minor works both English and Latin: K, vol. III.

  In addition to the studies listed below, see §§176, 187, 190, 198, 334, etc.]

  §310. Ashton, Arthur.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne en famille’, The English Review, XLIII (1926), 693–707, and XLIV (1927), 59–68.

  §311. Endicott, N.J.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne, Montpellier, and the Trac “Of Languages” ’, TLS, 24 August 1962 (p. 645).

  §312. Endicott, N.J.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Letter to a Friend’, UTQ XXXVI (1966), 68–86. Cf. §315.

  §313. Harper, George M.: ‘The Family Correspondence of Sir Thoma Browne’, in his Literary Appreciations (Indianapolis, 1937), pp. 46–69

  §314. Huntley, Frank L.: ‘Robert Loveday: Commonwealth Man o Letters’, RES, new series, II (1951), 262–7. On the subject of A Letter to a Friend.

  §315. Huntley, Frank L.: ‘The Occasion and Date of Sir Thomas Browne’s A Letter to a Friend’, MP, XLVIII (1951), 157–71; revised in §198 (Ch. XI). See also N.J. Endicott’s ‘Browne’s A Letter to a Friend’ TLS, 15 September 1966 (p. 868), and Huntley’s rejoinder, 9 February 1967 (p. 116); also Karl J. Höltgen, 20 October 1966 (p. 966) and 25 June 1970 (p. 687).

  §316. Kane, Robert J.: ‘James Crossley, Sir Thomas Browne, and the Fragment on Mummies’, RES, IX (1933), 266–74. Argues that the Fragment is a forgery.

  §317. Kellett, C.E.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne and the Disease called the Morgellons’, Annals of Medical History, n.s., VII (1935), 467–79. Se above, p. 397, note 39.

  §318. Löffler, Arno: ‘Sir Thomas Browne at Work: An Unpublishec Early Section of Christian Morals’, N&Q, n.s., XX (1973), 391–2 Provides an addition to Part II, Sect. 5.

  §319. Roberts, S.C. (ed.): Christian Morals (Cambridge, 1927). With Johnson’s Life.

  §320. Seaton, Ethel: Literary Relations of England and Scandinavia in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 1935), 182–4. On Browne’s connections with Iceland.

  §321. Wright, William A.: ‘The Great Antonio’, N&Q, 7th series, IV (1887), 386. See above, p. 391, note 2.

  On Browne’s reputation and influence

  [In addition to the studies listed below, see above, pp. 548 ff. and 551 ff.

  §322. Bennett, Joan: ‘A Note on Religio Medici and Some of its Critics’ Studies in the Renaissance, III (1956), 175–84. Cf. §343.

  §323. Childs, Herbert Ε.: ‘Emily Dickinson and Sir Thomas Browne’, American Literature, XXII (1951), 455–65.

  §324. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: as above (p. 537).

  §325. Colie, Rosalie L.: ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s “Entertainment” in XVIIth Century Holland’, Neophilologus, XXXVI (1952), 162–71. On Dutch attitudes to Browne.

  §326. Cowles, Thomas: ‘Dr. Henry Power, Disciple of Sir Thomas Browne’, Isis, XX (1933–4), 345–66.

  §327. Davis, Merrell R.: Melville’s ‘Mardi’: A Chartless Voyage (New Haven, 1952), esp. pp. 64–6.

  §328. de Beer, E.S.: ‘The Correspondence between Sir Thomas Browne and John Evelyn’, Library, 4th Series, XIX (1938–9), 103–6. See also the next entry.

  5329. Evelyn, John: Diary, ed. E.S. de Beer (Oxford, 1955), III, 594–5 [entry for 17 October 1671]. On Evelyn’s visit to Browne. For their correspondence, see K, IV, 273–81.

  §5330. Ewing, Majl: ‘Mrs. Piozzi Peruses Dr. Thomas Browne’, PQ, XXII (1943), 111–18. Mrs Thrale’s annotations on Pseudodoxia Epidemica in 1811.

  §331. Finch, Jeremiah S.: ‘The Lasting Influence of Sir Thomas Browne’, Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, XXIV (1956), 59–69. Especially on Dr Johnson and Charles Lamb.

  §332. Iseman, Joseph S.: A Perfect Sympathy: Charles Lamb and Sir Thomas Browne (Cambridge, Mass., 1937).

  §333. Leroy, Olivier: ‘Les Critiques’, as above (§202), Part IV.

  §334. Löffler, Arno: ‘Sir Thomas Browne als Redaktor von Edward Brownes Travels’, Anglia, LXXXVIII (1970), 337–40. Browne’s contributions to his son’s Account of Several Travels through a great part of Germany (1677).

  §335. Matthiessen, F.O.: ‘The Metaphysical Strain’, in his American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (1941), Ch. III.

  §336. Newton-De Molina, David: ‘A Note on Sir Thomas Browne and Jorge Luis Borges’, Antigonisb Review, II (1971), ii, 33–40.

  §337. Pennel, Charles: ‘The Learned Sir Thomas Browne: Some Seventeenth-Century Viewpoints’, Kansas Magazine (Manhattan, Kansas, 1965), pp. 82–6. Cf. §343.

  §338. Pepys, Samuel: Diary, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (1971), V, 27 [entry for 27 January 1663/4]. Reports that Religio Medici, together with Rochester’s Hudibras and Osborne’s Advice to a Son, are ‘generally cried up for wit in the world�
��.

  §339. Robertson, Stuart: ‘Sir Thomas Browne and R.L. Stevenson’, JEGP, XX (1921), 371–84.

  §340. Vande Kieft, Ruth M.: ‘ “When Big Hearts Strike Together”: The Concussion of Melville and Sir Thomas Browne’, Papers in Language and Literature, V (1969), 39–50.

  §341. Wagley, Mary F. and Philip F.: ‘Comments on Johnson’s Biography of Sir Thomas Browne’, BHM, XXXI (1957), 318–26, Cf. above, pp. 481 ff.

  §342. Williams, Mentor L.: ‘Why “Nature Loves the Number Five”: Emerson Toys with the Occult’, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Art and Letters, XXX (1944), 639–49.

  §343. Wise, James N.: Sir Thomas Browne’s ‘Religio Medici’ and Two Seventeenth-Century Critics (Columbia, Mo., 1972). On Digby (§250) and Ross (§265). Cf. §§322, 337.

  §344. Woodbridge, Benjamin M., Jr: ‘Sir Thomas Browne, Lamb, and Machado de Assis’, Modern Language Notes, LXIX (1954), 188–9.

  Studies published since 1976 include a reference guide to Browne compiled by Dennis G. Donovan et al. (Boston, 1981); the six essays in the special issue of ELN, XIX (1982), 299–408, by Jean-Jacques Denonain, Jeremiah S. Finch, Margaret Jones-Davies, Jonathan F. S. Post, R. J. Schoeck, and C. W. Schoneveld; and, among other essays: Laurence A. Breiner’s ‘The Generation of Metaphor in Sir Thomas Browne’, Modern Language Quarterly, XXXVIII (1977), 261–75; Jean-Francois Camé’s ‘Imagery in Browne’s Religio Medici’, Cahiers Elisabéthains, XVIII (1980), 53–68; Walter R. Davis’ ‘Urne Buriall: A Descent into the Underworld’, Studies in the Literary Imagination, X (1977), ii, 73–87; Achsah Guibbory’s ‘Sir Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica and the Circle of Knowledge’, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, XVIII (1976), 486–99; Anne D. Hall’s ‘Epistle, Meditation, and Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici’, PMLA, XCIV (1979), 234–46; Anna K. Nardo’s ‘Sir Thomas Browne: Sub specie ludi’, Centennial Review, XXI (1977), 311–20; etc.