Editing Thomas Browne (section)

== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Thomas Browne was born in the parish of [[St Michael-le-Querne|St Michael]], [[Cheapside]], in London on 19 October 1605. He was the youngest child of Thomas Browne, a [[silk]] merchant from [[Upton-by-Chester|Upton, Cheshire]], and Anne Browne, the daughter of Paul Garraway of [[Lewes]], [[Sussex]]. He had an elder brother and two elder sisters.{{sfn|Robbins|2004}} 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 were [[armiger]]ous. Browne's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Henry Birkenhead, [[Clerk of the Green Cloth]] to [[Elizabeth I of England]] and [[Clerk of the Crown]] for the counties of [[Cheshire]] and [[Flintshire]].{{sfn|Williams|1902|p=1}} Browne's father died while he was young, and his mother married Sir Thomas Dutton of [[Gloucester]] and [[Isleworth]], [[Middlesex]], by whom she had two daughters.{{sfn|Williams|1902|pp=5{{ndash}}6}}

[[File:Lady Dorothy Browne (née Mileham); Sir Thomas Browne by Joan Carlile.jpg|thumb|''[[Lady Dorothy Browne and Sir Thomas Browne]]'' ({{circa|1641–1650}}), by [[Joan Carlile]]]]
Browne was educated at [[Winchester College]].{{sfn|Breathnach|2005}} In 1623, he went to [[Broadgates Hall]] of [[Oxford University]]. Browne was chosen to deliver the undergraduate oration when the hall was incorporated as [[Pembroke College, Oxford|Pembroke College]] in August 1624. He graduated from Oxford in January 1627, after which he studied medicine at [[University of Padua|Padua]] and [[University of Montpellier|Montpellier]] universities, completing his studies at [[University of Leiden|Leiden]], where he received a [[Doctor of Medicine|medical degree]] in 1633.  He settled in [[Norwich]] in 1637 and practised medicine there until he died in 1682.{{sfn|Abbott|1996|p=296}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/21/the-adventures-of-sir-thomas-browne-in-the-21st-century-hugh-aldersey-williams-review |work=The Guardian |date=21 May 2015 |last=Burrow |first=Colin  |title=The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century by Hugh Aldersey-Williams – review |access-date=23 August 2023}}</ref> 

In 1641, Browne married Dorothy Mileham of [[Burlingham St Peter]], [[Norfolk]]. They had 10 children, six of whom died before their parents.{{sfn|Barbour|2013|pp=284{{ndash}}286}}

===Literary career===
Browne's first literary work was ''[[Religio 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 writer [[Alexander Ross (writer)|Alexander Ross]] attacked {{lang|la|Religio Medici}} in his {{lang|la|Medicus Medicatus}} (1645). Browne's book was placed upon the Papal ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' in the same year.{{sfn|Robbins|2004}}

{{multiple image | direction = horizontal | total_width= 300| header = | footer =Contents and first page of a 1646 copy of Browne's ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' | image1 = Broiwne-3.jpg | alt1 = aaa | caption1 = | image2 = Browne-4.jpg | alt2 =bbb | caption2 = }}
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 the [[Francis Bacon|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 scientific journalism.{{citation required|date=August 2023}}

The last works published by Browne were two philosophical Discourses. They are closely related to each other in concept. The first, ''[[Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial|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 50 [[Burial in Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon burial urn]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|journal= British Archaeology|title=Spoilheap: Antiquities and the Art of Contemplation|volume=176 |date=January–February 2021 |page=66 |issn=1357-4442 }}</ref> It is 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|The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, and Mystically Considered]]'' (1658) features the [[quincunx]] that Browne used to demonstrate evidence of [[Platonic realism|the Platonic forms]] in art and nature.{{sfn|Huntley|1968}}{{page needed|date=February 2018}}

=== Later life and knighthood ===
[[File:Sir Thomas Browne's House, Norwich.jpg|thumb|left|Browne's house in [[Norwich]]]]
Browne believed in the existence of [[angel]]s and [[witchcraft]].{{sfn|Dunn|1950|pp=26, 117}} He attended the 1662 [[Bury St Edmunds witch trials|Bury St Edmunds witch trial]],{{sfn|Breathnach|2005}} where his [[citation]] of a similar trial in Denmark may have influenced the jury's minds concerning two accused women, who were later found guilty of witchcraft.{{sfn|Thomas|1971|p=441}}

In November 1671, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]], accompanied by his [[Court (royal)|Court]], visited Norwich.{{sfn|Breathnach|2005}} The courtier [[John 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. A [[banquet]] was held in [[St. Andrew's and Blackfriars' Hall, Norwich|St 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 for [[knight]]hood. The Mayor, however, declined the honour and proposed Browne's name instead.{{citation required|date=August 2023}}

=== Death and aftermath ===
[[File:The skull of Sir Thomas Browne.jpg|thumb|Browne's skull, as illustrated in Charles Williams's ''The Measurements of the Skull of Sir Thomas Browne'' (1895)]]
Browne died on 19 October 1682, his 77th birthday. He was buried in the [[chancel]] of [[St 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 the [[Parish register|burial register]] as aged 317 years.<ref name="Dic">{{cite news |last1=Dickey |first1=Colin |title=The Fate of His Bones: Sir Thomas Browne and the craniokleptic impulse |url=http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/28/dickey.php |access-date=24 August 2023 |work=[[Cabinet Magazine]] |issue=28 |date=2007}}</ref> Browne's [[coffin 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 of [[alchemy]] 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|date=December 2021}} The origin of the invented word [[spagyric|''spagyrici'']] is from the Greek ''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.{{sfn|Principe|2013|p=129}}

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 in [[palingenesis]], [[physiognomy]], alchemy, [[astrology]] and the [[kabbalah]].{{citation required|date=August 2023}}

The [[Library 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 by [[Hans Sloane]]. Editions from the library were subsequently included in the founding collection of the [[British Library]].<ref name=finch>''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</ref>