Editing Thomas Browne (section)

===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}}

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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}}