Research Catalog

Title

Sir Thomas Browne : a life / Reid Barbour.

Author

Barbour, Reid

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 534 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Sir Thomas Browne: A Life is the first full-scale biography of the extraordinary prose artist, physician, and polymath. With the help of recent archival discoveries, the biography recasts each phase of Browne's life (1605-82) and situates his incomparable writings within the diverse intellectual and social contexts in which he lived, including London, Winchester, Oxford, Montpellier, Padua, Leiden, Halifax, and Norwich. The book makes the case that, as his contemporaries fervently believed, Browne influenced the intellectual and religious direction of seventeenth-century England in singularly rich and dynamic ways. Special attention is paid in the biography to Browne's medical vocation but also to his place within the scientific revolution. New information is offered regarding his childhood in London, his European travels and medical studies, the setting in which he first wrote Religio Medici, his impact on readers during the English civil wars, and the contemporary view of his medical practice. Overall, the image of Browne that emerges is far bolder and more cosmopolitan, less complacent and provincial, than biographers have assumed ever since Samuel Johnson doubted Browne's claim that his life up to age thirty resembled a romantic fiction filled with miracles and fables." -- Provided by publisher.

Subject

• Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682
• Intellectuals > England > Biography
• Authors, English > 17th century > Biography
• Physicians > England > Biography

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

List of illustrations -- Introduction : "my life...a peece of Poetry" -- Part I : Seeds -- London, 1605-1616 -- Winchester and Ireland, 1616-1623 -- Oxford, 1623-1631 -- Part II : Transplant -- Montpellier, 1631-1632 -- Padua, 1632-1633 -- Leiden, 1633-1634 -- Part III : Fruition -- Halifax, 1634-1637 -- Norwich, 1637-1649 -- Norwich 1649-1660 -- Norwich, 1660-1671 -- Norwich, 1672-1682 -- Conclusion : chasing the butterfly -- Bibliography -- Index.

Call Number

JFE 13-2075

ISBN

• 0199679886 (hbk.)
• 9780199679881 (hbk.)

OCLC

826895071

Author

Barbour, Reid, author.

Title

Sir Thomas Browne : a life / Reid Barbour.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 13-2075