Sir Thomas Browne's Works Including His Life and Correspondence.
Edited by Simon Wilkin. London: William Pickering, 1836.
A very finely bound set of the works of Sir Thomas Browne dating from 1836 - the famous Pickering edition which Keynes calls a "splendid edition."
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Volume 1:
Memoirs of Sir Thomas Browne, Domestic Correspondence, Journals, Miscellaneous Correspondence.
Volume 2:
Religio Medici, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (books 1-4).
Volume 3:
Pseudodoxia Epidemica (books 4-7), The Garden of Cyrus, Hydriotaphia, Brampton Urns.
Volume 4:
Repertorium, Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, Miscellany Tracts, Latin Letters from Theodore Jonas, Unpublished Papers, Dr Thomas Browne's Journey with Dr. Plot, Index.
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Sir Thomas Browne (1605 – 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry and are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffused with melancholia, Browne's writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence.
Browne believed in the existence of angels and witchcraft. He attended the 1662 Bury St Edmunds witch trial, 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.
Browne is widely considered one of the most original writers in the English language. The freshness and ingenuity of his mind invested everything he touched with interest; while on more important subjects his style, if frequently ornate and Latinate, often rises to the highest pitch of stately eloquence. He has a paradoxical and ambiguous place in the history of ideas, as equally, a devout Christian, a promoter of the new inductive science, and an adherent of ancient esoteric learning. For these reasons, one literary critic succinctly assessed him as "an instance of scientific reason lit up by mysticism in the Church of England". However, the complexity of Browne's labyrinthine thought processes, his highly stylised language, along with his many allusions to Biblical, Classical and contemporary learning, along with esoteric authors, are each contributing factors for why he remains obscure, little-read, and, thus, misunderstood.
A master neologist, Browne appears at number 69 in the Oxford English Dictionary's list of top cited sources. He has 775 entries in the OED of first usage of a word, is quoted in a total of 4131 entries of first evidence of a word, and is quoted 1596 times as first evidence of a particular meaning of a word. Examples of his coinages, many of which are of a scientific or medical nature, include 'ambidextrous', 'antediluvian', 'analogous', 'approximate', 'ascetic', 'anomalous', 'carnivorous', 'coexistence', 'coma', 'compensate', 'computer', 'cryptography', 'cylindrical', 'disruption', 'ergotisms', 'electricity', 'exhaustion', 'ferocious', 'follicle', 'generator', 'gymnastic', 'hallucination', 'herbaceous', 'holocaust', 'insecurity', 'indigenous', 'jocularity', 'literary', 'locomotion', 'medical', 'migrant', 'mucous', 'prairie', 'prostate', 'polarity', 'precocious', 'pubescent', 'therapeutic', 'suicide', 'ulterior', 'ultimate' and 'veterinarian'.
It must also be mentioned that the Catholic Church placed Browne's works on their list of Banned Books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1645, where they remained up until the Index was abolished in 1966 by Pope Paul VI.
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Size: 146 x 222 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[vii, (2), 10-16, (3), foldout, (3), xviii-cx, foldout, (5), pp.[1]-471, i]; [viii, xxxii, pp.[1]-538, i]; [viii, pp.[1]-505, i]; [xvi, pp.[1]-546, i]
Collated as complete with the engraved frontispiece portrait of Browne, several engraved plates, fold-out genealogical charts and a facsimile of his last will and testament as well as the index at the rear of the fourth volume. Uniform full calf bindings with very attractive spines with intricate gilt and uniform tooled morocco labels with the volume labels also with intricate gilt. Some wear to feet of spines and a bit of discolouration to the third volume's spine but generally the spines are near fine. Front joints to volumes one and two cracked but with the boards attached securely - perhaps reattached at some time. Other joints all fine with boards securely attached. No shelf lean. Bindings are secure. Boards generally are very good, some with some minor water staining not affecting the page block. Top page edges dulled as typical with page edges generally near fine. A few spots of foxing to endpapers but very clean through each text block. Some dampstaining to the will & testament foldout but not affecting the legibility of the plate. Overall a very good set.
[NLA 793569].
