Sir Thomas Browne(1605–1682)

English physician and writer whose major works blend learned curiosity about nature and beliefs with meditations on faith, mortality, and the mysteries of knowledge.

Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)

1 title in the Cabinet

Religio Medici and Urn Burial

Full title: Miscellaneous works of Sir Thomas Browne : with some account of the author and his writings

The Dial's edition: 1831

Browne's literary-philosophical meditations: a physician's faith confession, reflections on mortality prompted by ancient burial urns, and the art of dying well—baroque prose at its most luminous.

Full textSurvives at Houghton Library

Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading) & Emerson (see Emerson's Library)