I bought this at the same time as Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, as being another example of a 17th century mind and its digressions. While this volume, consisting of Browne's two best known works, has the considerable virtue of being much much (much) shorter than The Anatomy of Melancholy, it lacks the wit and the humor of Burton's satire, with its long lists and incredible range of quotes. Still, this is enjoyable once you get into the rhythm of it. Browne is certainly trying to convince himself of the truth of Christianity--in both pieces, as unrelated as they may seem at first--and, I think, largely succeeding, though not with this reader.

The introduction is good, but in addition to the notes at the back--some of which seem unnecessary since I was better at figuring out the meaning of 17th century phrases than I gave my self credit for--should have been supplemented by translations of ALL the Latin (and occasionally Greek) in Browne's own footnotes. This is one area where an ebook would have been far superior, since it would have been an easy task to highlight and paste into Google Translate. Still, good to have checked this one off my list! ( )

And to have new names given us like many of the mummies

Tortuosity of thought in the Religio redeemed by the erudition of Urn Burial

"When men that feared to die shall groan that they can die but once, the dismal state is the second and living death; when life puts despair on the damned; when men shall wish the coverings of mountains, not of monuments, and annihilation shall be courted"
"one face of Janus holds no proportion unto the other" --> with respect to time and the Great Silent Majority (which continues to bide its time)
"but all was vanity. feeding the wind"
"five languages secured not the epitaph of gordianus" (in greek, latin, hebrew, egyptian, arabic, defaced by licinius the emperor)
Exolution ( )

An inspiring work for all who love words and appreciate erudition. That does not take away from the imaginative largesse of Browne's prose. The glossary and notes included in this edition are helpful to all who are not scholars of the history of literature. ( )

Egentligen var det bara den andra av de två essäerna som samlats i Religio medici and Urne-buriall jag var ute efter; denna sir Thomas Brownes text över ett antal begravningsurnor som nyligen frilagts i Norfolk med sin starkt retoriska avslutning, möjligen det närmsta man kan komma Predikarens underbart fascinerande pessimism i en någorlunda sekulär text.

Inte för att Religio Medici, Brownes försök att redogöra för sin religiositet som läkare (under 1600-talert ett misstänkt yrke med rykte om ateism) heller är någon ointressant text: det kräver visserligen mer att gräva förbi den åldrade ortografin, Brownes uppenbara glädje inför att hitta nya ord och det något mindre greppbara ämnet teologi, men det är likväl en givande reflektion och till och med något av en liberal bekännelse; en underlighet i en tid när England (liksom Sverige) annars var som mest upptaget med renlärighet: Browne tycks klara sig genom att dels försöka ge sken av att han kommer ta tillbaka allt som inte behagar renlärighetens väktare, dels påstå att han inte bryr sig om några av de motsägelser som går att hitta i Bibeln och som han nogsamt listar. Helt undgick han dock inte censuren, utan verket placerade på katolska kyrkans Index (vilket naturligtvis var fin reklam).

Likväl är det texten om urnorna som är den största behållningen: i den berättar han inte endast om de nyligen uppgrävda urnorna (idag sorgligt förödda), utan tar med anledning av dem sig tid att meditera över olika historiska begravningssätt, och till slut även berömmelsens fåfänglighet; hur namn utan dåd är tomma, och godhet inte värt att hålla efter för eftervärldens skull när även grymma dåd ihågkoms: endast den odödlighet som är kommen av Gud är något att eftersträva, allt annat är fåfänglighet. Dess sonora toner bär den sorts underliga tröst och glädje som endast en stor melankoliker kan åstadkomma. ( )

I found myself wandering down a rather unexpected reading rabbit hole: I finished Jill Lepore's Book of Ages (a biography of Ben Franklin's sister Jane), and that led me to Virginia Woolf's Orlando; when I finished Orlando the thing I wanted to read right off was Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici. The trajectory actually makes a great deal of sense now that I've finished all three books, but in the moment I kept thinking about the strangeness of it all.

There's a very good reason Browne's works are still published and enjoyed: the two pieces included in this volume, though written in the middle years of the seventeenth century, are among the most clearly written and well argued essays I've ever read. While I do not always agree with his conclusions (and in some areas of Urne-Buriall he's just completely wrong), Browne's utterly brilliant use of language is a real treat. There were more than a few times where I found myself reading out loud, just to hear how the prose felt when spoken.

Not only as an example of beautiful prose, Religio Medici is also a truly provocative attempt to reconcile science and religion, and both works here meditate on human mortality and aging. The two are separated by a fair number of years, though, and the differences in Browne's own style and attitudes are evident in the later work. I liked both, but in rather different ways. And it would have been fascinating to see what Browne thought of Religio Medici later in life, as his own views on family life, other religions, and mortality evolved over time.

Highly recommended, and this edition made be particularly good as an introduction to Browne's works. I confess, I've already been hunting down some others since I finished this ... ( )