About this book
Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici and Hydriotaphia presents two extraordinary meditations that shaped English intellectual life in the seventeenth century. Written by a newly-qualified physician in 1643, Religio Medici offers a spiritual testament unlike any other—a candid psychological self-portrait blending Christian faith with digressions into alchemy, hermetic philosophy, astrology, and physiognomy. So unorthodox were Browne's views that the work was swiftly banned by the Papal Index, yet it became a European bestseller.
Published fifteen years later, Hydriotaphia began as a scholarly discourse on Roman burial urns discovered in Norfolk but transformed into something far more profound. Beyond careful antiquarian description, Browne surveys funeral customs across civilizations and centuries. The fifth chapter ascends into sublime philosophy, where mortality itself becomes the subject—a meditation on time's ravages, the fleetingness of fame, and humanity's futile struggle against death. Yet Browne balances melancholia with sharp wit, mocking human vanity even as he confronts eternity.
These works showcase Browne's astonishing command of English prose, with rhythms and diction that inspired George Saintsbury to call Hydriotaphia perhaps "the longest piece of absolutely sublime rhetoric" in English literature. This collection belongs in the ears of philosophy enthusiasts, literature lovers, and anyone seeking baroque prose of extraordinary beauty and intellectual depth.
