Here we learn why a model of the brain of Sir Thomas Browne stands in the centre of stands in the centre of Norwich. Sir Thomas Browne (19 October 1605 -- 19 October 1682) was an author of varied works including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. He was born in London and came to Norwich in 1637. His first well-known work bore the Latin title Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician). This work was circulated in manuscript among his friends, and it caused Browne some surprise and embarrassment when an unauthorised edition appeared in 1642, since the work contained a number of religious speculations that might be considered unorthodox. An authorised text with some of the controversial matter removed appeared in 1643. The expurgation did not end the controversy; in 1645, Alexander Ross attacked Religio Medici in his Medicus Medicatus (The Doctor, Doctored) and in fact the book was placed upon the Papal index of forbidden reading for Catholics in the same year. In Religio Medici, Browne had confirmed his belief in the existence of witches. He attended the 1662 Bury St. Edmunds witch trial, where his citation of a parallel case in Denmark was influential in confirming in the jurys minds the guilt of the accused, two women who were subsequently executed for the crime of witchcraft. The record of this trial was itself used by the magistrates at the Salem witch trials to prove the acceptability in court of spectral evidence. In 1646, Browne published the encyclopaedia, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets, and commonly Presumed Truths, whose title refers to the prevalence of false beliefs and vulgar errors. A sceptical work that debunks a number of legends circulating at the time in a paradoxical and witty manner; it displays the Baconian side of Browne—the side that was unafraid of what at the time was still called the new learning. The book is significant in the history of science, because its arguments were some of the first to cast doubt on the widely-believed hypothesis of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis. Brownes last publication during his life-time (1658) was two philosophical Discourses which are intrinsically related to each other; the first Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk, occasioned by the discovery of some Bronze Age burials in earthenware vessels found in Norfolk inspired Browne to meditate upon the funerary customs of the world and the fleetingness of earthly fame and reputation. In 1671 King Charles II, accompanied by the Royal Court, visited Norwich. During his visit to Norwich, King Charles II visited Brownes home. A banquet was held in the Civic Hall St. Andrews for the Royal visit. Obliged to honour a notable local, the name of the Mayor of Norwich was proposed to the King for knighthood. The Mayor, however, declined the honour and proposed the name of Browne instead. Sir Thomas Browne died on 19 October 1682, his 77th birthday. His skull became the subject of dispute when in 1840 his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen. It was not re-interred until 4 July 1922 when it was registered in the church of Saint Peter Mancroft as aged 316 years. youtube/watch?v=heQ1qPYecv4
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 18:00:01 +0000
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