Library of Sir Thomas Browne

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The 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of the Library of Sir Thomas Browne highlights the erudition of Sir Thomas Browne, physician, philosopher and encyclopedist. It also illustrates the proliferation, distribution and availability of books printed throughout 17th century Europe which were purchased by the intelligentsia, aristocracy, priestly, physician or educated merchant-class.

Biography

Browne graduated from the University of Leiden in 1633 having previously studied at the Universities of Montpellier and Padua for his medical degree.[1] Upon his establishment in Norwich as a physician he was able to begin a lifetime's bibliophilia, building a private library, acquiring and reading an estimated 1,500 titles. He was adept in five contemporary languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Danish; these languages as well as Greek and Hebrew and the predominant written form of the Renaissance, namely Latin, are all represented in his Library.

The catalogue

The 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue reflects the wide scope of Browne's interests. It includes many of the sources of his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica which went through six editions (1646 to 1672); and established him as one of the leading intellects of 17th-century Europe.

Browne's erudite learning is reflected by the Classics of antiquity as well as history, geography, philology, philosophy, anatomy, theology, cartography, embryology, medicine, cosmography, ornithology, mineralogy, zoology, travel, law, mathematics, geometry, literature, both Continental and English, the latest advances in scientific thinking in astronomy, chemistry as well as esoteric topics such as astrology, alchemy, physiognomy and the Kabbalah are all represented in the Catalogue of his library contents. It was however not until 1986 that the Catalogue was first made widely available. The American scholar Jeremiah Stanton Finch, Dean Emeritus at Princeton University took on the task of indexing Browne's work during his retirement.[2] He completed the indexing of the books of Sir Thomas and his son Edward Browne's libraries, "after many years in many libraries".[3] Finch noted that the Catalogue advertised books of sculpture and painting, which somehow were never delivered to the auction house. In the event, the auction held upon January 8-10th, 1711 was attended by Jonathan Swift and buyers working on behalf of Sir Hans Sloane. Thus an unknown percentage of books auctioned from the Library of Sir Thomas Browne subsequently formed the foundation for the future British Library.[3]

The 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue records the omnivorous reading and bibliophilia Browne engaged upon over sixty years; and exemplifies Leonard Nathanson's observation:

to the student of the history of ideas in its modern sense of the inter-relationship between science, art and philosophy, Browne is of great importance.[4]

Greek literature

Roman literature

Arabic

Contemporary science

Philosophy

Theology

Medical

Esoteric

Natural history

  • Georg Agricola, de Re Metallica, Basle 1621
    • de Ortu & Causis Subterraneor, Basle 1558
  • Ulissi Aldrovandi, Museum Metallicum cum fig, Bologna 1648
    • Serpentium and Draconum historia cum fig., Bologna 1640
    • Ornithtologia sive de Avibus Historia, cum fig., Frankfurt 1610
      File:AldrovandiOrnithology.jpg
      Aldrovandi's Ornithology
    • Quadrupedum Bisulcorum Historia, cum fig Bologna 1642
    • de Quadrupedib. Digitatis Viviparis & Oviparis 1637
    • de Quadupedib. Animalibus & Piscibus Frankfurt 1610
    • Monstror. Historia, cum fig. Bologna 1642
  • Prospero Alpini, de Medicina Medicae, Patav. 1611
    • de Plantis Egypti, Patav. 1640
    • de Medicina Egypti, 1646
    • de praesagienda Vita & Morte Aegrotantium, Venice 1601
  • J. Bauhin, Historica Plant., 3 Vols. 1650
    • Hist. Fontis & Balnei Bollenis, Montpellier 1598
  • C. Bauhin, Prodomus Theatri Botanici, Frankfurt 1620
    • Pinax Theatri Botanici, Basle 1623
    • de Hermaphroditor. Natura, 1614
  • J.J. Becher, Physica Subterranea, Frankfurt 1669
  • Pierre Belon, Histoire de la Nature des Oiseaux avec leurs Descriptions & naises traits retirez du Naturel, Paris 1555
  • Carolus Clusius Exoticorum libri decem Leiden 1605
    Carolus Clusius Exoticorum libri decem
    • Stripium novae descrip. cum fig. Leiden 1611
  • Conrad Gessner, Opera, 4 vols. Zurich 1551
    • de Avibus, cum fig. illuminatus
    • Epistolae Medicinales Zurich 1577
  • Thomas Muffet, De Insect cum fig, London 1634
  • Nosomantica Hippocratea, Frankfurt 1588
  • John Ray, Catalogus Plantar. Angliae, London 1670
    • Historia Plantarum, London 1670
  • Guillaume Rondelet De Piscibus Marinis 1554
  • Nicolas Steno, Concerning Solids naturally contained within solids, 1671
    • Elementor Myologiae Specimen, cum fig., Amsterdam 1669
    • Observationes Anatomicae cum fig., Leiden 1662
    • de Cerebri Anatome, Leiden 1671
  • Francis Willughby, Ornithologia, cum fig. London 1676
  • Olaus Wormius, Museum Wormianum, Leyden 1655

Literature

Geography and History

  • Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine with maps, 1650
  • John Greaves, A description of the Grand Signiors Seraglio 1650
    • Pyramidographia, or a Description of the Pyramids in Egypt 1646
      Ortelius Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
  • Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum Paris, 1514
  • James Howell, Of the Precedency of Kings, 1664
  • Athanasius Kircher China Illustrated, Amsterdam 1667
  • Gerardus Mercator, Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura, Amsterdam 1613
  • Claude Mydorge, Examen du Livre des recreations Mathematiques, Paris 1639
  • Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Antwerp 1574
    • Thesaurus Geographic. recognit. & auctus 1611
    • Itinerar. per Galliae Belgicae partes Plant. 1584
  • Strabo Geographia 17 Books Commentary Isaac Casaubon Paris 1620
    • Of the Kingdom of Naples, 1654
    • Of the Signorie of Venice, 1651
    • Of Hungary and Transylvania, 1664
    • Instructions for Foreign Travels, 1642

Miscellaneous

  • Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke London 1597
  • Valentin Schindler, Lexicon Pentaglotton Hebraic., Chaldic., Syrian., Arabic., 1612
  • Of the cause of purple rain in Brussels, 1648
  • Artificia Hominum, Miranda Naturae, in Sina & Europa, 1655
  • Ethiopian Dictionary 1674

Sources

  • A Facsimile of the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Sir Thomas Browne and his son Edward's Libraries. Introduction, notes and index by J.S. Finch (E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1986)

See also

  • Music, mysticism and Magic - A sourcebook ed. Joscelyn Godwin pub. Arkana 1986
  • The greatest benefit to Mankind. A medical history from antiquity to the present. Roy Porter Harper and Collins 1999

References

  1. ↑ R. H. Robbins, ‘Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–1682)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 accessed 16 Feb 2013
  2. ↑ Obituary, Princeton University, accessed February 2013, Ruth Stevens
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Facsimile of the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Sir Thomas Browne and his son Edward's Libraries. Introduction, notes and index by J.S. Finch (E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1986) Page 7
  4. ↑ The Strategy for Truth - Leonard Nathanson Chicago University Press 1967

External links

  • Aquarium of Vulcan:Library of Sir Thomas Browne [1]
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