Browne, Sir Thomas

3 parts in one, 4to (8 x 6 in.; 203 x 152 mm). General title-page, separate title-pages dated 1658 for Hydriotaphia  Urne-Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus, vertical half-title "Dr. Brown's Enquiries & Garden of Cyrus" preceding Hydriotaphia title-page; Pseudodoxia: b3 creased and so printed, worm trails touching letters in quires P–X and 2A–2F, 2L3 lower corner clipped without affecting text, staining in quire 3K, tears in gutters of 3M–3Q significantly affecting text in Table (3P–3Q). Hydriotaphia: engraved plate of funerary vessels; a few headlines shaved, lacking final blank. Garden of Cyrus: engraved plate of the "Quincunx," text diagram of the quincuncial formation of the Roman legion; gutters torn 5G–5H, gutters guarded 5I–5K, lacks final leaf (publisher's advertisement). Nineteenth-century quarter calf over marbled boards; repairs to spine, lower joint cracked near foot of spine, boards scuffed.                

Unknown recipient (gift of Sir Thomas Browne's daughter, note on title-page verso) — W. J. Hall (later signature on front pastedown). acquisition: Maggs, 2006

Wing B5162; ESTC R207236; Keynes 76

3 parts in one, 4to (8 x 6 in.; 203 x 152 mm). General title-page, separate title-pages dated 1658 for Hydriotaphia Urne-Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus, vertical half-title "Dr. Brown's Enquiries & Garden of Cyrus" preceding Hydriotaphia title-page; Pseudodoxia: b3 creased and so printed, worm trails touching letters in quires P–X and 2A–2F, 2L3 lower corner clipped without affecting text, staining in quire 3K, tears in gutters of 3M–3Q significantly affecting text in Table (3P–3Q). Hydriotaphia: engraved plate of funerary vessels; a few headlines shaved, lacking final blank. Garden of Cyrus: engraved plate of the "Quincunx," text diagram of the quincuncial formation of the Roman legion; gutters torn 5G–5H, gutters guarded 5I–5K, lacks final leaf (publisher's advertisement). Nineteenth-century quarter calf over marbled boards; repairs to spine, lower joint cracked near foot of spine, boards scuffed.
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The fourth edition, corrected and annotated in several hands. There are two notes on the verso of the title-page. The first reads: "This Book is Corrected on the Margins not the Author's Hand, and was given to me by his Daughter Mrs. Littleton." But in fact, some of the corrections are in Browne's hand. Below this inscription is another which reads: "But the Author has left many gross Errors to be Corected since as some ar as they ocurre."

Pseudodoxia epidemica examines superstition and popular misconceptions about various subjects. This work, in conjunction with the recent discovery near Norwich of what were thought to be Roman funeral urns, lead to his next book, Hydriotaphia. In it, Browne's study of funeral customs formed his opinion of the uselessness of such rituals vis-à-vis death's ineluctable power. The Garden of Cyrus is a history of horticulture that contains his notion of the quincunx (the design of Cyrus's garden), a shape with five parts, one at each corner (rectangle), and one in the middle, which he thought was present everywhere in nature.