Thomas Browne, Miscellany Tracts

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None of his works better demonstrate the eclectic variety of Thomas Browne’s investigative interests than the anthology of essays, letters, and notes known as

Miscellany Tracts

. These were gathered together by his son Dr Edward Browne after his father’s death, and published posthumously by his first editor in 1683.

The manner in which the many tracts work through their subjects – scriptural plants, falconry, the Delphic oracle, and burial mounds, to name but a few – is typical of Browne’s historical and empirical habits of reading and observation. Virtually all the tracts are at the more arcane and recondite end of his intellectual spectrum, and today are of interest only to specialists in seventeenth-century thought. More interesting is their provenance: most of the tracts

371 words

Citation: Preston, Claire. "Miscellany Tracts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 January 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3560, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3560 Miscellany Tracts 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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