Everything about Pseudodoxia Epidemica totally explained
Sir
Thomas Browne's vast work refuting the common errors and superstitions of his age,
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. Also known as
Vulgar Errors, derived from its full title,
Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths, Browne's
Pseudodoxia Epidemica contains evidence of his adherence to the
Baconian method of empirical observation of nature and her properties. Although often overlooked as an example of the genre of
encyclopaedia, Browne, in the preface to
Enquiries into presumed Truths, quite specifically defines his written work as an
encyclopaedia in the statement,
Browne's three determinants for obtaining truth were firstly, the authority of past authors, secondly, the act of reason and lastly, empirical experience. Each of these determinants are employed upon subjects ranging from the cosmological to common folklore. Subjects covered in
Pseudodoxia are arranged in the time-honoured Renaissance scale of creation, the learned doctor assaying to dispel errors and fallacies concerning the
mineral,
vegetable and
animal kingdoms before moving to errors pictorial, to those of man,
geography,
astronomy and finally of the
cosmos.
Classical authors
Throughout this vast work Browne's prodigious learning is evident. His sources included both the ancient
Greeks and
Romans, as well as the latest available writing in scientific spheres.
He expressed a wholesome skepticism about Pliny's dependability in his
Naturalis Historia: (
1646):
» "Now what is very strange, there's scarce a popular error passant in our days, which isn't either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this Work; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a powerful occasion of their propagation. Wherein notwithstanding the credulity of the Reader is more condemnable then the curiosity of the Author: for commonly he nameth the Authors from whom he received those accounts, and writes but as he reads, as in his Preface to Vespasian he acknowledgeth."
Throughout its pages alongside its early usage of hypothesis and Baconian investigation Browne's subtle humour can also be detected.
Popular science
Although
Pseudodoxia Epidemica has been ridiculed for its own errors, often by those who have not perused its pages, nevertheless it was a valuable source of information which found itself upon the shelves of many English libraries throughout the seventeenth century. In fact Browne's encyclopaedic work was in the vanguard of the scientific writing of its day and it paved the way for all future popular scientific journalism. Indeed many pages of
Pseudodoxia not only are evidence of Browne's 'at-first-hand' empiricism but are also early examples during the seventeenth century scientific revolution of the formulation of scientific hypothesis. The second of its seven books entitled
Tenets concerning Mineral and Vegetable Bodies includes Browne's experiments with
static electricity and
magnetism —
the word electricity being one of many neologisms along with words such as
medical,
pathology,
hallucination,
literary, and
computer, which Browne's vigorous inventiveness of scientific words introduced into the English language.
Editions
The popularity of
Pseudodoxia in its day is confirmed by the fact that it went through no fewer than six editions; the first edition appearing upon the eve of the
English Civil War, during the reign of
Charles I in 1646. No less than a further four editions followed; three times during an era of printing press liberalisation and social unrest during the Commonwealth era of
Oliver Cromwell in 1650, twice in 1658, and in 1659.
One final edition appeared in (1672) during the reign of
King Charles II when the English scientific revolution was well in progress, culminating in
Isaac Newton's discoveries.
Pseudodoxia was subsequently translated and published in French, Dutch, Latin and German throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Today there's considerable confusion as how best to define Sir Thomas Browne's scientific methodology, described by
E.J. Merton thus:
Robert Sencourt succinctly defined Browne's relationship to scientific enquiry as "an instance of a scientific reason, lit up by mysticism, in the Church of England".
Source
A detailed edition of
Pseudodoxia Epidemica in 2 volumes was published by
Oxford University Press and edited by H. Robbins in 1986.
Also see
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica'.
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