Читать книгу The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3 - Browne Thomas - Страница 1

In concluding the present edition of Sir Thomas Browne’s works, attention may be drawn to the reprint of the Hydriotaphia, from the first edition of 1658. The copy collated was the one preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. In this, in addition to the corrections made at the time of publication on the printed label attached, there are a few others made by a contemporary hand, which deserve consideration. Among these is the excision of a sentence hitherto preserved in the text, and now relegated to the margin (p. 205). If further sanction were needed for the change indicated, it may be gathered from the inscription on the title-page, ‘Ex dono Auctoris.’ The text of the Christian Morals of 1716 has been collated with the copy in the same Library.

For the account of Birds and Fishes found in Norfolk (pp. 513-539), Professor Alfred Newton generously placed his annotated copy at the disposal of the editor. As those actual pages were in the press, Professor Newton passed away, and Death has deprived us of the pleasure of placing this volume in his hands. In this edition Professor Newton’s readings have been in the main followed, with the additional help of the valuable recension, published by Mr. Thomas Southwell of Norwich, in 1902, to which every serious student of this treatise must always refer.

For further assistance in questions of identification, I am again indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. Aldis Wright; and for one correction to Mr. A. R. Waller.

Sir Thomas Browne’s Latin treatises and his correspondence are not included in these volumes. It was the determination of the original publisher of this edition that they should be omitted; and indeed they do not form the most characteristic part of Sir Thomas Browne’s work. His erudition, and the resources from which he drew, his amazing industry, his marvellous diction, and natural piety – all these are apparent to the general reader of his English text; and it is to such that the present edition of Sir Thomas Browne’s works, as they originally appeared, will primarily appeal.

C. S.

16th June 1907.