Robert Burton (writer)
Robert Burton (born February 8, 1577 in Lindley , Leicestershire , † January 25, 1640 in Oxford ) was an English writer and Anglican clergyman and scholar.
Burton spent most of his adult life as a clergyman and scholar at Christ Church College , Oxford. At first he wrote little successful dramas and insignificant poetry . Only his book Anatomie der Melancholie ( The Anatomy of Melancholy ), published under the pseudonym Democritus junior , which saw five continuously expanded editions during his lifetime and one posthumous edition, was a great success. It is a treatise on the physical-mental state of illness of melancholy , its history, causes and healing possibilities. Today it is considered to be the forerunner of the mental illness depression . In this book, Burton also popularized the metaphor " On the shoulders of giants ", the author of which is Bernhard von Chartres , and established the first forerunners of cognitive science .
Text editions and translations
- Connie McQuillen (Ed.): Robert Burton: Philosophaster. Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, Binghamton 1993, ISBN 0-86698-123-3 (critical edition with English translation)
- The anatomy of melancholy. From the English and with an essay by Ulrich Horstmann . Frankfurt am Main 2003, Die Other Bibliothek series , ISBN 3-8218-4529-5 .
- The anatomy of melancholy. Translated from English, annotated and with an afterword by Werner von Koppenfels . 4th edition. Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-87162-007-2 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Robert Burton in the catalog of the German National Library
- Burkhart Brückner: Robert Burton. In: Biographical Archive of Psychiatry (BIAPSY).
proof
- ^ Roy Porter : Madness. A little cultural history. Translated from the English by Christian Detoux. Dörlemann, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-908777-06-9 ; Clark Lawlor: From Melancholia to Prozac. A History of Depression. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-958579-3 ( preview on Google Books).
- ↑ Margery Corbett, Ronald Light Brown: The Comely Frontispiece. The Emblematic Title-Page in England, 1550-1660. Henley, London 1979, pp. 190-200.
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Burton, Robert |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English writer and Anglican clergyman and scholar |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 8, 1577 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Lindley , Leicestershire |
DATE OF DEATH | January 25, 1640 |
Place of death | Oxford |