Robert Burton (scholar)

Robert Burton ( born February 8, 1577 Lindley, Leicestershire, † January 25, 1640 in Oxford ) was an English writer and Anglican clergyman and scholar.

Burton spent nearly his entire adult life as a clergyman and scholar at Christ Church College in Oxford. He first wrote some successful dramas and minor poetry. Be only under the pseudonym Democritus Junior published book Anatomy of Melancholy ( engl. The Anatomy of Melancholy ), the five ever experienced extended editions in his lifetime and a posthumous edition was a great success. It is a treatise on the physical and mental disease state of melancholy, its history, causes and healing opportunities. It is now regarded as a precursor of mental illness depression. In this book, Burton also popularized the metaphor of " On the Shoulders of Giants", whose author Bernard of Chartres (see also the window in the Cathedral of Chartres ), and founded the first precursor of cognitive science.

Works

  • 2001, NYRB Classics, ISBN 0-940322-66-8.
  • The anatomy of melancholy. From the English and with an essay by Ulrich Horstmann. ( = The Other library). Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-8218-4529-5.
  • The Anatomy of Melancholy. Transferred from the English, annotated and with an afterword by Werner von Koppenfels. 4th edition. Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-87162-007-2.
Church of England Christ Church (Oxford) Melancholia Major depressive disorder Standing on the shoulders of giants Book frontispiece Project Gutenberg Roy Porter Integrated Authority File
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