READING, WRITING, AND RELIGIO MEDICI

The central claim of this essay is that, for the author of Religio Medici, reading and writing are above all ways of knowing. This claim challenges some of the dominant assumptions of the recently developed discipline known as the history of reading; it is supported by an exploration of Browne's numerous references to and representations of the actions of reading and writing in the text of Religio Medici itself. His favorite metaphors are often scriptorial, as in the image of himself collecting divinity from two principal sources: the book of holy scripture (written by God) and the book of nature, "that universall and publik Manuscript" created by God's servant. To assist in this exploration I cite some circumstantial evidence of Browne's lifelong addiction to reading and writing. These particulars are further endorsements of the view that, for Browne, to read and to write were to enter a never-ending engagement with the problem of knowledge.