tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32059616121826767882024-03-19T07:05:58.444+00:00Aquarium of VulcanKevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.comBlogger308125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-78092573843432149002024-03-05T13:55:00.015+00:002024-03-12T21:03:33.908+00:00 A Browne bookshelf<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzJ9x8IXde9yFCgQr_kKPbWpoqL9N2M0lioqX3Xdbbt17whUVbWb5rw-v4nOEgE2PDt6Rc8PfnjfxrBgOo13lrGJj0UBRn_bCvXZ0jNAYtD5kxh0hW2Pd2ZnHZNUosL_Sslo1DYQP206V3WN4cCKnUJHzUbLVd3MxTPlLFOygxdQIsii_6uTgkJtb2Sw/s4473/20240305_122320.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3410" data-original-width="4473" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzJ9x8IXde9yFCgQr_kKPbWpoqL9N2M0lioqX3Xdbbt17whUVbWb5rw-v4nOEgE2PDt6Rc8PfnjfxrBgOo13lrGJj0UBRn_bCvXZ0jNAYtD5kxh0hW2Pd2ZnHZNUosL_Sslo1DYQP206V3WN4cCKnUJHzUbLVd3MxTPlLFOygxdQIsii_6uTgkJtb2Sw/w400-h305/20240305_122320.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I've found these books on Thomas Browne to be useful over the decades. From left to right - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">* Collected Works of Thomas Browne <i>Religio Medici</i> edited by Reid Barbour and Brooke Conti. pub. Oxford University Press 2023</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div><div>* Approaches to Sir Thomas Browne, The Ann Arbor Tercentenary Lectures and Essays. edited by C.A.Patrides pub. Uni. of Missouri Press 1982</div><div><br /></div><div>* The Opium of Time: Gavin Francis pub. Oxford Uni.Press 2023 </div><div><br /></div><div>* Sir Thomas Browne- Joan Bennett</div><div>pub. Cambridge Uni. Press 1962</div><div><br /></div><div><div>* The Strategy of Truth – Leonard Nathanson pub. Uni. Of Chicago 1967</div><div><br /></div><div>* Sir Thomas Browne: A Doctor’s Life of Science and Faith - J.S. Finch pub. Henry Schuman N.Y. 1950</div></div><div><br /></div><div>* 4th edition of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>(1658) with <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>appended.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>* </i>Thomas Browne Selected Writings ed. Kevin Killeen pub. Oxford Uni. Press 2014 </div><div><br /></div><div>* Thomas Browne: A Biographical and Critical Study - Frank Huntley pub. Uni. of Michigan 1962</div><div><br /></div><div>*The Miscellaneous writings of Sir Thomas Browne edited by Geoffrey Keynes pub. Faber and Faber 1931</div><div><br /></div><div>* 2 of the 3 volumes of The Works of Sir Thomas Browne edited by Simon Wilkins pub. Henry Bohn 1832</div><div><br /></div><div>Not included in photo -</div><div><br /></div><div>* A Catalogue of the Libraries of Sir Thomas Browne and Dr Edward Browne, his son. A Facsimile Reproduction with an Introduction, Notes and Index by J.S. Finch. pub. E. J. Brill 1986 (Essential for understanding the extraordinary range of Browne's interests and studies).</div><div><br /></div><div>* The Major Works of Sir Thomas Browne edited and with an Introduction by C. A. Patrides Penguin 1977 (First favourite).</div><div><br /></div><div>* Peter Green Writers and their Work no. 108 pub. Longmans and co. 1959 ( brief but insightful essay 36 pp )</div><div><br /></div><div>* King James Bible (1611). Fundamental to Browne's spirituality, frequently referenced throughout his writings and a major influence upon his literary style.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUeI6Z6P1WZMBTlpEu2j6l6rBgD-YdbriC8BvAwoQZbBlLV8TUy0y4liV3PkStHxNF6kA3xW4V4NI11axV5aykdN4raYxqLOR92t_OzMqpwzVYf-a6vwqCmZCwiCuE1N4Am9TS1UcBHoItKiRNLAd6AjqPtRrydAqWZvaf78x4_hbhX5RlTFMTgB6k03w/s3826/20240227_133830%5B1%5D.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosHDuLFXvFtCCG2kuJNQZ_XXw3u0Mg3HDZ7FM9G-ZowHe5FpDHREjfIIg_Ef-nzrtJItTkPeMyQk1dxiV0xM0TVUklwQy-VPW31uV2sN_P977Odo4m685OJT2SY83diNTiSeTGT5HGL-l8fM9-_B3ECa7-aCpY8e88Z6mYTwxvHS0zn_HHqG5SbChpf4/s4072/20240224_144635.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-29631535666944313902023-10-19T08:20:00.072+01:002024-02-27T12:31:00.930+00:00'the Theatre of ourselves' : the proto-psychology of Doctor Browne <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDS_s3esagBYdTonJRc_qYjhB05fzNgbi85zDDLGny3RgJhkCe9QmrKO4UuFsVTm1BCnKOQz6m_gGj19sGhh6zqJ5SbGDWcbzkQi_5obKIo0aNkrr27RsrQPcw4g6SmT9cpiYi0_KdVkwnoMO-rVk-81iHJtpMRtivSNacT8jlQLI56k9YW8pLEtqzdsU/s1080/FB_IMG_1697138930431.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="1080" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDS_s3esagBYdTonJRc_qYjhB05fzNgbi85zDDLGny3RgJhkCe9QmrKO4UuFsVTm1BCnKOQz6m_gGj19sGhh6zqJ5SbGDWcbzkQi_5obKIo0aNkrr27RsrQPcw4g6SmT9cpiYi0_KdVkwnoMO-rVk-81iHJtpMRtivSNacT8jlQLI56k9YW8pLEtqzdsU/w400-h315/FB_IMG_1697138930431.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Because of the multiplicity of his interests, scientific, antiquarian and esoteric,</span> the philosopher-physician Thomas Browne (1605-82) is often termed a polymath but an equally useful and perhaps preciser definition of him, one which is tailor-made for both his profession and deep interest in people, is that of early or proto-psychologist. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As a doctor practising in the 17th century Browne had plenty of occasion to observe mental trauma through sickness, disease and bereavement. Living through one of the most psychologically disturbed times in all English history he was also witness to extremes of human behaviour during the Civil war and its consequences.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Primary elements of Browne's proto-psychology include - a capacity for self-analysis, a lifelong interest in people, usage of proper-noun symbolism and a fascination with the inner world of dreams. Furthermore, modern scholarship has detected a remarkable relationship between Browne's proto-psychology to the analytical psychology of Carl Jung.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Officially published in 1643 Browne's <i>Religio Medici </i>remains a classic of World literature; its thought-provoking soliloquies reward the attention of casual reader and academic alike. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The first ever comparative edition of <i>Religio Medici</i> was published by Oxford University Press in April 2023 after protracted delay. Edited by Reid Barbour and Brooke Conti, the scholarly introduction to the Oxford edition of Browne's Collected Works discusses <i>Religio Medici's</i> major themes and reception, citing the Romantic poet Coleridge, who proposed it should be read 'in a <i>dramatic</i> & not in a metaphysical View - as a sweet Exhibition of character & passion & not as an Expression or Investigation of positive Truth'. [1]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The first volume of the ambitious project to publish a critical edition of the complete works of Thomas Browne reproduces three different versions of <i>Religio Medici</i> for the first time ever. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The Pembroke manuscript, a subsequent revised version and the official version are all reproduced, <i> </i>making it easy to identify text which Browne excluded from the authorized version. Only the early Pembroke version includes the following text, declared in a typical fusion of spirituality, scientific credentials and hermetic imagery- </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'Those strange and mystical transmigrations that I have observed in silkworms, turned my Philosophy into Divinity...............I have therefore forsaken those strict definitions of Death, by privation of life, extinction of natural heat, separation &c. of soul and body, and have framed one in hermetical way unto my own fancy - death is the final change, by which that noble portion of the microcosm is perfected (Latin trans.) for to me that considers things in a natural or experimental way, man seems to be but a digestion or a preparative way unto the last and glorious Elixir which lies imprisoned in the chains of flesh'. [2]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7q8iXd_qcOQh4bX0s_ziicFx-VIkly8FbkMl287T47Cj6A5f2vVvWKk9avNjf6sBWT5wTzWBXTVHq2UV3JqJNz6zoYFNespeTfHo8Fti3KTuv6Wcf-8J9fJizjQtkoQ9thphHnjIw5Mvpv3K4Ckde83shGR9_bkcpp69kOFP3nPd7IXNpFqCLZHaLfiQ/s4608/20231015_102356.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7q8iXd_qcOQh4bX0s_ziicFx-VIkly8FbkMl287T47Cj6A5f2vVvWKk9avNjf6sBWT5wTzWBXTVHq2UV3JqJNz6zoYFNespeTfHo8Fti3KTuv6Wcf-8J9fJizjQtkoQ9thphHnjIw5Mvpv3K4Ckde83shGR9_bkcpp69kOFP3nPd7IXNpFqCLZHaLfiQ/s320/20231015_102356.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The first readers of <i>Religio Medici </i>were at turns shocked, astonished and admiring of Browne's frank display of his enigmatic personality and advocacy for tolerance in religious belief. He also invites his reader to witness the labyrinthine meanderings of his thought. A precocious talent for self-analysis is prominent throughout its pages.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In many ways examination and understanding of self is the bedrock foundation of Browne's proto-psychology; without such rigours he would never have achieved individuation or developed fully in his creativity. In <i>Religio Medici </i>the newly-qualified physician informs his reader of the psychic crisis he experienced in his trial of self- examination. His devout Christian faith was of its time, Hell along with the Devil were very real psychic entities to him in his self-analysis.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'The heart of man is the place the devil dwells in. I feel sometimes a hell within myself, <i>Lucifer </i>keeps
his court in my breast, <i>Legion </i>is revived in me'. [3]<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'Tis that unruly regiment within
me that will destroy me, 'tis I that do infect myself, the man without a Navel yet lives in me; I feel that original canker
corrode and devour me. Lord deliver me from myself'.[4]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'The Devil that did but buffet Saint Paul, plays me thinks at Sharp with me. Let me be nothing if within the compass of my self, I do not find the battle of <i>Lepanto </i>passion against reason, reason against faith, faith against the Devil, and my conscience against all..There is another man within me that's angry with me, rebukes, commands and eastwards me'. [ 5] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'Thus did the devil did play Chess with me and yielding a pawn thought to gain a Queen from me. And whilst I laboured to raise the structure of my reason he strove to undermine the edifice of my faith'. [6]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">*</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Its testimony to his deep interest in people that even when advanced in years, when asked for his medical advice, Browne dutifully made the journey from his home in Norwich to the sea-port of Yarmouth. He recorded his doctor's call on what must be a very early known case of the eating disorder bulimia in a notebook thus-</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'There is a woman now Living in
Yarmouth named Elizabeth Michell, an hundred and two years old, a person of 4
foot and an half high, very lean, very poor, and Living in a meane room without
ordinary accommodation. Her youngest son is 45 years old; though she answers
well enough to ordinary Questions, yet she conceives her eldest daughter to be
her mother. Butt what is remarkable in her is a kind of <i>boulime</i> or
dog appetite; she greedily eating day and night all that her allowance, friends
and charitable people afford her, drinking beer or water, and making little
distinction of any food either of broths, flesh, fish, apples, pears, and any
coarse food in no small quantity, insomuch that the overseers of late have been
fain to augment her weekly allowance. She sleeps indifferently well till hunger
awakes her and then she must have no ordinary supply whether in the day or
night. She vomits not, nor is very laxative. This is the oldest example of the<i> sal esurinum chymicorum</i>, which I have taken notice of; though I am ready to afford my charity unto her, yet I should be loth to spend a piece of ambergris I have upon her, and to allow six grains to every dose till I found some effect in moderating her appetite: though that be esteemed a great specific in her condition'. [7]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">*</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Symbols are integral to Browne's proto-psychology. In <i>Religio Medici </i>Egyptian hieroglyphs, the 'book of nature' and music are all proposed to be symbols containing a wealth of hidden spiritual wisdom to the receptive enquirer. The sources of Browne's literary symbolism are varied. The Bible and Greek mythology were two happy hunting grounds for his proper-name symbolism. He was also capable of developing 'home-grown' symbols such as the urn and quincunx which enable him, 'by concentrating, almost like a hypnotist, on this pair of unfamiliar symbols, to paradoxically release the reader's mind into an infinite number of associative levels of awareness, without preconception to give shape and substance to quite literally cosmic generalizations'. [8] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Geographic place names with their frequently unconscious associations are also utilized by Browne. One in particular made a big impression upon C.G. Jung. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It was the South African traveller and explorer Laurens van der Post (1906-96) who introduced Carl Jung to one of Browne's greatest psychological observations. It celebrates the mystery of consciousness and employs an original proper-place name symbolic of the unconscious psyche. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Van der Post quoted Browne’s bold declaration - 'We carry within us the wonders we seek without us. There is all <i>Africa</i>, and her prodigies in us';<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> and</span> recorded Jung's response. ‘He was deeply moved. He wrote it down and exclaimed 'that was, and is, just it. But it needed the Africa without to drive home the point in my own self'. Clearly, Jung was impressed by Browne's proto-psychology proper-name symbolism. [9]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It remains unknown whether Jung read <i>Religio Medici </i>which was translated into German in 1746. He was however fond of quoting its title and once stated – ‘For the educated person who studied alchemy as part of his general education it was a real <i>Religio medici </i>[10]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">According to Jung the seventeenth century was the era in which alchemy and hermetic philosophy attained their most significance. In his view Browne’s era was 'one of those periods in human history when symbol formation still went on unimpeded'. He also noted that Hermetic philosophy was, in the main, practised by physicians not only because many known alchemists were physicians, but also because chemistry in those days was essentially a pharmacopeia. [11] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p>From proto-psychologists such as Browne there emerged the beginnings of the modern science of psychology. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Jung explains - 'the language of the alchemists is at first sight very different from our psychological terminology and way of thinking. But if we treat their symbols in the same way as we treat modern fantasies, they yield a meaning - even in the Middle Ages confessed alchemists interpreted their symbols in a moral and philosophical sense, their "philosophy" was, indeed, nothing but projected psychology. [12]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Jung's psychology is based upon the protean multiplicity of symbols which the human psyche ceaselessly creates. The symbolic meaning of almost every ancient world myth, animal, geometric form, feature of Nature, planetary god and number is elaborated upon in his writings, for he believed that- </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'The protean mythologeme and the shimmering symbol express the processes of the psyche far more trenchantly and, in the end, far more clearly than the clearest concept; for the symbol not only conveys a visualization of the process but—and this is perhaps just as important—it also brings a re-experiencing it'. [13]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">A superb example of how Browne’s proto-psychology anticipates Jung's interpretation of symbols can be seen in the Roman god Janus. The double-faced god Janus who presents his two faces simultaneously to the past and future pops up as a proper-name symbol in each of Browne’s literary works. In <i>Urn-Burial </i> the gloomy but realistic thought that, 'one face of Janus holds no proportion to the other' occurs, while in<i> Cyrus </i>the finger language of 'the mystical <i>statua</i> of Janus' is featured. The double-faced god clearly held proto-psychological significance to Browne. Centuries later, Carl Jung declared the Roman god Janus to be none other than, 'a perfect symbol of the human psyche, as it faces both the past and future. Anything psychic is Janus-faced: it looks both backwards and forwards. Because it is evolving it is also preparing for the future'. [14] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfKowb8htXbyMAmoYX3D_mTsZLKLvNMBwzlY7L3aPsPlDQNq18Vm72UukBps2_yH54fREDwlnkJ5WtpzODytHS186wRPO9sSEmyeamX-z3uQ7eesH8yA2SJRHKKXNTEJWsw2H9Acuk8eKehfYBv2TMNw5MuSJTdRYvcSMyLNU4sgLQ26jpVuqhc7SfO_g/s720/saturn-night.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfKowb8htXbyMAmoYX3D_mTsZLKLvNMBwzlY7L3aPsPlDQNq18Vm72UukBps2_yH54fREDwlnkJ5WtpzODytHS186wRPO9sSEmyeamX-z3uQ7eesH8yA2SJRHKKXNTEJWsw2H9Acuk8eKehfYBv2TMNw5MuSJTdRYvcSMyLNU4sgLQ26jpVuqhc7SfO_g/s320/saturn-night.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal">Listed as once in Browne's library, the five gargantuan tomes of the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>were the most popular and comprehensive collection of alchemical literature available in the seventeenth century. A woodcut depicting the <i>Nigredo </i>stage of alchemy is reproduced in its first volume. (above). Encased within a bubble the researcher lays prone with a black crow on his stomach. The five planets and two luminaries orbit above him. The black star of Saturn, a planet long associated with melancholy and isolation as well as deep insight, radiates its dark influence upon the researcher. </p><p class="MsoNormal">We can be confident Browne perused his edition of the <i>Theatrum Chemicun</i> closely for he 'borrowed' from the highly moral and psychological writings of the Belgian alchemist Gerard Dorn (c. 1530-84) whose writings form the bulk of its first volume Dorn's image of an 'invisible sun'. Browne's 'borrowing' occurs in the fifth and final chapter of <i>Urn-Burial</i> where he inspirationally declares - 'Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us'.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Though he lacked modern-day terminology Browne nonetheless was adept in his usage of symbols and imagery in his attempts to describe the workings of the psyche. He was well acquainted through his reading of alchemical literature such as the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>with the sophisticated, yet commonplace schemata of the alchemical stages of the opus known as the <i>Nigredo</i> (Blackness) and <i>Albedo</i> (Whiteness). There's strong evidence that this concept is utilized as the framework for his Discourses. A superabundance of similarities can be discerned, far beyond casual coincidence, between the themes, imagery and symbols of <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>to those of the <i>Nigredo </i>and <i>Albedo </i>of alchemy.<i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal">C.G. Jung helpfully defines the initial <i>nigredo</i> stage of alchemy thus- </p></span><div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'the <i>nigredo</i> not only brought decay, suffering, death, and the torments of hell visibly before the eyes of the alchemist, it also cast the shadow of melancholy over his solitary soul. In the blackness of his despair he experienced.. grotesque images which reflect the conflict of opposites into which the researcher's curiosity had led him. His work began with a katabasis, a journey to the underworld as Dante also experienced it'. [15] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>Urn-Burial</i> alludes to several 'soul journeys' of classical literature, including Dante's Inferno as well as Homer's Odyssey in which Ulysses descends into the Underworld. the Discourse also alludes to the soul journeys of Scipio's Dream and Plato's myth of Er. The religious mystic in Browne knew that each one of us from our birth, conscious or not of the fact, embarks upon a soul-journey with Death as a final port of call.</p></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal">Alchemical literature frequently warns the researcher of the dangers of being engulfed and overwhelmed by the dark contents of the initial stage of the<i> nigredo</i>. Browne resisted this peril through professional acumen, but was also aware of how other's succumbed to the despair of the <i>Nigredo -</i></p></span><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature; or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain. [16]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Browne’s proto-psychology in <i>Urn-Burial</i> stoically notes of the relationship between pain and memory.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">‘We slightly remember our felicities, and the smartest strokes of affliction leave but short smart upon us. Sense endureth no extremities, and sorrows destroy us or themselves. … To be ignorant of evils to come, and forgetful of evils past, is a merciful provision in nature.' [17]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Nigredo</i> is encapsulated perfectly in <i>Urn-Burial's</i> pithy expression, 'lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing'. Though little recognised, Browne's forensic survey of the burial rites and customs of various world religions, contemplation of ancient world beliefs associated with death and the afterlife along with its mention of putrefaction and mortification makes it the most sustained and exemplary work of the <i>Nigredo </i>stage of alchemy extant in English literature. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The succeeding stage of the alchemical opus was known as the <i>albedo </i>or whitening in which a widening of consciousness and revelation occurs. The <i>albedo</i> is frequently likened in alchemical literature to the Creation, Paradise and the Garden of Eden, each of which are alluded to in the opening paragraphs of <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Misapprehension and prejudice continues to bedevil understanding of the vital influence which alchemy, Neoplatonic thought and Hermetic philosophy exerted upon artist, scientist and philosopher alike throughout the Renaissance. Such misapprehensions continue to hamper comprehension of Browne who read and studied alchemical literature closely, as the contents of his library reveals. A</span>long with other spiritual alchemists Browne intuited the bizarre symbolism and imagery of alchemy as a proto-psychology which discoursed upon the unconscious processes of the psyche to attain self-knowledge and individuation, the very Philosopher's Stone no less. In essence, Browne recognised in alchemical literature a kinship to the moralism and insights of Christian theology. Spiritually orientated alchemy is his greatest interest, as he makes clear in <i>Religio Medici - </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'The smattering I have of the Philosopher's Stone (which is something more than the perfect exaltation of gold) hath taught me a great deal of theology'. [18]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Even late in his life, when orthodox in his Christian faith, Browne justified the study of esoteric literature, naming two mystical scientists who he held in high regard in <i>Christian Morals - </i>'many would be content that some would write like <i>Helmont </i>and<i> Paracelsus</i>; and be willing to endure the monstrosity of some opinions, for divers singular notions requiting such aberrations'. [19]</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AgOK7R6KDVR_dptsgOJh9QV4hQ9d4AoaUuTH-0nqPLd0QN9m5HGflpuWGELlbKoUUkk2bkKHofhOgFucWU1RiyfJNUxlXOrTLkXOtz1R46rQU06oRhcC-8QDw-A63AhoEb1kZwbEixe7WBFAM95LMRShmCnLhQ8-QaWMFu3Fij9aBvZHy3zMKXf4ckI/s621/0022.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="492" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AgOK7R6KDVR_dptsgOJh9QV4hQ9d4AoaUuTH-0nqPLd0QN9m5HGflpuWGELlbKoUUkk2bkKHofhOgFucWU1RiyfJNUxlXOrTLkXOtz1R46rQU06oRhcC-8QDw-A63AhoEb1kZwbEixe7WBFAM95LMRShmCnLhQ8-QaWMFu3Fij9aBvZHy3zMKXf4ckI/w318-h400/0022.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The frontispiece to Mario Bettini's <i>Beehives of Univeral Mathematical Philosophy</i> (published in 1656 and listed as once in Browne's library) is a fitting visualization of the overall mood-music of <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> In its foreground is a villa courtyard in which mathematical, optical and geometric instruments stand in vases as if cultivated plants. In the centre of the courtyard a peacock stands upon a sphere and displays its feathers, water flows from its feathered eyes creating a streaming fountain. Mercurius, the god of communication and revelation stands aloft a pyramid of skep beehives holding an armillary sphere. Ten bees in quincunx formation hover beside him.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>is crowded with concepts and symbols from various Western esoteric disciplines. The quincunx is one of many symbols featured in the discourse. Although the quincunx is mentioned in classical antiquity the idea of it being a pattern which transcends the realm of the artificial originates from the Renaissance. The idea can be found in book 4 of the Italian polymath and scholar Giambattista Della Porta's vast agricultural encyclopedia known as <i>Villa</i> (1583-1592). Della Porta (1535-1615) asserts in <i>Villa</i> that the quincunx pattern in addition to featuring in gardens and plantations, 'is to be found in each and every single thing in nature'. An illustration of the quincunx pattern from Della Porta's <i>Villa </i>was borrowed by Browne for the frontispiece of <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>Astoundingly, centuries later, C.G. Jung declared the quincunx to be none other than 'a symbol of the <i>quinta essentia </i>which is identical to the Philosopher's Stone'. [20] <i> </i> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">In contrast to <i>Urn-Burial's</i> slow, stately rhythms,<i> The Garden of</i> <i>Cyrus</i> includes many paragraphs of rapid, near breathless prose. In a rare first person outburst Browne couples the game of chess to Persia to Egyptian deities, Hermes Trismegistus to cosmology to the potent alchemical '<i>coniunctio</i>' symbol of <i>Sol et Luna </i>in a train of stream-of-consciousness association.<i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'In Chess-boards and Tables we yet find Pyramids and Squares, I wish we had their true and ancient description, far different from ours, or the <i>Chet mat </i>of the <i>Persians</i>, which might continue some elegant remarkables, as being an invention as High as <i>Hermes </i>the Secretary of <i>Osyris</i>, figuring the whole world, the motion of the Planets, with Eclipses of Sun and Moon'. [21]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">While <i>Urn-Burial </i>with its oratorical flourishes and 'full Organ-stop' prose exhibits distinctly baroque traits thematically and stylistically, in complete contrast <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> has strong Mannerist characteristics in style and theme. The Hungarian art-historian Arnold Hauser noted that Mannerist art delighted in symbols and hidden meanings and that it had an intellectual and even surrealistic outlook. He also noted that Mannerist art was inclined towards esoteric concepts and defined its qualities and excesses in words easily applicable to Browne's creativity and the hermetic content of <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'At one time it is the deepening and spiritualizing of religious experience and a vision of a new spiritual content in life; at another, an exaggerated intellectualism, consciously and deliberately deforming reality, with a tinge of the bizarre and the abstruse.' [22]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung studied and borrowed from hermetic philosopher and alchemist alike in the development of his psychology. His great achievement was identifying the unconscious imagery of the alchemists to be a proto-psychology which discusses the stages and processes of the psyche in its striving towards Self-realization and individuation. Foremost of all symbols in Jung's psychology are the archetypes, the primordial models of the psyche which he believed are embedded at the deepest strata of the collective psyche; some of the most important are the hero, the lover, the Great Mother, the wise ruler and the trickster. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Although mention of archetypes can be traced back to Plato and Gnostic philosophers, one of the earliest modern usages of the word 'archetype' occurs in <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> Browne even attempts to delineate a specific archetype, that of the 'wise ruler' through proper-name symbolism allusion to the Persian King Cyrus, the biblical leaders Solomon and Moses, the Roman Emperor Augustus and the Macedonian Alexander the Great. The archetype of the 'Great Mother' is also tentatively sketched in<i> Cyrus </i>through allusion to the matriarchal figures of Sarah of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek goddess Juno, and Isis of ancient Egypt.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Another great example of how Browne's proto-psychology anticipates Jung's occurs at the apotheosis of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> with his advising his reader 'to search out the <i>quaternio's </i>and figured draughts of this order'. Its advice was taken seriously by Carl Jung with the Swiss psychoanalyst firmly believing that the quaternity or patterns which are four-fold to invariably symbolize wholeness or totality; and in fact the earliest known divisions of Space and Time - the four seasons of the Year and the four points of the compass are based upon a quaternity, as are the four humours of ancient Greek medicine along with the four temperaments of medieval medicine as well as the four gospels of the New Testament. Jung even structured his understanding of the psyche upon a quaternity, defining the psyche as comprising of four entities in totality, these being - Rational thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">*</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung once declared - 'the late alchemical texts are fantastic and baroque; only when we have learnt to interpret them can we recognise what treasures they hide'. [23] Today <i>Urn-Burial </i>and<i> The Garden of Cyrus</i> (1658) can be identified as Browne's supreme work of proto-psychology. Jam-packed with symbolism and imagery allusive to esoteric concepts, together they form a portrait of the psyche, unconscious and conscious, irrational and rational, stoical and transcendent, fearful of Death yet always planning for the future. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>Urn-Burial</i> and <i>The
Garden of Cyrus</i> are highly polarised to each other in respective
truth, imagery and symbolism. The invisible world of decay and death in <i>Urn-Burial</i> is
'answered' by the visible world of growth and life in <i>The Garden of
Cyrus</i>. Imagery of darkness in <i>Urn-Burial</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is mirrored by imagery
of Light in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. Likewise, the gloomy, Saturnine
speculations of <i>Urn-Burial </i>are 'answered' by the cheerful, Mercurial revelations of
<i>Cyrus</i>. Together the diptych traces a commonplace route of 'Soul-journey' literature from the Grave to the Garden. Browne’s soul-journey begins in the ‘subterranean
world’ of <i>Urn-Burial's </i>opening paragraph<i> </i>and arrives at ‘the City of Heaven’ in the penultimate paragraph of<i> Cyrus. </i>The gordian knot of why
these two philosophical discourses of 1658 share a multiplicity of oppositions or polarities thematically and in imagery such as - Darkness and Light, Decay and Growth, Mortality and Eternity, Body and
Soul, Accident and Design, Speculation and Revelation, World and Universe,
Microcosm and Macrocosm is swiftly spliced by C. G. Jung's sharp remark - 'the alchemystical philosophers made the opposites and their union their
chiefest concern'. [24]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">If we choose to reflect in depth on the themes, rich imagery and symbolism within Dr. Browne's major work of proto-psychology and Hermetic philosophy, it can lead us deep into the mysteries of our inner world. Far from the received wisdom of <i>Urn Burial</i> being simply a gloomy essay on Death with an essay on gardening appended to it to bulk out for the printer, as one Victorian literary critic believed, the literary spiritual mandala of <i>Urn-Burial </i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> with its <i>Nigredo </i>speculations and <i>Albedo </i>revelations is capable of unlocking the mysteries of the psyche/soul's architecture.</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>* </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The altered state of
consciousness known as dreaming fascinated Browne. It remains unknown why exactly we dream. For most dreams are involuntary,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a sequence of strange events and unfamiliar
places which are out of one’s control <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and which simply happen to one when asleep.
Browne however was one of those fortunate people able to manipulate the
sequence of events of a dream at will, so-called lucid dreaming. Supplementing his many observations on dreams in <i>Religio Medici</i> Browne describes his
ability to lucid dream thus-<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'Yet in one dream I can compose a
whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh myself awake at
the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reason is fruitful I
would chose never to study but in my dreams'. [25]<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">For those living in the grim
realities of the seventeenth century, the ability to lucid dream must have been a welcome diversion. In tandem with his wide-ranging reading lucid dreaming was rich fuel for Browne’s artistic imagination. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Concrete evidence of the relationship between Browne’s proto-psychology
to modern-day psychoanalysis can be found in his short tract on dreams. Taking his cue from Paracelsus on the
psychotherapeutic value of interpreting dreams, especially at a critical stage
of a patient’s illness, Browne expounds his theory for interpreting dreams thus- </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">'Many dreams are made out by
sagacious exposition and from the signature of their subjects; carrying their
interpretation in their fundamental sense and mystery of similitude
whereby he that understands upon what natural fundamental every notional dependeth, may by symbolical adaption hold a ready way to read the characters of
Morpheus'. [26] <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Browne's proposal that dreams can
be interpreted by 'symbolical adaptation' links him closely to Jung's psychology for the Swiss analyst also believed that his patients dreams could be interpreted through 'symbolical adaptation'. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Browne mentions in his tract that dreams have changed lives, naming J.B. van Helmont and Jerome Cardan as recipients of transformative dreams. And centuries later, after dreaming of being trapped in the 17th century, Jung embarked upon what was to be over thirty years study of alchemy and its literature. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u>Conclusion</u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Writing in 1961 the American psychiatrist Jerome Schneck asserted- 'When Browne is assessed with the context of modern medico-psychological principles, the strength and richness of his thoughts and the appreciation of him as a psychologically minded physician comes to more fruitful expression. It may be reasonable to predict that more elements of interest in Sir Thomas Browne will be discovered in the future. He will find a more significant place in psychiatry. His importance in the history of medicine will be more fully perceived'. [27]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Browne is indeed more interested in the Renaissance discovery of the psyche than in the discoveries made by the two scientific instruments developed in his lifetime, the telescope and microscope. This is because, above all, it is spirituality and the psychic processes of the mind, in particular self-realization and individuation which are his primary concern. Browne's only science of any value is his contribution to the science of the mind. Without doubt he'd have agreed with Carl Jung’s assessment of our modern-day world. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">‘Science and technology have indeed conquered the world, but whether the psyche has gained anything is another matter’. [28] </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Today, Sir Thomas Browne can confidently be termed an early or proto-psychologist. His capacity for self-analysis, deep interest in people, usage of symbolism and fascination with dreams are each vital components of his proto psychology. Though lacking in terminology, he nonetheless attempted to through his proper-name symbolism and imagery such as 'the theatre of ourselves' to delineate the psyche. But perhaps his greatest achievement as a proto psychologist is simply his introduction into English language words useful to his profession such as - ‘medical’ ‘pathology’ 'suicide' ‘hallucination’ and best of all ‘therapeutic’. Furthermore, as I hope I've adequately proved, Thomas Browne’s proto-psychology has a unique, and yet to be fully explored relationship to the analytical psychology of Carl Jung.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>See also </u></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u><br /></u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2023/01/one-face-of-janus-holds-no-proportion.html">Browne and Janus</a><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2020/07/dr-brownes-readie-way-to-read.html">Browne on the interpretation of dreams</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2020/10/lost-in-uncomfortable-night-of-nothing.html">The Nigredo of Urn-Burial</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2021/10/">Dr. Browne's alchemical mandala</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2019/09/mathematical-beehives-and-peacock.html">Mathematical Beehives and the Peacock fountain</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Dreams">Browne's short essay 'On Dreams'</a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9c9u8hAGNcPQIdmra9330cd-Z-P-Cyi8Hlf7x3lVuYrsRMakNLTpz46WcVTzOk1t6OzC0oVjR4iBfIszmsxsYWyAdepEVugwDKMUjSpN09mTTmENSADQehYCzPQfJoGK3quvccTiM8pod7CM3B7mEfBvo6AhOROSOcCv7cTAFzxpctfK5SVGor-P6RBc/s1080/FB_IMG_1697707413046.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9c9u8hAGNcPQIdmra9330cd-Z-P-Cyi8Hlf7x3lVuYrsRMakNLTpz46WcVTzOk1t6OzC0oVjR4iBfIszmsxsYWyAdepEVugwDKMUjSpN09mTTmENSADQehYCzPQfJoGK3quvccTiM8pod7CM3B7mEfBvo6AhOROSOcCv7cTAFzxpctfK5SVGor-P6RBc/s320/FB_IMG_1697707413046.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Above - Author delivering a slightly different version of this essay in the Vernon Castle Room for the Norfolk Heritage Centre at the Millennium Library, Norwich. October 3rd 2023. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Photo</b> Header - Rainbow Bricks Lego 1000 pieces completed October 2023</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[1] Collected Works of Thomas Browne Religio Medici edited Reid Barbour and Brooke Conti </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Oxford University Press 2023</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Photo</b> - first volume of the Collected Writings of Thomas Browne.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[2] Religio Medici Part 1 Section 39</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[3] Religio Medici Part 1 Section 51</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[4] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[5] R.M. Part 2 : 7</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[6] R.M. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[7] Miscellaneous writing Keynes Faber and Faber 1931</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[8] Sir Thomas Browne - Peter Green pub. Longmans, Green and co. 1959</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[9] ' Jung and the story of our times' Laurens van der Post Penguin 1976</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[10] C.W. vol. 10 :727</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[11] C.W. vol.13:353</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[12] C.W. vol.14:737</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[13] C.W. 13: 199</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[14] C.W. vol. 6. Psychological Types (1921) para. 717</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Woodcut</b> from <i>Theatrum Chemicum</i> Sales Catalogue page 24 no. 124 </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[15] CW 14:93</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[16] Urn-Burial chapter </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[17] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[18] R.M. 1 :39</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[19] Christian Morals Part 2 Section 5 </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Photo</b> - Mario Bettini's book is listed in the 1711 Sales Catalogue of Browne's library on p. 28 no. 16 under Folio by its half-title <i>Fucaria & Auctaria ad Apiaria Philosophiae Mathematicae </i>1656. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There are two different versions of the frontispiece for 'The Garden of Mathematical Sciences'. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Early editions include a frontispiece by Matthiae Galasso/Matthias Galassus while later editions feature Francesco Curti's colour engraving. Browne's edition was the earlier Matthias Galasso's frontispiece (below) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipWgPNwMEG59GuHo6Q2mn29o9gj-wsu6He8s-lNSVInea57HNZFYyqhaBJe8N6lD8tXfF5sVPMv0gxkftffD7yjxtEDPR-8GLpfSx2M1OXeAZu8Bf7iuO5YD2hZP4vLa92GM2jwb0JS2UaL5nDrXLditMhcQjJEj5xAfFCWcsEn5q8smExvcW0BpwrPrI/s574/Early%20peacock.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipWgPNwMEG59GuHo6Q2mn29o9gj-wsu6He8s-lNSVInea57HNZFYyqhaBJe8N6lD8tXfF5sVPMv0gxkftffD7yjxtEDPR-8GLpfSx2M1OXeAZu8Bf7iuO5YD2hZP4vLa92GM2jwb0JS2UaL5nDrXLditMhcQjJEj5xAfFCWcsEn5q8smExvcW0BpwrPrI/s320/Early%20peacock.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[20] C.W. 10:737</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[21]<i> The Garden of Cyrus </i>Chapter 2</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[22] Arnold Hauser - Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Harvard University Press 1964</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[23] 'Memories, dreams, Reflections' C.G. Jung Chapter 7</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[24] Foreword to C.W. vol. 14</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[25] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 2 ; 11</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[26] On Dreams</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[27] Psychiatric aspects of Sir Thomas Browne by Jerome Schneck 1961</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[28] CW13:163 </div></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-62829857874877066182023-08-27T18:06:00.087+01:002024-02-13T19:36:00.938+00:00'Compassion is the physician's teacher' : Gavin Francis - 'The Opium of Time' <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_90fRMuvzxhuqDEgTLmJB3763tI1Wd1s7GBZVW9nyVDMN7kdZogAv7mx4WB0uJf40w8JTO7Y7a-otnzpoiJijOZtXGx24OcmdXAnb19qDV2QMqRTZ78zSok1QApAT0tiUHFEsNUq6ygInFNi3qQmb5w8Uz2t0aFt7JdvF8A5emH7fKNI-zxGAH3JzvQ/s3409/20230616_163756.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3409" data-original-width="2213" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_90fRMuvzxhuqDEgTLmJB3763tI1Wd1s7GBZVW9nyVDMN7kdZogAv7mx4WB0uJf40w8JTO7Y7a-otnzpoiJijOZtXGx24OcmdXAnb19qDV2QMqRTZ78zSok1QApAT0tiUHFEsNUq6ygInFNi3qQmb5w8Uz2t0aFt7JdvF8A5emH7fKNI-zxGAH3JzvQ/s320/20230616_163756.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span>The </span><span>21st century Renaissance of interest in Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) continues to flourish with a new, insightful appreciation </span>by the Edinburgh-based doctor Gavin Francis on the seventeenth century physician-philosopher. <i>The Opium of Time</i><span> includes a generous selection of quotations from Browne's selected writings relevant to the themes of its eight, stand-alone chapters; these in turn are bookended by two reflective letters addressed to Browne in which the author reminds his reader of the very big differences </span>in belief, culture and science between our world today and the seventeenth century of Browne's era.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Francis joins the ranks of other physicians who have admired Thomas Browne, these include the distinguished Canadian doctor William Osler (1849-1919), the surgeon Sir Geoffrey Keynes, and the Norwich-based GP Anthony Batty-Shaw (1922-2015). Much of the strength of Dr. Francis's appreciation rests in a shared profession for although separated by centuries he recognises that, in many ways little has changed in the role of his profession since Browne's day. Faced with human illness and suffering the role of the physician as a well-informed and trusted confidant has altered little. In this respect <i>The Opium of Time</i> transcends the technicalities of literary criticism, highlighting Browne's tolerance, humility and compassion as key components of a shared humanism. The discourse <i>Urn-Burial</i> and <i>Christian Morals</i> in particular are favoured by the author as exemplary of Browne's psychological understanding of the human condition, encapsulated in pithy aphorisms such as 'Sorrows destroy us or themselves'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its refreshing to read in <i>The Opium of Time</i> of the influence of the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541)<i>. </i>During his short life Paracelsus dedicated himself to the art of healing, declaring 'Compassion is the physician's teacher'. Crucially, he urged physicians to experiment upon nature's properties in order to discover new chemicals for medical use, Browne himself knew 'that every plant might receive a name according unto the disease it cureth, was the wish of Paracelsus' [1] As a critical follower of Paracelsus, Browne, like the Swiss physician, was both early chemist and alchemist, the difference between the two activities being fluid not fixed, even with latter scientific figures such as Robert Boyle (1627-91) and Isaac Newton (1643-1727). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its primarily because of Dr. Francis's non-judgemental mention of the influence of Paracelsian medicine when others have either denounced, or what's worse, ridiculed Browne's 'spagyric' medicine (the Paracelsian neologism 'spagyric' is inscribed in verse on Browne's coffin-plate) that <i>The Opium of Time </i>can be said to be the most insightful book by a medical professional on Browne since William Osler's day, over a century ago.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The parallel between the humility of Christian faith and the humility of caring work in nursing and medicine is noted by Dr. Francis, a staunch advocate of the beloved but beleaguered institute founded upon Christian values known as the NHS. In Browne's day devout physicians took inspiration from Christ's Ministry. [2] While not sharing his subject's religious faith, Dr. Francis nevertheless applauds Browne's Christian stoicism, engendered one suspects, by a shared close proximity to human suffering and mortality in profession. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gavin Francis also highlights Browne's little-recognised sense of humour, a tool which used carefully, he suggests, can assist the doctor-patient relationship when faced with seemingly unsurpassable dilemmas. Humour is encountered throughout Browne's writings. His quip on William Harvey's detection of the circulation of the blood as being, “a discovery I prefer to that of Columbus” (i.e that of America) [3] is typical of his dry and learned humour. Browne's most sustained piece of humour is the hilarious, 'To an illustrious friend on his wearisome Chatterer' . It may have been composed in order to cheer up his friend Joseph Hall (1574-1656) who was deposed as Bishop Of Norwich in 1643 for supporting the Royalist cause. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to examining the influence of piety and humility upon Browne's intellect and spirituality, Dr. Francis also tackles the thorny subject of the physician's involvement in a witch trial, discussing how much he was influenced by the endemic misogyny of his era. Browne never testified at the Bury trial, nor could his opinion have influenced any verdict while the patriarchal authority of the Judaic Old Testament held blind sway over reason. A single verse in the Old Testament sanctioned and 'justified' the legal condemnation to death of what is estimated to have been a quarter million of mostly women throughout Europe from 1400-1700. [4] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Much has been made on what is one of the very few biographical details known about Browne, often inviting disapproval from a comfortably removed historical perspective. His culpability and supposed failure in risking his status and social standing when faced with mass-mind irrationality and legalized prejudice is often exaggerated. Its worthwhile remembering, as Dr. Francis does, that Browne dedicated a large part of his life to relieving the suffering of others. His psychological observation that, 'No man can justly censure or condemn another because indeed no man truly knows another' seems applicable here. [5]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Francis shares with his subject in a love of travel, both doctors recognising that travel usually broadens the mind in tolerance, understanding and appreciation of different societies and cultures. Its thus an easy excuse for the author to visit Padua in Italy and Leiden in the Netherlands in search of traces of Browne's academic sojourns. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Replete with original observations which others have overlooked, Dr. Francis also draws attention to how Thomas Browne when elderly, enjoyed reading, or having read to him, accounts by traveller's from distant lands such as Africa, India and China. Throughout <i>The Opium of Time </i>one also learns more of Dr. Francis's own extensive travels which have included working visits to India and Africa as well as Antarctica. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In a book engaging in narrative, the author takes delight as many others, in Browne's inventive coining of new words into the English language. Browne's neologisms catered for the need for a preciser vocabulary in the early scientific revolution and many, such as 'electricity' 'ambidextrous' 'network' cater for this need. Through his deep study and understanding of Greek and Latin Browne is also credited with introducing words associated with his profession such as 'medical', 'pathology' and 'hallucination' for example. <i> </i> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne gave good advice to literary critics when declaring - 'If the substantial subject be well forged we need not examine the sparks which fly irregularly from it'. [6] </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Opium of Time </i>is a wholly original response to the Renaissance humanism, wit and scholarship of Thomas Browne, nevertheless a few 'irregular sparks' fly from it, silently smouldering in the deep pile carpet of truth. Credence is given to the unreliable narrator of W.G. Sebald's <i>The Rings of Saturn </i>who mischievously supplements fictitious text to the conclusion of <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>A footnote regret that Aldrovandi's <i>Monstrorum Historia</i> would not have been known to Browne is groundless. Throughout his life Browne kept well-abreast on the latest publications, nationally and internationally. The Sales Auction Catalogue of his and his eldest son Edward's combined libraries is solid evidence of the vast and extraordinary range of Browne's interests. The 1711 catalogue records that Aldrovandi's <i>Monstrorum Historia </i>(picture below) along with some half a dozen other titles by the Italian zoologist are listed as once in his library. [7]</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dfk3XK2A7WRpOE7xQK7RGXmK20LQarZPuKaEKguxfhfhlF0miN_RqcHTydz7dTkOz9y5WX-pz1tz-v75t_qYgM_BOIhuHIxP_BLWexw3KBZN4NzfT0xuYgbSECtkC6nlnoLMn8OTelXF2dDnyHLc-J23JORXPH0mBR3HQlZwhdITnKjYfLgnMUPULe8/s1280/Ulisse_aldrovandi,_monstrorum_historia,_per_nicola_tebaldini,_bologna_1642,_191_bambino_ipertricotico.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="953" data-original-width="1280" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dfk3XK2A7WRpOE7xQK7RGXmK20LQarZPuKaEKguxfhfhlF0miN_RqcHTydz7dTkOz9y5WX-pz1tz-v75t_qYgM_BOIhuHIxP_BLWexw3KBZN4NzfT0xuYgbSECtkC6nlnoLMn8OTelXF2dDnyHLc-J23JORXPH0mBR3HQlZwhdITnKjYfLgnMUPULe8/w400-h297/Ulisse_aldrovandi,_monstrorum_historia,_per_nicola_tebaldini,_bologna_1642,_191_bambino_ipertricotico.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Nor can one agree that Browne's choice of a 'provincial general practise' is exemplary of his humility. Norwich was England's second city in Browne's day, a position it occupied until the early Industrial Revolution. Densely populated and surrounded by a highly-productive agricultural hinterland, the ancient City had important links in trade, culture and travel to mainland Europe, in particular the Netherlands. As the home to a wealthy gentry who were financially able to consult and afford a doctor's fees, Norwich was an ideal location for an ambitious, newly-qualified physician to establish a medical practise in order to support a wife, home and family. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But a greater weakness of <i>The Opium of Time </i>is its author's reluctance to acknowledge Browne's esoteric inclinations, resulting in an incomplete portrait of the seventeenth century physician-philosopher. Other than a welcome mention of the medical influence of Paracelsus, Dr. Francis is reluctant to discuss Browne's relationship to esotericism. Its a reluctance which results in the removal of a sentence of text. An entire sentence in which Browne makes a tacit nod to like-minded influences upon him, 'It was the opinion of Plate and is yet of the Hermetical philosophers', is removed and replaced thus .... and not presumably for the purposes of page formatting or in order to save ink. [8]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Such glossing over of Browne's esoteric credentials is regrettable. Its a slippery path to travel upon if, for example, one dislikes the sentiment expressed in a few bars of a Beethoven symphony or imagery in the lines of a Shakespeare sonnet to simply extract and omit them from a work of art. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's usually the British historian Dame Frances Yates (1899-1981) who is credited as the first to explore the vital influence which Western esotericism wielded upon scientists, thinkers and artists of the Renaissance-era. Yates demonstrated Western esotericism to be worthy of academic study. Catholic in faith herself, she also disproved a commonplace misapprehension, that its necessary to personally believe ideas espoused by Western esotericism when studying its influence in intellectual history.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Ever since the humanist scholar Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) introduced Plato's <i>Timaeus</i> to Western readers and attributed his translation of the <i>Corpus Hermeticum </i>to the mythic Hermes Trismegistus, numerous thinkers, scholars and artists throughout the Renaissance era (circa 1500-1650) studied and were influenced by Western esoteric concepts such as Neoplatonism, Hermetic philosophy, Cabala, Gnosticism and alchemical symbolism which they incorporated into their art, philosophy or science. Thomas Browne, in common with British contemporaries such as the Welsh clergyman Thomas Vaughan (1621-1666) the Oxford antiquarian Elias Ashmole (1617-92), the Paracelsian physician Robert Fludd (1574-1637) and Arthur Dee (1579-1651) eldest son of the Elizabethan magus John Dee were influenced by the tenets of Western esotericism. Thomas Browne makes clear his allegiance in <i>Religio Medici</i> when emphatically declaring, 'the severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of <i>Hermes </i>wherein as in a portrait things are not truly seen but in equivocal shapes'.<i> </i>[9] There's no evidence he ever deviated from this opinion in his life-time. Even in <i>Christian Morals </i>a moralistic work believed to have been written late in his life during the mid 1670's which Dr. Francis refreshingly champions for its many profound psychological observations, mention of astrology, physiognomy, the alchemical maxim <i>solve et coagula </i>along with the mythic Hermes Trismegistus can be found.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> has been described as 'the ultimate test of one's response to Browne'. For Dr. Francis and for many others, its<i> </i>'the strangest of all Browne's books'. Consulting the well-worn role-call of Browne's literary critics little assists comprehension of its hermetic content. Dr. Johnson from the height of his 18th century Age of Reason in particular was unsympathetic and disparaging towards it. Modern scholarship however recognises a helpful interpreter, one who Gavin Francis mentions in his 'Shapeshifters: A Doctor's Notes on Medicine and Human change' namely the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Through a judicious application of C.G. Jung's life-long study and understanding of Western esotericism its possible to acquire new insights on Browne's inventive creativity and literary symbolism. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Francis notes of a passage in <i>Urn-Burial, </i>that - 'It is almost as if Browne wished death and new life to sit adjacent on the page. He seemed to want to demonstrate the fraternity of life and death, their interdependence.' But in fact its more through the physical binding and union of the diptych discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>that Browne ingeniously demonstrates this fraternity. The somber, saturnine speculations of<i> Urn-Burial </i>are 'answered" by the mercurial garden delights of <i>Cyrus. </i>The gordian knot as to why they exhibit a plethora of oppositions or polarities in respective themes, truths and imagery such as - Decay and Growth, Mortality and Eternity, Body and Soul, Accident and Design, Speculation and Revelation, Darkness and Light, World and Universe, Microcosm and Macrocosm, is sundered in C. G. Jung's sharp observation - 'the alchemystical philosophers made the opposites and their union their chiefest concern'. [10] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jung's lifetime study of comparative religion and alchemical literature also assists in identifying the source of imagery at the apotheosis of Browne's <i>Urn-Burial </i>in which he states, 'Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us'. Browne's 'astral imagery' in this case originates from his reading and 'borrowing' imagery by the Belgian alchemist and foremost advocate of Paracelsus, Gerard Dorn whose writings feature in the alchemical anthology known as the <i>Theatrum Chemicum. </i>[11]<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">All of which strongly suggests Browne's esoteric inclinations are far greater than usually is acknowledged and none of which distracts from enjoyment of what is a personal appreciation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Slender in volume but compressed with original observations and well-attuned in empathy with its subject, <i>The Opium of Time</i> will hopefully be enjoyed and enlighten its readers, long may it remain in print. Opium however, in Browne's proper-name symbolism is invariably associated with Oblivion, the philosopher of the Oblivion of Time in <i>Urn-Burial </i>knowing that ultimately little survives the devouring of Time. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Books consulted</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">* The Opium of Time: Gavin Francis OUP 2023 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Shapeshifters: A doctor's notes on medicine and human change Gavin Francis Wellcome Collection 2016</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* The Major Works of Sir Thomas Browne edited and with an Introduction by C. A. Patrides Penguin 1977</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* A Catalogue of the Libraries of Sir Thomas Browne and Dr Edward Browne, his son. A Facsimile Reproduction with an Introduction, Notes and Index by J.S. Finch pub. E. J .Brill 1986</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>See also</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> * <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2016/10/thomas-browne-and-opium-of-time.html">The Opium of Time</a> Opiate imagery and drugs in Thomas Browne's literary works. (2016) </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Carl Jung and Thomas Browne</a> On the extraordinary relationship between Jung and Browne</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/paracelsus-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Paracelsus and Sir Thomas Browne</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Sir_Thomas_Browne">A selection of books in Thomas Browne's library</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">* <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/To_an_illustrious_friend_on_his_wearisome_Chatterer">To an illustrious friend on his wearisome Chatterer</a> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Notes </u> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[1] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 2 chapter 7</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[2] 'And Jesus went about all Galilee ....healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.' Matthew 4:23</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[3] In Browne's correspondence to Henry Power</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[4] 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' (Exodus 22 verse 18)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[5] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 2:4</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[6] <i>Christian Morals </i>Part 2: Section 2</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[7] Aldrovandi's <i>Monstrorum Historicum </i>Bologna 1642. 1711 Sales Catalogue page 18 no. 23 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[8] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1: 32</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[9] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1 : 12 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[10] In foreword to C.G. Jung's <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis </i>(C.W. vol. 14)<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[11] Over 900 pages of Dorn's writings feature in the first volume of the foremost alchemical anthology of the 17th century, the <i>Theatrum Chemicum. </i> Browne's copy listed Sales Catalogue. page 25 no. 124.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jung even took a copy of the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>with him when visiting India. In his <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis </i>he states - 'In Dorn's view there is in man an 'invisible sun', which he identifies with the Archeus. This sun is identical with the 'sun in the earth'. The invisible sun enkindles an elemental fire which consumes man's substance and reduces his body to the <i>prima materia</i>'. - CW. 14: 49</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-5822583776986034292023-04-01T10:37:00.067+01:002024-03-06T19:42:02.551+00:00 Vulcan's Aquarium<div><br /></div><p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhICnzG4ziypPsV7dlzZe0RmHylwKtNho4jNZsesCudUAfH8aWhnNJ6nfnNOf-YA6Ae-tdt7M8eadQWLkreRiov7zDwORdjz7fcgmkPlyBELhmBpNCSlAWtLHFZeV4fnXlsgx7IwaIp3EtUJ31HVGAVTwBnyGi8GqbeZuFtLx9Ow8RwD5y9H8G8Hf15/s894/71bPHOTi0HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="894" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhICnzG4ziypPsV7dlzZe0RmHylwKtNho4jNZsesCudUAfH8aWhnNJ6nfnNOf-YA6Ae-tdt7M8eadQWLkreRiov7zDwORdjz7fcgmkPlyBELhmBpNCSlAWtLHFZeV4fnXlsgx7IwaIp3EtUJ31HVGAVTwBnyGi8GqbeZuFtLx9Ow8RwD5y9H8G8Hf15/w400-h281/71bPHOTi0HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.webp" width="400" /></a></div></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In reply to a recent enquiry, what exactly is 'the Aquarium of Vulcan' from which this blog is named, its useful to refer to the ancient Greek literary figure of Athenaeus, author of the <i>Deipnsophistae </i>or 'Banquet of the Philosophers' the allusive source of the little-known myth of Vulcan's love-gift to Venus.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But first, by far the better-known myth associated with Vulcan is that of the goddess Venus caught in bed with Mars, trapped by her husband Vulcan throwing an 'invisible net' over the pair of lovers. The Roman poet Ovid supplied rich material for many Renaissance-era artists in his <i>Metamorphoses </i>including a description of how Vulcan responded when discovering Venus and Mars in bed together.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'At once, he began to to fashion slender bronze chains, nets and snares which the eye could not see. The thinnest threads spun on the loom, or cobwebs hanging from rafters are no finer than was that workmanship. Moreover, he made them so that they would yield to the lightest touch, and to the smallest movement. These he set skillfully around his bed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">When his wife and her lover lay down together upon that couch they were caught by the chains, ingeniously fastened there by her husband's skill, and they were held fast in the very act of embracing. Immediately, Vulcan flung open the ivory doors, and admitted the gods. There lay Venus and Mars, close bound together, a shameful sight. The gods were highly amused; ... They laughed aloud, and for long this was the best-known story in heaven'. [1] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Vulcan enmeshing Venus and Mars in his net was a popular subject for many Renaissance artists including Velasquez, Tintoretto, Piero di Cosimo, Van Dyck and Rubens. Northern Mannerists artists in particular, such as Wtewael, Spranger and Heemskercke were all attracted to the myth.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Tintoretto in his 'Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan' dated 1551-1552 (below) has Vulcan interrupting Venus and Mar's love-making without his net. Examining by invitation her beauty, in close proximity, Vulcan is momentarily distracted from detecting a seemingly timorous Mars hiding under a bed. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOGFR6jvbeFc9MSPYbVPZw0C-3ChZknTudrggK577LdcorhN7H98hr2EIYxexj-ua530qNj9XYxyq950rRslGomdNsF0ta3Cpujm8OvbaQzj7j7z8_Vo3u_v4KKKtcyNhyiQw09mNtYhg7DQ372GRQKqhHRYhog6tAU2YJd3VDjhUHS02gregxC2aJ/s400/2vulcan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="400" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOGFR6jvbeFc9MSPYbVPZw0C-3ChZknTudrggK577LdcorhN7H98hr2EIYxexj-ua530qNj9XYxyq950rRslGomdNsF0ta3Cpujm8OvbaQzj7j7z8_Vo3u_v4KKKtcyNhyiQw09mNtYhg7DQ372GRQKqhHRYhog6tAU2YJd3VDjhUHS02gregxC2aJ/w320-h216/2vulcan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Dutch Northern Mannerist artist Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638) painted the moment in which Venus and Mars are surprised by Vulcan in three differing versions (below). The main protagonists of the celestial drama with their respective attributes can all be seen in Wtewael's elaborate staging, including Mercury with his caduceus, Saturn with his scythe along with Vulcan preparing to fling his net over the lovers.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoVDaMKaKrpHelK0ltbQFvyoDbNNOj9UvXtxRH15XV-_lNG5ruSVfZD_Vb2Wy6du7OBdwM3Tpm4UN_txmeiAQXP1dzAoAV-IzX36YLnmQ_EXwed3uT73yYgSqXpnbg72rkKKG539f2BCnsGnpVUbEfTL76SgwNn3nvPOZ4vjPgtCgrI5fX5F_eOXB/s800/Wtwael.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="607" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoVDaMKaKrpHelK0ltbQFvyoDbNNOj9UvXtxRH15XV-_lNG5ruSVfZD_Vb2Wy6du7OBdwM3Tpm4UN_txmeiAQXP1dzAoAV-IzX36YLnmQ_EXwed3uT73yYgSqXpnbg72rkKKG539f2BCnsGnpVUbEfTL76SgwNn3nvPOZ4vjPgtCgrI5fX5F_eOXB/s320/Wtwael.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Bartholomew Spranger (1546-1611) was a Flemish artist who worked as a Court artist for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. The erotic content of his 'Vulcan and Venus' (below) is overt with its emphasis upon the Beauty and the Beast aspect of the relationship. The art critic Linda Murray notes of the main thematic and stylist traits of Mannerist art - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Mannerism can be quite easily recognised and defined: in general it is equated with a concentration on the nude, often in bizarre and convoluted poses, and with exaggerated muscular development; with subject matter either deliberately obscure, or treated so that it becomes difficult to understand -the main incident pushed into the background or swamped with irrelevant figures serving as excuses for displays of virtuosity in figure painting; with extremes of perspective, distorted proportions or scale -figures jammed into too small a space so that one has the impression that any movement would burst the confines of the picture space; with vivid colour schemes, employing discordant contrasts, effects of 'shot' colour, not for descriptive or naturalistic purposes, but as a powerful adjunct to the emotional impact of the picture'. [2] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its a seemingly unequal pairing of a submissive Vulcan and dominant Venus in Spranger's interpretation of the two gods relationship. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkp5paEWdjBsVe4VsvV-w0btPx7tNOMJEO3fOlVLRzfDpPz9x9f_S3zkVHFxYx-lv-F1a8IjI6xQTW8ZpM1RMJs44TsXrjC2Ip89Vf0nPGdtl0n_DAkMDFOyYD2IOv6zK9jN1BUJvRN6jW62BZ9AcxuBgCYvYki_P9NtamDfEQrB4Yw8L8E66Rd57/s1174/Bartholom%C3%A4us_Spranger_022.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkp5paEWdjBsVe4VsvV-w0btPx7tNOMJEO3fOlVLRzfDpPz9x9f_S3zkVHFxYx-lv-F1a8IjI6xQTW8ZpM1RMJs44TsXrjC2Ip89Vf0nPGdtl0n_DAkMDFOyYD2IOv6zK9jN1BUJvRN6jW62BZ9AcxuBgCYvYki_P9NtamDfEQrB4Yw8L8E66Rd57/s320/Bartholom%C3%A4us_Spranger_022.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">With its unusual perspective, depiction of ancient world mythology and eroticism, Maarten van Heemskerck's (1498-1574) 'Venus, Mars and Vulcan' (below) is closely associated with Northern Mannerist art in subject-matter along with exploring expressions of sexuality. Confident in her seductive qualities, its a not-so demure-looking Venus who gazes into the viewer's eyes in Heemskerck's painting. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZAovFhV9ss8DiNckWFDvKeMQRKBonrVO2oyvtLfaWZtUR5-alWihcJR2sTmGaljd7Lqn8yk4xf4WNdpwyF8NgAbdO4l-PyuVc_f5r1Kc3QE_1F4QqXfR9R4HopZwGqTKzTZ1rkKYRny4OAN33Rx446tASn7eN0Syqka8qISK4xO2xa8-xbrLmO1q/s602/Vulcan,_Venus_and_Mars_-_Maarten_van_Heemskerck_(1540).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="602" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZAovFhV9ss8DiNckWFDvKeMQRKBonrVO2oyvtLfaWZtUR5-alWihcJR2sTmGaljd7Lqn8yk4xf4WNdpwyF8NgAbdO4l-PyuVc_f5r1Kc3QE_1F4QqXfR9R4HopZwGqTKzTZ1rkKYRny4OAN33Rx446tASn7eN0Syqka8qISK4xO2xa8-xbrLmO1q/s320/Vulcan,_Venus_and_Mars_-_Maarten_van_Heemskerck_(1540).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">The Graeco-Roman myth of Mars trapped by Vulcan's net is included in the hermetic phantasmagoria of the English physician-philosopher Thomas Browne's 'network' discourse, <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) its full running title being <i>The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Naturally, Artificially, Mystically considered.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">'As for that famous network of <i>Vulcan</i>, which enclosed <i>Mars</i> and <i>Venus</i>, and caused that inextinguishable laugh in heaven; since the gods themselves could not discern it, we shall not pry into it. Although why <i>Vulcan</i> bound them, <i>Neptune</i> loosed them, and <i>Apollo</i> should first discover them, might afford no vulgar mythology'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And in fact the highly symbolic figure of Vulcan opens Browne's hermetic discourse, ('That <i>Vulcan </i>gave arrows to <i>Apollo </i> and <i>Diana') </i>and ushers its apotheosis in which '<i>Vulcan</i> and his whole forge sweat to work out <i>Achilles </i>his armour'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On a mundane level the appeal of the myth of Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan may be viewed as social commentary upon the rise of adultery in urban Europe. During the Renaissance, with the increase and mix of population in European cities, opportunities for extra-marital affairs grew. The myth served well as a moral warning to its viewers. Renaissance painters also seized upon the myth of Venus and Mars and its symbolism in order to comment upon war-torn Europe of the late 16th and early 17th centuries for from the union of Venus, the goddess of Peace and Mars, the god of war, a child named Harmony was born. From an esoteric perspective the union of Venus and Mars is a lesser example of the 'coniunctio' or union of opposites in alchemy which was more often symbolized by the luminaries <i>Sol et Luna.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although Vulcan was famed for his inventiveness, making armour for the hero Achilles and a chair for his mother-in-law from which she could not escape when sitting on, no painting has survived of his constructing an aquarium for Venus. In any event, Casaubon's edition of Athenaeus's 'Banquet of the Philosophers' was not published until 1612 and therefore no painting of this subject before this date is possible. There is however at least one Renaissance painting in which Venus is depicted visiting her husband Vulcan's forge, perhaps for the purpose of requesting a love-gift. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Dutch painter Jan van Kessel's 'Venus at the forge of Vulcan' of 1662 (below) the stark contrast between the naked vulnerability of Venus and the metallic accoutrements of protective armour scattered in its foreground is notable. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zyIt3rgNGMIFz56sUDTZwZKowluiI1cySaQbRotZcZy8krUCY-_G5aPJ30E4P2KC-iwHT4mtd7nFagSq4UIXnFPEErT1UsomJadzK7qI4Buhj-mbD_cAamC45tBjoRoT8UKzGvoJiaoqqBZqkogW-EyQhY8p5fSnGnYn5-0Pvmc70KTCjSrf73J9/s800/Jan_van_Kessel_(I)_-_Venus_at_the_Forge_of_Vulcan_-_WGA12152.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="800" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zyIt3rgNGMIFz56sUDTZwZKowluiI1cySaQbRotZcZy8krUCY-_G5aPJ30E4P2KC-iwHT4mtd7nFagSq4UIXnFPEErT1UsomJadzK7qI4Buhj-mbD_cAamC45tBjoRoT8UKzGvoJiaoqqBZqkogW-EyQhY8p5fSnGnYn5-0Pvmc70KTCjSrf73J9/w400-h284/Jan_van_Kessel_(I)_-_Venus_at_the_Forge_of_Vulcan_-_WGA12152.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne for one knew that a close relationship existed between the goddess Venus, water and fish. In his commonplace notebooks the following verse couplet can be found-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Who will not commend the wit of Astrology ? </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Venus born of the sea hath her exaltation in Pisces'. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its possible that Thomas Browne knew of the myth of Vulcan's Aquarium for Isaac Casaubon's 1612 edition of Athenaeus's <i>Deipnosophistae, </i>or 'The Banquet of the Philosophers' is listed as once in his library. Browne also wrote a short, humorous piece entitled 'From a reading of Athenaeus'. [3]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Athenaeus lived in Naucratis circa the late 2nd to early 3rd century CE In his day Naucratis was an important Egyptian harbor and a dynamic melting-pot of Greek and Egyptian art and culture. Its also the setting of 'The Banquet of the Philosophers' in which characters such as physicians, philosophers, grammarians, parasites and musicians discuss topics as diverse as Baths, Wine, invented words, feasts and music, useless philosophers, precious metals, flatterers, gluttony and drunkenness, hedonism and obesity, women and love, mistresses and courtesans, the cooking of fish and cuisine in general, ships, entertainment, luxury and perfumes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In total the 15 books of the 'Banquet of the philosophers', mention almost 800 authors. Over 2500 separate works are cited in it, making it a valuable source of numerous works of Greek literature which otherwise would have been lost, which includes three surviving lines on Vulcan's aquarium. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">James Russell Lowell famously characterized the <i>Deipnosophistae</i> as -'the somewhat greasy heap of a literary rag-and-bone-picker like Athenaeus is turned to gold by time'. In the seventeenth century there was a revived interest in the <i>Banquet of the Philosophers</i> following its publication by the scholar Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) in 1612. The commentary to the text was Isaac Causabon’s magnum opus. Incidentally it was the scholarship of Isaac Causabon which proved from his textual analysis of the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i> that it could not have been written by the mythic ancient Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus who anticipated the coming of Christ, as commonly believed, but in fact was a syncretic work of Gnostic and Greek philosophy dated centuries after Christ's era, circa 200 and 300 CE.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By all accounts Athenaeus was a favourite author of Thomas Browne for he stated in his encyclopaedic endeavour <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica-</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Athenæus, a delectable Author, very various, and justly stiled by Casaubon, <i>Græcorum Plinius </i>(Greek Pliny) . There is extant of his, a famous Piece, under the name of <i>Deipnosophista</i>, or <i>Coena</i> <i>Sapientum</i>, containing the Discourse of many learned men, at a Feast provided by Laurentius. It is a laborious Collection out of many Authors, and some whereof are mentioned nowhere else. It containeth strange and singular relations, not without some spice or sprinkling of all Learning. The Author was probably a better Grammarian then Philosopher, dealing but hardly with Aristotle and Plato, and betrayeth himself much in his Chapter <i>De Curiositate Aristotelis</i>. In brief, he is an Author of excellent use, and may with discretion be read unto great advantage: [4]</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJiIz_RTSpVfaCViQXEh71fwUr1VWuOHOwa6vx4_w4KzGFPrB8iBr7slSOno0tvo1e47ckIYofHVZIby618IGR29tiqG17cA6DHnZRa11BSTtvhMRXcyBpa_WiRkKe9kXR94iLz1dc-7UEW78ZewhCfXw0QRVMxjBLYOqKliUlyoTEmb797lhwFVvm/s800/vulcan%20at%20forge.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJiIz_RTSpVfaCViQXEh71fwUr1VWuOHOwa6vx4_w4KzGFPrB8iBr7slSOno0tvo1e47ckIYofHVZIby618IGR29tiqG17cA6DHnZRa11BSTtvhMRXcyBpa_WiRkKe9kXR94iLz1dc-7UEW78ZewhCfXw0QRVMxjBLYOqKliUlyoTEmb797lhwFVvm/s320/vulcan%20at%20forge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">From his reading of Athenaeus Browne knew of ancient world sexual activities - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'The impudent wantonness of the ancients placed sponges in the natural parts of women that by expanding they might produce a lewd and as it were haunching movement in the female, whence a keener lust is provoked in the male. In the elaborations of coition almost nothing has been untried, so that the indecent egg of Marcellus Empiricus is no marvel. Away with these foolish toys of lust'. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its i<span style="text-align: left;">n book 2 of 'Banquet of the Philosophers' that Athenaeus records how the blacksmith of the gods Vulcan set about creating sheets of glass which he bonded together with an early version of tungsten steel. Tungsten is one of the oldest elements used for alloying steel. It forms a very hard carbide and iron tungstite. High tungsten content in the alloy however tends to cause brittleness and makes it subject to fracturing rather than bending. Somehow Vulcan over came this weakness, its speculated through adding 'the salty sweat' of his workshop labourers to the molten crucible. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The little-known myth is recounted in the <i>Deipnosophistae</i> after heated discussion upon the best sauces to prepare for fish. The courtesan and lute-player musician Callipygae recites three verses from a long-lost comedy, now known only by the title of <i>The Chessmen of Odysseus. </i>Its believed that the following lines specifically allude to Vulcan's aquarium -</span></p><p><i> As the Pleiades ascended, </i><i>Vulcan's workshop laboured,</i></p><p><i>the sound of hammer on anvil could be heard </i></p><p><i>echoing through mountains</i></p><p><i> until rosy dawn glowed furnace-like in the east. </i></p><p><i> Salty sweat </i><i>streamed in torrents </i><i>into hissing troughs, </i></p><p><i>smelting and refining </i><i>the dross. </i></p><p><i>Crafted and ready </i></p><p><i>to bind </i><i>with ox-like ribs the thick and cloudy glass,</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Vulcan's love-gift for Venus. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[6]<i> </i>(Book 2 Lines<i> </i>27-29 )<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Aquariums are mysterious habitats which often evoke great underwater beauty. They function well as calming distractions and their psychological benefits include reducing stress. Looking into an aquarium, observing fish swimming care-free, helps people momentarily forget their worries. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The symbol of the aquarium invites speculation and analysis. For the seminal twentieth century psychologist C.G. Jung -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'The protean mythologem and the shimmering symbol express the processes of the psyche far more trenchantly than, in the end, far more clearly than the clearest concept.' [7] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps Venus made her request to test the fullness of Vulcan's forgiveness, or else to alleviate her boredom with Vulcan spending long hours away from her at the forge, or simply for her amusement and pleasure, its not really known. Nor is it known how many or what kind of fish she choose to place in her aquarium. But whether Vulcan manufactured his love-gift for Venus specifically for any of these reasons remains unclear. What is clear is that the fish in the Aquarium of Vulcan are far more playful than previously imagined. </p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Notes</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[1] Ovid Metamorphosis Book 4 lines 180-190</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[2] The High Renaissance and Mannerism Linda Murray Thames and Hudson 1977</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[3] 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue page 7 no. 67</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[4] <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i><span style="text-align: left;"><i>. </i>Bk.1 chapter 8</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">[5] </span><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/From_a_reading_of_Athenaeus">From a reading of Athenaeus</a> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">[6] <i>Deipnosophistae </i>Book 2 lines 27-29</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[7] Collected Works of C.G.Jung vol. 13 Alchemical Studies (1967) para. 199</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6J1-_V-I33AZ9eCTai5cazJcYov4Z5BV5WmPzztH7SmZchbH0m8CtO7Du6MT2zvUvjNXKsy-6V65Lw4cesz6JHJnTXSxH_OKt0ebhz_cvj-OOz7AiQl5tLkGD0tbrzQ0Zibb24CmRyaWT9CPE9l1x3nT1ax2O9Szgz7006vp7pU4x2QY4Nho6AS19/s894/71bPHOTi0HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-16564943612544562022023-02-24T07:34:00.027+00:002023-11-07T16:58:13.832+00:00The comic genius of Jan van Haasternen <p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO5nGh7YofrUS2G7Gn2dTCm_eca-SBawVH2gk5ySWLLT4DcoV5wjC1GMuUnrRowwhqgOoj3ZDE7bVaE6TOV0piZeuacxKEhhwpF3Ysi7pueJWS5QQZolX1T2-mz45BNjADhDX1SQw76WyTYghIGfzjufVqxll8CsuMBLDlArsBCvo_5dV0FaA0pFrw/s2686/JvH.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2186" data-original-width="2686" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO5nGh7YofrUS2G7Gn2dTCm_eca-SBawVH2gk5ySWLLT4DcoV5wjC1GMuUnrRowwhqgOoj3ZDE7bVaE6TOV0piZeuacxKEhhwpF3Ysi7pueJWS5QQZolX1T2-mz45BNjADhDX1SQw76WyTYghIGfzjufVqxll8CsuMBLDlArsBCvo_5dV0FaA0pFrw/w400-h325/JvH.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Celebrating the comic genius of Jan van Haasternen on the occasion of his birthday, with a brief look at his artwork, alongside Dutch 'Golden Age' paintings.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaFyajsvB88sV6QkKViqQ-0pg4Snt4vzztx3AfNOi5p80uzuE1P29E5vV-4EEMIuQtOR7g6FxMZc1WPNjVhM67Wx_D-o8cNo4RV2PqyNfzWTeAmUB4MLJYfEhbcm7_spEaBR_AvWdOasRHA9YhEZ9splpnqdrQ9IXicyEdGX68m3v18vvhEyUP71m/s4000/20230219_153308.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="4000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaFyajsvB88sV6QkKViqQ-0pg4Snt4vzztx3AfNOi5p80uzuE1P29E5vV-4EEMIuQtOR7g6FxMZc1WPNjVhM67Wx_D-o8cNo4RV2PqyNfzWTeAmUB4MLJYfEhbcm7_spEaBR_AvWdOasRHA9YhEZ9splpnqdrQ9IXicyEdGX68m3v18vvhEyUP71m/w400-h225/20230219_153308.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jan van Haasteren (b. February 24th 1936 - ) was born in Schiedam in the region of South Holland in the Netherlands. His early childhood years were lived through the second World War. He later attended technical school, where he learned to become a home decoration painter, and then studied Publicity and Advertising at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. After his military service he began his career with a small Rotterdam-based advertising agency. He joined the Marten Toonder studios in 1962 and began freelancing in 1967. Throughout the 1960's and 70's Jan worked with a wide variety of magazine advertising agencies and comic strip publishers. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jan van Haasternen joined Jumbo puzzles in 1980 and has now supplied the jigsaw manufacturing company with over two hundred of his inventive, action packed tableaux in which almost anything and everything is happening at the same time. An early example of Jan's comic strip art style can be seen in his popular 'Baron von Tast' series. (Below)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik46tgKnAHJLWZnrvh2oAdNDUqCquBZGVxshi0t318nMfTRxpiFQqd-3Yj_fsCzlQuXqbxJ8pJzu_NwedCoZAhAvGlc2gFUYLPfU4DH9h2PXKGXjtn1QwaznE7NSR20Ql_T9gsTqDs24t7ZyI3lZr7mQwIQ97aFexS5T_fGcPSw9PaQwN8KxouIn_T/s1006/haasteren_pep7420.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1006" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik46tgKnAHJLWZnrvh2oAdNDUqCquBZGVxshi0t318nMfTRxpiFQqd-3Yj_fsCzlQuXqbxJ8pJzu_NwedCoZAhAvGlc2gFUYLPfU4DH9h2PXKGXjtn1QwaznE7NSR20Ql_T9gsTqDs24t7ZyI3lZr7mQwIQ97aFexS5T_fGcPSw9PaQwN8KxouIn_T/w400-h263/haasteren_pep7420.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik46tgKnAHJLWZnrvh2oAdNDUqCquBZGVxshi0t318nMfTRxpiFQqd-3Yj_fsCzlQuXqbxJ8pJzu_NwedCoZAhAvGlc2gFUYLPfU4DH9h2PXKGXjtn1QwaznE7NSR20Ql_T9gsTqDs24t7ZyI3lZr7mQwIQ97aFexS5T_fGcPSw9PaQwN8KxouIn_T/s1006/haasteren_pep7420.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In 'The Bachelor' (below) an unmarried man engaged in domestic chores, tidies away his pet octopus. A mysterious hand grasps to stop the pendulum of a Grand-father clock which has the ages of 30, 40, 50 and 60 years inscribed upon its face.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAhGxYn1BNn2AxG_bXvCdpPsXDXly56Yew1yXfy05IPtbvh7330tZlTcSb97R5aCO1WYK_hOC8Z0ve207sgaIuNVfaYsFYQD1qbQncTpW978ILuQsm_4Hh16k5Izzf6xE_Ohci3vN3yJmB-_JpsrIi8eDzBSX9g2GzeJZzdoln-oBoOJF0Ag9PD9R/s3085/The%20Bachelor.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2196" data-original-width="3085" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAhGxYn1BNn2AxG_bXvCdpPsXDXly56Yew1yXfy05IPtbvh7330tZlTcSb97R5aCO1WYK_hOC8Z0ve207sgaIuNVfaYsFYQD1qbQncTpW978ILuQsm_4Hh16k5Izzf6xE_Ohci3vN3yJmB-_JpsrIi8eDzBSX9g2GzeJZzdoln-oBoOJF0Ag9PD9R/w400-h285/The%20Bachelor.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Two regular characters in Jan's comic puzzles are featured in his earliest artwork for Jumbo. In 'The Classroom' (below) a teacher screams in fright at a mouse whilst a cat sleeps undisturbed on top of a locker. The school children are absorbed in their own fun and games and aren't concerned at all with their teacher's alarm !</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTo4ecTx3_qLZDATekGChYOnDlP1YcaQ1Igxah1nHmQU1Nw0PkHhD9PZoUYYVkbFi17a1_UPrxNdNmrPrcL9v4JFnmF26hQGg9rviZhKqNPhcmLvrRKfUCU_IJN0Wae6jrBuh9-Jt-0bLwMCABwMR3j8NtCiD1hR2RY-u5MbIv568qV5kRJ0VYMmTQ/s3069/The%20Classroom.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2156" data-original-width="3069" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTo4ecTx3_qLZDATekGChYOnDlP1YcaQ1Igxah1nHmQU1Nw0PkHhD9PZoUYYVkbFi17a1_UPrxNdNmrPrcL9v4JFnmF26hQGg9rviZhKqNPhcmLvrRKfUCU_IJN0Wae6jrBuh9-Jt-0bLwMCABwMR3j8NtCiD1hR2RY-u5MbIv568qV5kRJ0VYMmTQ/w400-h281/The%20Classroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'Get that cat !' an early artwork supplied by Jan for Jumbo puzzles (below) displays a variety of architectural styles which are the background to a pack of dogs gathered to catch a cat. They've surrounded a tree in which the cat sits, calm and safe above them all. A spotty Dalmatian dog and a tabby cat are the oldest characters regularly featured in Jan's puzzle art. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKs7lt6EICvXzR487LOiKvre92A100IUoYYKlyLQprakvHYb5TD4CTUf96e3qVkQxkkQ-G1FV4g8LRu4CCoOg3M2gBqWjbRMx8Omgf1mi30ftel8p5oZr1De6yzvcWt6zwoErmwFhYy7MVHjLEwSP5DX0f8ZL8b3PPxoNTdsHbRvdwsAt6CfCwfMfk/s613/Screenshot_20230219-215040_Facebook.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="613" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKs7lt6EICvXzR487LOiKvre92A100IUoYYKlyLQprakvHYb5TD4CTUf96e3qVkQxkkQ-G1FV4g8LRu4CCoOg3M2gBqWjbRMx8Omgf1mi30ftel8p5oZr1De6yzvcWt6zwoErmwFhYy7MVHjLEwSP5DX0f8ZL8b3PPxoNTdsHbRvdwsAt6CfCwfMfk/w400-h283/Screenshot_20230219-215040_Facebook.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">With his industrious inventiveness, ability to supply a near endless variations upon a theme, accompanied by a humorous multiplicity of action, its not too bold to state that Jan's skillful draughtsmanship, along with his astute observation of people, shares characteristics with artists of the 'Golden Age' of Dutch Art. Indeed, Jan's own hometown, Schiedam, was also the birthplace of the gifted 'Golden Age' artist Adam Pynacker. Like many Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, Adam Pynacker (1622-79) had a relatively short life. He's noted for painting in the fashionable and popular Italian style which often featured ancient ruins in a rural setting lit by a glowing, south of the Alps sunlight, as in his <i>Landscape with a Goatherd </i>(Below)<i>. </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAapwchyvuXdrAuDtH0tMwdRKlfIpwfjYW0TDEKvPMiQ2m1saDLccbxXOhOGGK4SvGltB5sSCL17t7vXeOiMPrqtOkoS78Nv9DSJ-6y3RwBmY9MGaF-Ta6fRhgWnvJQsOxExYtH3MNAI4hoD9H-fYKr_zLYnrQiAdrluS0h7JYLD5rVgapXmRCg-Ry/s600/Adam_Pynacker_-_Landscape_with_a_Goatherd.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="600" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAapwchyvuXdrAuDtH0tMwdRKlfIpwfjYW0TDEKvPMiQ2m1saDLccbxXOhOGGK4SvGltB5sSCL17t7vXeOiMPrqtOkoS78Nv9DSJ-6y3RwBmY9MGaF-Ta6fRhgWnvJQsOxExYtH3MNAI4hoD9H-fYKr_zLYnrQiAdrluS0h7JYLD5rVgapXmRCg-Ry/w400-h250/Adam_Pynacker_-_Landscape_with_a_Goatherd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Adam Pynacker -Landscape with a goatherd</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">There's one Dutch painter in particular whose art shares fruitful comparison to Jan van Haasternen's, its by another Jan, the most Dutch of all Dutch names, the artist Jan Steen (1626-79). Jan Steen's paintings capture the lives of the ordinary Dutch citizens enjoying life, often drinking, music-making and playing pranks upon each other. The chaos and disorder often to be found in Jan Steen's paintings is not so removed from Jan van Haasternen's comic art, but without Steen's moralising. In Jan Steen's 'A School class' the moral lesson that its bad teachers who make bad schoolchildren is underscored with anarchy and chaos reigning supreme in the classroom.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiub26B4iHEaG47rm920FRMGb_N32fsgd-dSzlm6JDSbSvgqjh0Z5M3CQEyQYupAbLyccegEv_53X6NB0G8A3UPxU9h4xv02xXGoWECaOwaPOC5grgLcjpPOJv_NWLghxX9imqL8kaOfOTC1df-pDetOMDB38FHaUeLhptNhlJheNYhxz40Oh73kvlY/s924/Jan%20Steen%20Classroom.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="924" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiub26B4iHEaG47rm920FRMGb_N32fsgd-dSzlm6JDSbSvgqjh0Z5M3CQEyQYupAbLyccegEv_53X6NB0G8A3UPxU9h4xv02xXGoWECaOwaPOC5grgLcjpPOJv_NWLghxX9imqL8kaOfOTC1df-pDetOMDB38FHaUeLhptNhlJheNYhxz40Oh73kvlY/w400-h301/Jan%20Steen%20Classroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jan Steen - A School Class (circa 1670)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpSyE7Y3ef89QB8ZpyGCoT8WhhhW0-TEB1IaBNl2N40HQYbDwxjfNaemLHGkRTCZlc51pWkJCbfUCoFmPgJmb6C4UaALG8BKaGZBEg6PMDba237b_la_b_ofRoJ2IPzJ3yvP8Cdd-wh8HNjYJ24fW4kAXFKSC9GqbiwvQyAzm-s_qvd1A6PwGjjJoI/s1200/jan-steen-soo-voer-gesongen-soo-na-gepepen-mh742-mauritshuis.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="1200" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpSyE7Y3ef89QB8ZpyGCoT8WhhhW0-TEB1IaBNl2N40HQYbDwxjfNaemLHGkRTCZlc51pWkJCbfUCoFmPgJmb6C4UaALG8BKaGZBEg6PMDba237b_la_b_ofRoJ2IPzJ3yvP8Cdd-wh8HNjYJ24fW4kAXFKSC9GqbiwvQyAzm-s_qvd1A6PwGjjJoI/w400-h326/jan-steen-soo-voer-gesongen-soo-na-gepepen-mh742-mauritshuis.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The prosperous times of the Dutch Republic resulted in an estimated million paintings being bought and owned by ordinary citizens in a short, historical era. The art genres of landscape, portraiture, still life, maritime scenes and depictions from mythology and the Bible were all popular, as was a genre known as 'merry group' art, such as in Jan Steen's, 'As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young' dated circa 1668-1670 (above).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Sometimes allusion to famous Dutch or Flemish art is easily detected. Michel Ryba's 'The Seasons' (detail below) explicitly alludes to Pieter Breugel's famous painting known as ' The Hunters in the Snow' (1565).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtkuE3WuFscNardRc4D2Mmxe3DQLaQy_XIzGlrYLGY4zlo6syOA1OMZtGkrV-VtVZFemPk2UeL7ymzf0Fq9Siff4u8Oj6xhJHic0Q-N1drTwtTCv3B7Dwqg6kOODyBbGJpQfpD6Ju-UmLtdhOlBEzJzWx1N02wpC5jYD5wu5zC9qDgnBJIkt7_6BW/s1370/Ryba%20Winter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="1049" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtkuE3WuFscNardRc4D2Mmxe3DQLaQy_XIzGlrYLGY4zlo6syOA1OMZtGkrV-VtVZFemPk2UeL7ymzf0Fq9Siff4u8Oj6xhJHic0Q-N1drTwtTCv3B7Dwqg6kOODyBbGJpQfpD6Ju-UmLtdhOlBEzJzWx1N02wpC5jYD5wu5zC9qDgnBJIkt7_6BW/w306-h400/Ryba%20Winter.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTufKlzkT4DQ5vfbd3vHXQEEclvAU_HPSL1myOYs7KtzrKkuhBMrbinh8Lw7hCO-oqGs-i4215VGjBNYEA5uZ7uHEjjOs7auzqRtqU8HcWtIzHg9ZQJ5hCKBOUQy7c8ECMA1ma0ZaqTee0RffO3DoqxOkbFmbSVN5Y3NTt0Ty9VJSVUFwumUxc0h1R/s1024/1024px-Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_Hunters_in_the_Snow_(Winter)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1024" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTufKlzkT4DQ5vfbd3vHXQEEclvAU_HPSL1myOYs7KtzrKkuhBMrbinh8Lw7hCO-oqGs-i4215VGjBNYEA5uZ7uHEjjOs7auzqRtqU8HcWtIzHg9ZQJ5hCKBOUQy7c8ECMA1ma0ZaqTee0RffO3DoqxOkbFmbSVN5Y3NTt0Ty9VJSVUFwumUxc0h1R/w400-h286/1024px-Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_Hunters_in_the_Snow_(Winter)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Dutch nation have long been renowned for their peaceful and tolerant attitude whilst living in close proximity to each other. In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'Dutch Proverbs' (below) over 126 proverbs are referenced, including, 'Horse droppings are not figs' meaning appearances are deceiving, 'There's more in it than an empty herring' meaning, there's more than meets the eye, 'to hang one's cloak according to the wind' meaning to adapt one's viewpoint to the current opinion, and 'he who has spilt his porridge cannot scrape it all up again'. (Don't cry over spilt milk.) The sheer profusion of people in Bruegel's 'Dutch proverbs' is suggestive of the thriving, dense population of the Netherlands during the Renaissance and equally true of modern-day Netherlands.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIVOsnApTtdhaiF-PchLsXXMNpJVktjj6rVAFMhxLDkHcOyJtoK-Wd0iB2Ivk8ZPv4ozKOqFjKAnlZsRmGp-pRb-DAgM3rzsaxYDahuLinGLvDuOCod7UFvqbMww80jM8_Ro2q7JtHzZk_JOWIqkk3LKzgumGAP5nVUe7smgizcvxedFPvbl41Wge_Ms/s2048/398820325_351528734217451_1473271562382474606_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1471" data-original-width="2048" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIVOsnApTtdhaiF-PchLsXXMNpJVktjj6rVAFMhxLDkHcOyJtoK-Wd0iB2Ivk8ZPv4ozKOqFjKAnlZsRmGp-pRb-DAgM3rzsaxYDahuLinGLvDuOCod7UFvqbMww80jM8_Ro2q7JtHzZk_JOWIqkk3LKzgumGAP5nVUe7smgizcvxedFPvbl41Wge_Ms/w400-h288/398820325_351528734217451_1473271562382474606_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jan's view of art and of the public viewing of art in galleries is encapsulated in a puzzle below.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOz4GqPeG3END4-E-u9BKicJ4iz8Bla7gV1eThgzBHPwOYJ4hxP14Q2qL7rdvPPlXmbivFia1KBYB1VIVPCzTrlb1uKqbLHKA9z9RXSI_rQh3pJaPbs8epBMyhTMl2YZAnmCb1mvETNxyXEoxdN52wtIlVeX-_1ickjX6MihZY6bG9drd7ydYHl609/s786/Screenshot_20230127-170645_Facebook.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="786" data-original-width="590" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOz4GqPeG3END4-E-u9BKicJ4iz8Bla7gV1eThgzBHPwOYJ4hxP14Q2qL7rdvPPlXmbivFia1KBYB1VIVPCzTrlb1uKqbLHKA9z9RXSI_rQh3pJaPbs8epBMyhTMl2YZAnmCb1mvETNxyXEoxdN52wtIlVeX-_1ickjX6MihZY6bG9drd7ydYHl609/w300-h400/Screenshot_20230127-170645_Facebook.jpg" width="300" /></a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jan van Haasternen's comic art for Jumbo puzzles often involves a crowd of participants, male and female, young and old, cheerful and annoyed, engaged in a multiplicity of antics and pranks, not least in his 'Acrobat Circus' (Below). Several regulars characters in Haasternen's puzzles including a bishop (swinging on a rope) a convict, a pink octopus and Jan's signature motif, a shark's fin cutting through the action, can be spotted. By the way double-clicking on these images enlarges them for greater detail, especially if using a lap-top.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWL0QDftsXHzMJoJXJNtWiWt2kmc-E8YyIE9Q46MeaoGr9suv0aTHva8KgI97V_gznm5MfTp70-9-36ylQ3sZVlUBwscTO7Dk1aVbyt1pyX2-xiL_UpbojpcW7bIpvOuwQeKu94uWkD_MWFQDdIzLRkjiq0EkaJwnR1bJ_dwl7Aln-5_g5IUQwxK-/s2048/Acrobat%20Circus.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="2048" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWL0QDftsXHzMJoJXJNtWiWt2kmc-E8YyIE9Q46MeaoGr9suv0aTHva8KgI97V_gznm5MfTp70-9-36ylQ3sZVlUBwscTO7Dk1aVbyt1pyX2-xiL_UpbojpcW7bIpvOuwQeKu94uWkD_MWFQDdIzLRkjiq0EkaJwnR1bJ_dwl7Aln-5_g5IUQwxK-/w400-h281/Acrobat%20Circus.jpg" width="400" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">'Acrobat Circus'</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7eDzqQNKraBeh7NJE4sBBR4gsvx95MmF3IccShthrjSwnNU90wQDSK364wlnCNHgAsWy8j52Vt4HPEQ4ysZ03NNC-HTczr7QZVm0PnR6kdy3YtmVn2yvik2ztpIUsgakZzfYi2eEwfjW2jaBiwhOdGyL0lx9biUptr-1Kb8Mj3ZIjpB2UX-N2dbCP/s3046/The%20Opera.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2163" data-original-width="3046" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7eDzqQNKraBeh7NJE4sBBR4gsvx95MmF3IccShthrjSwnNU90wQDSK364wlnCNHgAsWy8j52Vt4HPEQ4ysZ03NNC-HTczr7QZVm0PnR6kdy3YtmVn2yvik2ztpIUsgakZzfYi2eEwfjW2jaBiwhOdGyL0lx9biUptr-1Kb8Mj3ZIjpB2UX-N2dbCP/w400-h284/The%20Opera.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">'St. George and the Dragon'</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xUY3eh1Kj5vAnV_QPdiezC7gn5KVDxdabLBjdDxHkc-o72HY-aZiljX3RHQHWC2jpOCueb5k_EVXsLxYWaswbI-AF_Za4jAdu47Izr6BXSVaOliPOnSZYrAiHMp5QSGNPyHzYatVb9rBZF__YShZvcQx7ejqwo7O8MrZosvE0TM7AUD_mUtDXcIT/s2841/Holiday%20Fair.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1946" data-original-width="2841" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xUY3eh1Kj5vAnV_QPdiezC7gn5KVDxdabLBjdDxHkc-o72HY-aZiljX3RHQHWC2jpOCueb5k_EVXsLxYWaswbI-AF_Za4jAdu47Izr6BXSVaOliPOnSZYrAiHMp5QSGNPyHzYatVb9rBZF__YShZvcQx7ejqwo7O8MrZosvE0TM7AUD_mUtDXcIT/w400-h274/Holiday%20Fair.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">'The Holiday Fair'</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLkgQpNf3vpNYunZrgibUd6YosKnafcw5D53Df6SdJIzW0VtmGch0qJnEdcf_zdMOESv9PZqDZkverG5pi6m4gRFSDkuuuCddDEmO-K87Rzbs4RZbsdv6C6VtgwoYmhtwl8-HT1XBdu03qOyGPRpfKcrrYqXkvg1cE6RWg4Y5K6eUj_R_oLILwQH9/s2818/20230218_154647.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2047" data-original-width="2818" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLkgQpNf3vpNYunZrgibUd6YosKnafcw5D53Df6SdJIzW0VtmGch0qJnEdcf_zdMOESv9PZqDZkverG5pi6m4gRFSDkuuuCddDEmO-K87Rzbs4RZbsdv6C6VtgwoYmhtwl8-HT1XBdu03qOyGPRpfKcrrYqXkvg1cE6RWg4Y5K6eUj_R_oLILwQH9/w400-h290/20230218_154647.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">'Sportsday' </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The outdoor scene 'Winter Games' (below) is one of my personal favourites. Its exemplary of Jan's superb draughtsmanship skills, bringing alive a wide expanse with great depth of field perspective. As ever Jan's signature motif, a shark's fin can be spotted by the sharp-eyed, silently cutting its way through the hilarious action.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGyHnqCcXeexQX8nuc7oF2PZV9PHd4hAa266W5SgdG9oqF1SW6f0heXuaMafY7S2kTb5B3uCk_UeCxRVFqLF4m_lWkC4Z8jIjvY_D75xe82NKQajIBFcVR5b9FzZQ6Q2-Nr-g12sOaoSPJ2n_PjgnG-k6dQ4Fjetmdtob435ubBG8EvlFYiYdfVMr/s2048/273386806_4893848940702036_8902539588959993653_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="2048" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGyHnqCcXeexQX8nuc7oF2PZV9PHd4hAa266W5SgdG9oqF1SW6f0heXuaMafY7S2kTb5B3uCk_UeCxRVFqLF4m_lWkC4Z8jIjvY_D75xe82NKQajIBFcVR5b9FzZQ6Q2-Nr-g12sOaoSPJ2n_PjgnG-k6dQ4Fjetmdtob435ubBG8EvlFYiYdfVMr/w400-h284/273386806_4893848940702036_8902539588959993653_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2013 Jan van Haasternen became a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau for his contributions to Dutch comics culture and for his role as an inspirer of comic artists and illustrators. And in 2021 he and other members of Studio Van Haasteren (notably Dick Heins and Rob Derks) were awarded the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for special merits. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But perhaps the greatest award and achievement of the comic genius of Jan van Haasternen is the simple fact that Jan's puzzles gave cheer to countless puzzlers, young and old, during the long days and nights of the global pandemic (2020-22). At a time when many were time rich as never before, socially isolated and in need of mental stimulation, jigsaws, not least by Jan van Haasternen occupied the minds of many world-wide, effectively offering escape from gloomy days, giving a challenge and a chuckle during their construction, along with a real sense of accomplishment upon completion. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;">I'm confident that admirers of JvH jigsaws will today raise a glass on the occasion of the artist's 87th birthday, and toast with me to the good health of the comic genius, Jan van Haasternen. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><u>See also</u></div><div><br /></div><div>* <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2022/06/" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">The joy and alchemical play of jigsaws</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-49791090588916120002023-01-27T09:50:00.032+00:002024-01-08T16:23:29.622+00:00 'One face of Janus holds no proportion to the other'.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80mFDMuZOcdLncu3xFG9l4Quxitp-tt0DzdJXjqkQUbQKf-Dq7mrVl13o5mZKvyQ76unhlTFw99rqfRqkYJnvn4P_wlF0wS6Oo3jnorLkVLRhde_nKe6qU-WFRvoCyNDer-wsUdzHNea_poi-kRTCISRwUwaSwbR5bwTUD7haLTCxdEWjfF_j9Sx3/s610/God-Janus-Image-xn903.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="610" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80mFDMuZOcdLncu3xFG9l4Quxitp-tt0DzdJXjqkQUbQKf-Dq7mrVl13o5mZKvyQ76unhlTFw99rqfRqkYJnvn4P_wlF0wS6Oo3jnorLkVLRhde_nKe6qU-WFRvoCyNDer-wsUdzHNea_poi-kRTCISRwUwaSwbR5bwTUD7haLTCxdEWjfF_j9Sx3/s320/God-Janus-Image-xn903.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">January, the first month of the year, takes its name from the early Roman King Numa (753-673 BCE) who nominated it after Janus in his reorganization of the calendar. One of the most ancient and highest divinities of the Roman world, Janus is usually depicted with two faces, one on each side of his head, sometimes one youthful and one aged (above). The two faces of Janus meant that he viewed both the past and the future as well as guarding doors and gates. As a god who is associated with beginnings and endings, war and peace and transition from the past to the future, Janus, like all the Graeco-Roman gods has potent psychological symbolism. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Allusion to Janus can be found in each of the English physician-philosopher Thomas Browne's major literary works for, in common with other 'alchemystical' philosophers, he discerned that profound psychological truths are embodied in classical myths. Browne's life-long citing of the Roman god Janus is a superb example of his proto-psychology; in fact its justifiable to say that the rudimentary beginnings of modern-day psychology were born from psychological literary symbolism such as Browne's. Furthermore, he himself possessed Janus-like qualities being well-versed in Classical antiquity as well as 'predicting' the future of the New World of America, notably in his miscellaneous tract known as 'A Prophecy concerning the future state of several nations'. As ever, new interpretive insights can be acquired by modern readers of Thomas Browne when viewed through the prism of Carl Gustav Jung's advanced study of comparative religion. Highly influential to the present-day, the Swiss psychologist firmly believed that - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'The protean mythologem and the shimmering symbol express the processes of the psyche far more trenchantly than, in the end, far more clearly than the clearest concept;' [1]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Intriguingly, C. G. Jung (1875-1961) cited the title of Browne's <i>Religio Medici </i>(1643) on several occasions in his voluminous writings. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'For the educated person of those days, who studied the philosophy of alchemy as part of his general equipment, - it was a real <i>Religio Medici</i>'. [2]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In his self-portrait and spiritual testament <i>Religio Medici</i>, the newly-qualified physician Thomas Browne confesses to the paradoxical nature of his philosophy. Alluding to the primary attribute of Janus, he frankly admits-</div><p style="text-align: justify;">'In philosophy where truth seems double-faced there is no man more paradoxical than myself, but in Divinity I love to keep the road. [3] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A few paragraphs later Browne utilizes highly original proper-name symbolism, stating - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'yet I perceive the wisest heads stand like <i>Janus</i> in the field of knowledge'. [4] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">in other words, the true intellect respects the wisdom of the past as well as advancing knowledge for future generations. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The agenda of Browne's subsequent publication, the encyclopedic endeavour known as <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>(1646-72) was to challenge and refuted many of the superstitions and folk-lore beliefs prevalent in Browne's day in favour of reason, experience and 'occular observation'. This included a rejection of medical cures by means through amulets or 'magical' stones, of which the physician wittily remarks- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'he must have more heads than Janus, that makes out half of those virtues ascribed unto stones and their not only medical, but magical properties, which are to be found in Authors of great name'. [5] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Roman god Janus is also employed by Browne as a literary 'conjoining' symbol which ingeniously unites his philosophical discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658). Thematically structured upon the metaphysical templates of Time (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) and Space (<i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>) and highly polarised in their imagery, respective truth and style, Browne's twin Discourses remain unique in World literature. Its in <i>Urn-Burial </i>the gloomy, stoical and funerary half of the literary diptych,<i> </i>that the learned physician laments -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'We cannot hope to live so long in our names, as some have done in their persons, one face of <i>Janus</i> holds no proportion unto the other'. [6]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">in other words, everyone has either a greater or lesser proportion of their life remaining which no-one can ever know with certainy as to when they have arrived at the equidistant point of their lives. The past and the future are unequal in the lives of all through unknowingness of lifespan.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Janus is also encountered in the esoteric discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> With typical subtle humour Browne declares-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'And in their groves of the Sun this was a fit number, by multiplication to denote the days of the year; and might Hieroglyphically speak as much, as the mystical <i>Statua</i> of <i>Janus</i> in the Language of his fingers. And since they were so critical in the number of his horses, the strings of his Harp, and rays about his head, denoting the orbs of heaven, the Seasons and Months of the Year; witty Idolatry would hardly be flat in other appropriations'. [7]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Ever helpful to his reader, Browne adds an explanatory foot-note- 'Which King <i>Numa</i> set up with his fingers so disposed that they numerically denoted 365'. i.e. Numa reformed the Roman calendar.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A primary source of information about Janus can be found in Ovid's <i>Fasti </i>(Festivals). Over a dozen books by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE - 17 CE) including <i>Fasti </i>as well as several editions of his most famous work <i>Metamorphoses </i>are listed as once in the combined libraries of Thomas Browne and his eldest son Edward.[8] The opening page of Ovid's <i>Fasti</i> narrates firstly of how the poet encounters and questions Janus, the poet reminding his reader that there is no equivalent to Janus in the Greek pantheon of gods -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Yet what god am I to call you, biformed Janus ? / For Greece has no deity like you'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Janus subsequently informs the poet of his origins and attributes thus-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'The ancients (since I'm a primitive thing) called me Chaos. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Then I, who had been a ball and a faceless hulk,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Got the looks and limbs proper to a god.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now as a small token of my once confused shape,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My front and back appear identical....</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whenever you see around, sky, ocean, clouds, earth,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are all closed and opened by my hand.....</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just as your janitor seated by the threshold</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Watches the exits and the entrances,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So I the <i>jan</i>itor of the celestial court</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Observe the East and West together'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The celestial 'janitor' who has the power to open and to close is defined as the god of mysteries in general by Ovid who recounts one of the few surviving myths known of Janus. Ovid tells of a deceitful nymph called Carna whom many lovers pursued, but all in vain. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'A young man would declare words of love to her,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And her immediate reply would be:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">''This place has too much light and the light causes shame.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lead me to a secluded cave, I'll come''.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">He naively goes ahead; she stops in bushes</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And lurks, and can never be detected.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Janus had seen her. Clutched by desire at the sight,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">He deployed soft words against her hardness.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The nymph, as usual, demands a more remote cave,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Trails at her leader's heels and deserts him.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Fool ! Janus observes what happens behind his back</p><p style="text-align: justify;">You fail; he sees your hideout behind him.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">You fail, see, I told you: as you hide by that rock,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">He grabs you in his arms and works his will.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'For lying with me,' he says, 'take control of the hinge;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Have this prize for your lost virginity'. [8] </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cKZu5eXbAsJfacJzBb_vC_GCXxJ6YdN3WEhZiJazOlkKtDIAizja-GlKYbvEsFQEdRbb789ILBF1kpViaDDyPeE-iV_I3g6CBYum9wV2xNWYad2yJ7sNyvAN9z7T04h7XVWsOf-H249Hyy_An7Y7lrC0xAkgUil4dATvaXA5v1StPrJCXcvAaVis/s2560/32098-Antique-Medieval-Style-Church-Doors-119-copy-2-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1494" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cKZu5eXbAsJfacJzBb_vC_GCXxJ6YdN3WEhZiJazOlkKtDIAizja-GlKYbvEsFQEdRbb789ILBF1kpViaDDyPeE-iV_I3g6CBYum9wV2xNWYad2yJ7sNyvAN9z7T04h7XVWsOf-H249Hyy_An7Y7lrC0xAkgUil4dATvaXA5v1StPrJCXcvAaVis/s320/32098-Antique-Medieval-Style-Church-Doors-119-copy-2-scaled.jpg" width="187" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hinges are integral and often ornate components of many medieval Church doors (above). <span style="text-align: justify;">Its interesting to note in passing that the joints of fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles in human anatomy are hinge-like in their function, while the colloquial phrase 'to be unhinged'</span> alludes to mental instability. </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The primary attributes of Janus are hindsight, the ability to learn from past events and foresight, the ability to anticipate future events. These attributes may have contributed in no small measure towards the continuity of Roman civilization on both an individual and collective basis. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 -180 CE) in his stoical <i>Meditations </i>(listed as once in Browne's library) gives Janus-like advice his reader-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Look closely at the past and its changing Empires, and it is possible to foresee the things to come'. [9] </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b8YmQlpH2SgnXT4UCzyCnao6cFImMES6Ie2cs6TCHCqzMnGE3iq65GEGEsW-LqMR-3thqde_eX7zBLJVJMLr3zM9Tp-qIiXZEj_wY7ohZPjnKdqI4ixmRMjuUqXqXaO4Jzj8rgYQAYmAyilkaeN3kUy7_KKDTHuv8gEwNAh4Hwi0MsIV49mGqAcK/s250/coin_janus_225-212.250x0-is-pid10564.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="250" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b8YmQlpH2SgnXT4UCzyCnao6cFImMES6Ie2cs6TCHCqzMnGE3iq65GEGEsW-LqMR-3thqde_eX7zBLJVJMLr3zM9Tp-qIiXZEj_wY7ohZPjnKdqI4ixmRMjuUqXqXaO4Jzj8rgYQAYmAyilkaeN3kUy7_KKDTHuv8gEwNAh4Hwi0MsIV49mGqAcK/w320-h316/coin_janus_225-212.250x0-is-pid10564.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">During the Renaissance the gods of the Classical world were radically reinterpreted and given attributes they never originally possessed. The humanist scholar and promoter of hermetic wisdom Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) reinterpreted Janus as a symbol of reintegration, declaring him to be 'for 'celestial souls - </div><p style="text-align: justify;">'In ancient poetry these souls were signified by the double-headed Janus, because, being supplied like him with eyes in front and behind, they can at the same time see the spiritual things and provide for the material'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne was a pioneering scholar of comparative religion, that is, the study of religious beliefs, their doctrines and symbols, alongside their spread and influence in the world. Assisting him in this study were the six modern languages he was fluent in, as well as Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Although at times misguided in his study, notably by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) whose books are well-represented in his library and to whom he somewhat slavishly believed, nonetheless his tolerance and broad-mindedness, paved the way for future scholars. As stated earlier, Janus is exclusively a Roman god without Greek equivalent. It was not until the eighteenth century that the British philologist Sir William James (1746-94) detected linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and Latin which indicated that Janus originated from the Indian elephant-headed god Ganesh. Its highly probable that Roman merchants who travelled to India for luxury goods such as saffron introduced and modified the Indian god to the Roman world.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Late in his life Browne wrote, though never published, an advisory for the benefit of his children. <i>Christian Morals</i> is Browne's last known written work. Published posthumously (1716) its an equal testimony to <i>Religio Medici </i>in his adherence to the Christian faith; nevertheless mention of alchemy and astrology along with Hermes Trismegistus can also be found within its pages. The name of Janus occurs no less than four times in <i>Christian Morals</i>, primarily in the guise as a moral figure advising the reader to learn from hindsight and to develop foresight in their life. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne firstly links the temple of Janus in ancient Rome whose doors were shut during peace-time and open during times of war to individual temperament. He cautions his reader to - 'keep the Temple of Janus shut by peaceable and quiet tempers' [10] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Next, he advises that when in doubt one should opt for virtue- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'In bivous theorems and Janus-faced doctrines let virtuous considerations state the determination.' [11] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The stoic moralist also instructs his grown-up children to- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Let the mortifying Janus of Covarrubias be thy daily thoughts'' [12] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">adding the explanatory footnote - 'Don Sebastian de Covarrubias writ 3 Centuries of moral emblems in Spanish. In the 88th of the second century he sets down two faces averse, and conjoined Janus-like, the one gallant beautiful face, the other a death's head face, with this motto out of Ovid's Metamorphosis <i>Quid fuerim quid simque vide'</i>. (<i>'</i>See what I was and what I am now'). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lastly, Browne juxtaposes Roman mythology to Biblical scripture in vivid imagery, declaring- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'What is prophetical in one age proves historical in another, and so must hold on unto the last of time; when there will be no room for prediction, when Janus shall lose one face, and the long beard of time shall look like those of David's servants, shorn away upon one side.' [13] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Old Testament book of Samuel recounts that- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Wherefore Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away'. [14]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Biblical figure of King David is now believed to have lived circa 1010–970 BCE. Its worthwhile remembering that the King James Bible (1611) with its soaring strophes, rhythmic cadences and striking parallelisms was the predominant influence upon Browne's spirituality. Freshly translated from Hebrew by a host of scholars, the text of the King James Bible was, in all probability, the first book which young Thomas learnt to read as a child, and subsequently a powerful influence upon his literary style as an adult.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's own Janus-like ability to 'foresee' the future is testified in a memoir by the Reverend Whitefoot. The Heigham-based priest was a close friend of Browne's from the newly-qualified physician's arrival to Norwich in 1637 until 1682 when Browne upon his death-bed gave 'expressions of dearness' to his long-time friend. Reverend Whitefoot's memoir includes the character testimony- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Tho' he were no prophet, nor son of a prophet, yet in that faculty which comes nearest it, he excelled, <i>i.e. </i>the stochastick, wherein he was seldom mistaken, as to future events, as well publick as private; but not apt to discover any presages or superstition'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Even greater testimony to Browne's ability to prognosticate the future can be found in the miscellaneous tract known as 'A Prophecy concerning the future state of several nations'. Imitative of the opaque verse of Nostradamus, Browne's 'Prophecy' consists of a series of couplet verse 'predictions' several of which on America. In Browne's proper-name symbolism America is invariably equated with the new, exotic and unexplored, a good example occurring in <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>in which he describes his encyclopaedic endeavours as, 'oft-times fain to wander in the<i> America</i> and untravelled parts of Truth'. At least three 'predictions' in 'A prophecy concerning the future state of several nations' are remarkable - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* 'When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks/ To make slaves and drudges to the American Tracts'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* 'When America shall cease to send out its treasure/But employ it at home in American pleasure'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* 'When the new world shall the old invade/Nor count them their lords but their fellows in trade'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's 'prophecy' concludes thus-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Then think strange things are come to light/ Where but few have had a foresight'. [15]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In conclusion, Thomas Browne's life-long penchant for utilizing Janus as a symbol is illuminated by the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung who considered Janus to be - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'a perfect symbol of the human psyche, as it faces both the past and future. Anything psychic is Janus-faced: it looks both backwards and forwards. Because it is evolving it is also preparing for the future'. [16] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I've written before about the many ideas shared between Browne and Jung. Not only does one of the earliest recorded usages in modern English of the word 'archetype' occur in Browne's hermetic vision, <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>but the archetype of 'the wise ruler' itself is sketched through highly original proper-name symbolism. King Cyrus, Moses, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Solon, Scipio, King Cheops, Hermes Trismegistus and Augustus are all cited in the discourse as exemplary of 'the wise ruler' archetype. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Nowadays the phrase 'two-faced' more often than not is used as a pejorative term, however, from his deep study of the Ancient world to his anticipation of 'future discoveries in Botanical Agriculture', there's a good case to be made for Thomas Browne to be lauded as the Janus-faced sage of Norwich. The learned physician-philosopher's assessment of our own increasingly uncertain times was one which was, 'not like to envy those that shall live in the next, much less three or four hundred Years hence, when no Man can comfortably imagine what Face this World will carry'. [17] What is certain however is that centuries before C.G. Jung, the proto-psychology of Thomas Browne utilized Janus as symbolic of the human psyche. And just like the Roman god Janus, whose name is remembered in the month of January, we too continue to look back to the past and forward to the future in order to define our identity.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5s4z2zz5jU-t7KQtjFlGwItTrrh2yHuXmvIqqOwA5B2Esw0GdoO36VHU7fgmB-C6UylZvAIUbYDkdEhpETvAAIEZXTVYM1V2R9z0IBg9MU-CkasPLvnc2aDh0iaUM-fqh9u2DHUOAN3rrOxL_MpOMpGjYhkHFmfYbhcKv5_1kLrxra9GYFGRUiVD/s901/Janus-alchemy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5s4z2zz5jU-t7KQtjFlGwItTrrh2yHuXmvIqqOwA5B2Esw0GdoO36VHU7fgmB-C6UylZvAIUbYDkdEhpETvAAIEZXTVYM1V2R9z0IBg9MU-CkasPLvnc2aDh0iaUM-fqh9u2DHUOAN3rrOxL_MpOMpGjYhkHFmfYbhcKv5_1kLrxra9GYFGRUiVD/s320/Janus-alchemy.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><div><u>Notes</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>[1] Collected Works of C.G.Jung vol. 13 Alchemical Studies (1967) para. 199</div><div>[2] C. W 10:727 </div><div>[3] <i>Religio Medici</i> Part 2: Section 8</div><div>[4] <i>Ibid. </i>Part 2 section 12</div><div>[5] <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i>. Book 1 Chapter 5</div><div>[6] Urn-Burial Chapter 5</div><div>[7] The Garden of Cyrus Chapter 1 N.B. 'Flat' here means empty or boring.</div><div>[8] Ovid's <i>Fasti</i> 6 lines 100 - 128. Listed in Browne's library p. 16 A no. 15 </div><div>[9] Marcus Aurelius Meditations 7:27 Listed in Browne's library p. 14 no. 68</div><div>[10] Christian Morals Part 2 : Section 12</div><div>[11] <i>Ibid. </i>Part 3 Section 3</div><div>[12] <i>Ibid. </i>Part 3 Section 10. <span style="text-align: justify;">Sebastián de Covarrubias (1539–1613) was a Spanish lexicographer, cryptographer and chaplain. An edition of his '</span><i style="text-align: justify;">Emblems Morales de D. Sebast. de Cavarrubias' </i><span style="text-align: justify;">published in Madrid in 1610 is listed in the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Thomas Browne's library on page 42 under </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Libros Espannolos </i><span style="text-align: justify;">no. 4 (Quarto).</span></div><div>[13] <i>Ibid </i>Part 3 Section 13 </div><div>[14] 2 Samuel 10:4 KJV</div><div>[15] Miscellaneous Tract no. 12</div><div>[16] Collected Works of C.G. Jung vol. 6. Psychological Types (1921) para. 717</div><div>[17] from 'A Letter to a Friend'.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Books consulted</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>* Sir Thomas Browne The Major Works Penguin 1977 edited with an Introduction by C.A. Patrides</div><div>* Thomas Browne Selected Writings OUP 2014 edited with an Introduction by Kevin Killeen</div><div>* Ovid Metamorphoses Penguin 1955 trans. with an Introduction by Mary M. Innes </div><div>* Ovid Fasti Penguin 2000 </div><div>* Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance - Edgar Wind 1958, revised edition OUP 1980</div><div>* A Facsimile of the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Sir Thomas Browne and his son Edward's Libraries. With an introduction, notes and index by J.S. Finch pub. E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1986</div><div>* 1658 edition of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i> with <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>appended. </div><div><br /></div><div><u>See also</u> </div><div><br /></div><div> <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-is-more-beautiful-than-quincunx.html">On the esoteric content of The Garden of Cyrus </a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-is-more-beautiful-than-quincunx.html">The Nigredo of Urn-Burial</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2021/10/dr-browne-and-alchemical-mandala.html">The alchemical mandala of Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div> </div><div><br /></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-14599542043754856922022-10-19T11:30:03.290+01:002023-11-16T12:11:32.657+00:00 'In the bed of Cleopatra' - Thomas Browne's Egyptology<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjG_elnSnrjbFrFwNCON87ors5gw8KuSMRsCRarVWomT2Un2ZLb1zjv9hAIGI3mOPyz-QAD3fimDOtS3sI8B-nkRUXOO0gY9IQw5Du9-F3Phl6MHvuU8Hm2L_bjREBM6lxTFAh_5SUektzWXzQsVzqvJK-EB4RDpL7YUR6hxyIc0rkTXsmEijUsmLD/s265/FB_IMG_1633644853517%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="217" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjG_elnSnrjbFrFwNCON87ors5gw8KuSMRsCRarVWomT2Un2ZLb1zjv9hAIGI3mOPyz-QAD3fimDOtS3sI8B-nkRUXOO0gY9IQw5Du9-F3Phl6MHvuU8Hm2L_bjREBM6lxTFAh_5SUektzWXzQsVzqvJK-EB4RDpL7YUR6hxyIc0rkTXsmEijUsmLD/w262-h320/FB_IMG_1633644853517%20(2).jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Lasting over three thousand years, the civilization of ancient Egypt has fascinated the minds and imagination of numerous artists and thinkers including</span><span style="text-align: left;"> the English physician and philosopher </span><span style="text-align: left;">Thomas Browne (1605-82).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">T</span><span style="text-align: left;">hough little acknowledged, Browne was a keen Egyptologist; mention of the mummies, pyramids and hieroglyphics of Egypt weave throughout his literary works, in particular, the discourses </span><i style="text-align: left;">Urn-Burial </i><span style="text-align: left;">and </span><i style="text-align: left;">The Garden of Cyrus</i><span style="text-align: left;"> (1658) which</span><span style="text-align: left;"> are conjoined and united to each other through</span><span style="text-align: left;"> literary symbolism allusive to</span><span style="text-align: left;"> ancient Egypt. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne's study of ancient Egypt was multi-faceted; as a doctor he took an interest in its medicine, as a devout Christian he knew that the Biblical books of Genesis and Exodus are set in ancient Egypt; and as a scholar of comparative religion he was familiar with the names and attributes of the Egyptian gods; but above else its from his adherence to Hermetic philosophy that Browne's life-long interest in the Land of the Pharaoh's was sustained. For, in common with almost all alchemists and hermetic philosophers of the 16th and 17th century, Browne believed ancient Egypt to be the birthplace of alchemy and where long lost transmutations of Nature were once performed. And indeed the early civilization skills necessary in baking, brewing and metal-work, as well as cosmetics and perfumery, were all once close guarded secrets. Ancient Egypt was also believed by hermetic philosopher and alchemist alike to be the home of the mythic sage Hermes Trismegistus, inventor of number and hieroglyph and the founding father of all wisdom subsequently passed down in a golden chain of prophets and mystics culminating in Christ. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just as fans of the pop singer Elvis Presley (1935-77) often collect all kinds of American memorabilia, so too in the 16th and 17th centuries followers of Hermes Trismegistus avidly collected artefacts believed to be of Egyptian origin, and read literature which claimed to be by the Egyptian sage. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's <span style="text-align: left;">adherence to Hermetic philosophy is writ large in </span><span style="text-align: left;">his spiritual testament and psychological self-portrait </span><i style="text-align: left;">Religio Medici </i><span style="text-align: left;">(1643), </span><span style="text-align: left;">the newly-qualified physician</span><span style="text-align: left;"> declaring - 'The severe schooles shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of <i>Hermes</i>, that this visible world is but a portrait of the invisible.' [1]</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its however more with an eye towards dentistry and with characteristic humour that Browne in the consolatory epistle <i>A Letter to a Friend </i>informs his reader - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'The Egyptian Mummies that I have seen, have had their Mouths open, and somewhat gaping, which affordeth a good opportunity to view and observe their Teeth, wherein 'tis not easie to find any wanting or decayed: and therefore in Egypt, where one Man practised but one Operation, or the Diseases but of single Parts, it must needs be a barren Profession to confine unto that of drawing of Teeth, and little better than to have been Tooth-drawer unto King Pyrrhus, who had but two in his head'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's knowledge of Egyptian medicine was acquired through reading the Greek historian and traveller Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BCE) whose <i>Histories </i>was<i> </i>the solitary source of information about ancient Egypt for centuries. [2] In Browne's day there was a well-established trade in <i>mummia. </i>Because the skills in Egyptian mummification appeared to preserve the human body for the afterlife in an extraordinary way, the crushed and pulverised parts of Egyptian mummies became popular remedies for all manner of disease and illness. Often mixed or contaminated with bitumen, in reality <i>mummia</i> was of little medicinal value. Thomas Browne for one, deplored its usage in medicine, declaiming in <i>Urn-Burial </i>-</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'The Egyptian Mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummie is become merchandise, Miriam cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsams'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Browne's interest in ancient Egypt developed through his friendship with an Oxford contemporary, John Greaves (1602–1652). John Greaves was a professor of astronomy, a mathematician and antiquarian who visited Cairo in 1638 in order to measure the Pyramids of Giza and as such he's credited with conducting the first scientific survey of the great Pyramid of Giza. Greaves' book <i>Pyramidographia, or a Description of the Pyramids in Egypt </i>(1646) is referenced a number of times in subsequent editions of Browne's encyclopaedic endeavour, <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>which was first published in 1646.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHnT4h62ab1A0fW-j1D58GzEFq14tZdnn4qQfY7EZmntWoFk13H8INF5Ew5kS03PXZjHIS-1lzC6CSRBWU3Jqxf0yE16Z1gj3IReYder7H2nbaMjBUnfTYDDBm7GQTDn7Zy_sBYdhqQ01cA4vp7i4F7miI6RMk-Sp2Tsz-mP25Pd5Cy_2dMfilEaY/s674/08.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="674" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHnT4h62ab1A0fW-j1D58GzEFq14tZdnn4qQfY7EZmntWoFk13H8INF5Ew5kS03PXZjHIS-1lzC6CSRBWU3Jqxf0yE16Z1gj3IReYder7H2nbaMjBUnfTYDDBm7GQTDn7Zy_sBYdhqQ01cA4vp7i4F7miI6RMk-Sp2Tsz-mP25Pd5Cy_2dMfilEaY/w400-h258/08.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The two Oxford University alumni shared their interest in ancient Egypt over many years. Even after Greaves' death in 1652, when amending the fourth edition of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i> in 1658, its with his old friend in mind that Browne, noting of an experiment, informs his reader that-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'we have from the observation of our learned friend Mr. Greaves, an Egyptian idol cut out of loadstone, and found among the <i>mummies</i>; which still retains its attraction though probably taken out of the mine about two thousand years ago. [3]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In essence, Browne justified the study of so-called pagan, pre-Christian antiquities and beliefs in exactly the same manner as the Italian Renaissance scholars Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and his successor, Pico della Mirandola (1463-94), by giving credence to a <i>Prisca Theologia</i>, a single, true theology which threads through all religions and whose wisdom was passed down in a golden chain of mystics and prophets which included Zoroaster, the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, and the Hebraic figures of King Solomon and Moses. For devout Christians the Hebrew prophet Moses in particular was a strong link in this golden chain, Browne for one believing Moses to be 'bred up in the hieroglyphicall schooles of the Egyptians' [4]. But above all others, it was Hermes Trismegistus, the first and wisest of all pagan prophets who was revered. Modern scholarship has now determined Hermes Trismegistus to be a composite figure, an amalgam of the Egyptian god Theuth or Thoth with the ancient Greek god of revelation, Hermes. Christianity duly appropriated hermetic teachings for their own agenda, proposed that Hermes Trismegistus or ‘thrice greatest’ on account of his being the greatest priest, philosopher and king, was a contemporary of Moses who anticipated the coming of Christ. Such imaginative comparative religion not only justified the study of philosophers such as Plato but also sanctioned the antiquity, wisdom and superiority of the Bible to devout Christians.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Throughout his life Browne was attracted to all kinds of unusual, hidden or secret forms of knowledge, including the triumvirate of astrology, alchemy and the kabbalah. It must nonetheless have surprised many English readers of his European best-seller <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> which debunked folk-lore and superstitions, to discover its pages included a whole chapter entitled <i>Of the Hieroglyphicall Pictures of the Egyptians. </i>In an earlier chapter of his popular, up-to-date work of scientific journalism, Browne names many scholars from antiquity and the Renaissance-era of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, endorsing above all others, the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-80).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'The Hieroglyphical doctrine of the Egyptians (which in their four hundred years cohabitation some conjecture they learned from the Hebrews) hath much advanced many popular conceits. For using an Alphabet of things, and not of words, through the image and pictures thereof, they endeavoured to speak their hidden conceits in the letters and language of Nature. ........the profound and mysterious knowledge of Egypt; containing the Arcana's of Greek Antiquities, the Key of many obscurities and ancient learning extant. Famous herein in former Ages were Heraiscus, Cheremon, Epius, especially Orus Apollo Niliacus: who lived in the reign of Theodosius, and in Egyptian language left two Books of Hieroglyphicks, translated into Greek by Philippus, and a large collection of all made after by Pierius. But no man is likely to profound the Ocean of that Doctrine, beyond that eminent example of industrious Learning, Kircherus'. [5]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Athanasius Kircher has been defined as ‘the supreme representative of Hermeticism within post-Reformation Europe’. Like Browne he disseminated and popularized much new scientific knowledge, including recent discoveries confirmable to early scientists in the field of optics and magnetism. The English musicologist Joscelyn Godwin describes Kircher thus -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Kircher was a Jesuit and an archaeologist, a phenomenal linguist, and at the same time an avid collector of scientific experiments and geographical exploration. He probed the secrets of the subterranean world, deciphered archaic languages, experimented with alchemy and music-therapy, optics and magnetism. Egyptian mystery wisdom, Greek, Kabbalistic and Christian philosophy met on common grounds in Kircher's work, as he reinterpreted the history of man's scientific and artistic collaboration with God and Nature'. [6]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Kircher believed that Egyptian paganism was the fount of all other beliefs and creeds whether Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Chaldean or even Indian, Japanese, Aztec and Inca. His greatest work, the three door-step size volumes of <i>Oedipus Egypticus</i> are over 2000 pages in total and a triumph of the printing-press, taking over five years in completion (Rome 1652 -56). In <i>Oedipus Aegypticus</i> the Jesuit priest sets out to explore the esoteric traditions and theosophical systems of Zoroaster, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato and the Hebrew Kabbalah. Just like the Norwich doctor, Athanasius Kircher had an insatiable curiosity and fascination with obscure or esoteric learning which are listed in the introduction to <i>Oedipus Aegypticus</i> as - ‘Egyptian wisdom, Phoenician theology, Hebrew kabbalah, Persian magic, Pythagorean mathematics, Greek theosophy, Mythology, Arabian alchemy, Latin philology’.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3auTV1QLH1N5vLlbDy6R1w6w7QTrotbm9EKGyupzWVHOeIO3SngNPK7GUvfmSKH0wgXJ6kAgYXtklvBYJ5umEj0xXXIHROn2iyuTzYlaG1jG3rZ75XZKi2DNge9K3QAW10ZK1c_SOqb42WuYROhl9J388kro8JXsSEsmCB1rWDThXYZSnOkTsMxL/s1453/Screen_Shot_2020-08-25_at_4.43.46_PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1095" data-original-width="1453" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3auTV1QLH1N5vLlbDy6R1w6w7QTrotbm9EKGyupzWVHOeIO3SngNPK7GUvfmSKH0wgXJ6kAgYXtklvBYJ5umEj0xXXIHROn2iyuTzYlaG1jG3rZ75XZKi2DNge9K3QAW10ZK1c_SOqb42WuYROhl9J388kro8JXsSEsmCB1rWDThXYZSnOkTsMxL/w400-h301/Screen_Shot_2020-08-25_at_4.43.46_PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Kircher's <i>Oedipus Egypticus </i>includes an engraving of the Bembine Tablet. (illustration above). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Bembine Tablet was named after Cardinal Bembo, an antiquarian who acquired it after the 1527 sack of Rome. Its an important example of ancient metallurgy, its surface being decorated with a variety of metals including silver, gold, copper-gold alloy and various base metals. The Bembine Tablet was the Rosetta Stone of its age. Many antiquarians attempted and failed to decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs from it. It has long since been identified as a syncretic Roman work dating from circa 250 CE, and a copy or imitation of a much earlier ancient Egyptian artefact, and is not, as both antiquarians believed, a work originating from ancient Egypt whatsoever. In the final analysis the Bembine Tablet continues to ask more questions than it answers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Browne and his son Edward's libraries lists no less than seven titles by Kircher including <i>Oedipus Egypticus. </i>Browne's enthusiasm for the latest and greatest of his favourite author's books, which he acquired when first published, spills over into his own esoteric work <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658). Its as a pioneering scholar of comparative religion that Browne discusses the Egyptian <i>Ankh</i> symbol as seen in the Bembine Tablet. The Egyptian <i>Ankh </i>symbol is the most frequent and easily recognisable symbol of all Egyptian hieroglyphs. Sometimes referred to as the key of life and symbolic of eternal life in Ancient Egypt, the Coptic church of Egypt inherited the ankh symbol as a form of the Christian cross.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSX-UqUVjIaGesa-HxuUqsnkEsHNSaK06x7dpZc2RpJxzavIRSX-kE23J9Voez2_jZxr_danwhBayMU8kid5e-QuxtcpD0qxAqAUUXpSXIQP1XIdmZQAXB3ye63czAJACTa2kDXd86b0pN-6FVCVkJDRoOhH_K82sIFHRpUsGt0GcztSs1tDyp-WAo/s2313/1200px-Ankh_(SVG)_blu.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2313" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSX-UqUVjIaGesa-HxuUqsnkEsHNSaK06x7dpZc2RpJxzavIRSX-kE23J9Voez2_jZxr_danwhBayMU8kid5e-QuxtcpD0qxAqAUUXpSXIQP1XIdmZQAXB3ye63czAJACTa2kDXd86b0pN-6FVCVkJDRoOhH_K82sIFHRpUsGt0GcztSs1tDyp-WAo/w104-h200/1200px-Ankh_(SVG)_blu.svg.png" width="104" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>'We will not revive the mysterious crosses of Egypt, with circles on their heads, in the breast of Serapis, and the hands of their Geniall spirits, not unlike the characters of Venus, and looked on by ancient Christians, with relation unto Christ. Since however they first began, the Egyptians thereby expressed the processe and motion of the spirit of the world, and the diffusion thereof upon the Celestiall and Elementall nature; implyed by a circle and right-lined intersection. A secret in their Telesmes and magicall Characters among them. Though he that considereth the plain crosse upon the head of the Owl in the Laterane Obelisk, or the crosse erected upon a picher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphics of the brasen Table of Bembus; will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The key phrase, 'will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality', is a classic example of how hermetic philosophers such as Browne 'christianized' so-called pagan civilizations as anticipators of the coming of Christ. Browne's objective, like Kircher's, was to reconcile the wisdom of antiquity with Christianity. A good example of how such syncretic thinking operated can be seen in Kircher's synthesis of the Egyptian zodiac to the Greek zodiac. (Below).</div></div></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBKe4u4-30qnx0_Z8Ikee8W9UCmzn_5nh1FS8P8E-I-m_vDw57tR1vQlW32b4UDYHtRmucCPlkoFxPCk9ASPGoryBcv_DeTqztlxMxq4Tf6894MC5fMrmT6BS-oD9fFXv3l_NOOS_gJueO9vS6DNHc40uNg2ZaSt3DxT8Jfz5LAgXaoH7O5w9cqVHl/s1756/20210411_122314.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1756" data-original-width="1661" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBKe4u4-30qnx0_Z8Ikee8W9UCmzn_5nh1FS8P8E-I-m_vDw57tR1vQlW32b4UDYHtRmucCPlkoFxPCk9ASPGoryBcv_DeTqztlxMxq4Tf6894MC5fMrmT6BS-oD9fFXv3l_NOOS_gJueO9vS6DNHc40uNg2ZaSt3DxT8Jfz5LAgXaoH7O5w9cqVHl/s320/20210411_122314.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Browne's own alchemical experiments are fleetingly alluded to in the penultimate paragraph of <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>Its concluding sentence invites Freudian interpretation, however the Cleopatra which he names relates to alchemy. 'Cleopatra's art' was one of the many names by which alchemy was once known. Very little is known of Cleopatra, a Greek alchemist other than she's believed to have lived in Alexandria circa 200-300 CE and is mentioned by the Arabic writer Kitab al-Fihrist circa 988 CE. Cleopatra the alchemist is credited with the invention of the alembic, and with quantifying alchemy by working with weights and measures. </div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Browne's highly poetic imagery is suggestive of the alchemical feat of palingenesis, that is, the reviving of a plant from its ashes to blossom once more, which the radical Swiss alchemist Paracelsus claimed to have performed and which Browne seems to have not succeeded in -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'and though in the bed of <i>Cleopatra</i>, can hardly, with any delight raise up the Ghost of a Rose'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><b style="text-align: justify;">Part Two</b></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;">In the foreword to <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis; '</i>An inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in Alchemy', the seminal psychologist C. G. Jung informs his reader that - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'the "alchemystical" philosophers made the opposites and their union one of the chiefest objects of their work'. [7]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I've written before about how Thomas Browne's diptych Discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> exemplify the <i>Nigredo </i>and <i>Albedo </i>stages of the alchemical opus - of how the two Discourses are opposite each other in respective theme, imagery and truth. The dark and gloomy doubts, fears and speculative uncertainties upon Death featured in<i> Urn-Burial</i> are mirrored by cheerful certainties in the discernment of archetypal patterns in <i>The Garden of Cyrus - </i>of how the two works fulfil the template of basic mandala symbolism with their metaphysical constructs of Time (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) and Space (<i>The Garden of Cyrus) </i>and of the many polarities which they display such as - World/Cosmos, Earth/Sky, Accident/ Design, Decay/Growth, Darkness/Light, Conjecture/Discern, Mortal/Eternal and of course, Grave/Garden. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The concept of polarity (a word Browne is credited with introducing into the English language in its scientific context) is a vital construct of much esoteric schemata. The opposites and their union, as C.G. Jung noted, were a fundamental quest of Hermetic philosopher and alchemist alike. Browne’s literary diptych is, not unlike the human psyche, a complex of opposites or <i>complexio oppositorum </i>(complex of opposites). Unique as a literary diptych, it corresponds to the polarity of the Microcosm-Macrocosm schemata of Hermeticism in which the microcosm little world of man and his mortality, (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) is mirrored by the vast Macrocosm and the Eternal forms or archetypes (<i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>). The polarity of the alchemical maxim <i>solve et coagula </i>(decay and growth) also closely approximates to the diptych's respective themes, as does the diptych's imagery which progresses from darkness and unconsciousness (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) to Light and consciousness (<i>Garden of Cyrus</i>). The previously mentioned alchemical feat of palingenesis, that is, the revivification of a plant from its ashes which the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1541) claimed to have performed, shares close semblance too. The funerary ashes of<i> Urn-Burial</i> burst into flower in the botanical delights of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung stated that whenever a complex of opposites occur, a unifying symbol, capable of transcending paradox, sometimes emerges. Its far from improbable that Browne found in his study of ancient Egypt two such symbols which he subsequently embedded in his Discourses namely, the Egyptian god Osiris and the Pyramid. As the literary critic Peter Green noted, 'Mystical symbolism is woven throughout the texture of Browne's work and adds, often subconsciously, to its associative power of impact'. [8] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Osiris was one of the most important gods of Ancient Egypt. He plays a double role in Egyptian theology, as both the god of fertility and vegetation and as the embodiment of the dead and resurrected king. Osiris is utilized in Browne's proper-name symbolism in <i>Urn-Burial </i> as an example of how Time devours even the names of the gods themselves - 'Nimrod is lost in <i>Orion</i>, and <i>Osyris</i> in the Dogge-starre'. However, in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> the Egyptian god Osiris assumes a more important role, as the god of vegetation and growth who is assisted by his secretary, the great Hermes Trismegistus. In a short paragraph in which the game of Chess, Pyramids, Egyptian gods and astronomy coalesce in an extraordinary stream-of-consciousness association, Browne exclaims -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'In Chesse-boards and Tables we yet finde Pyramids and Squares, I wish we had their true and ancient description, farre different from ours, or the <i>Chet mat</i> of the <i>Persians</i>, and might continue some elegant remarkables, as being an invention as High as <i>Hermes</i> the Secretary of<i> Osyris</i>, figuring the whole world, the motion of the Planets, with Eclipses of Sunne and Moon'.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpGqtevuKbchGUYfNk4q00M2Qlt-mGc7WJgUngPB_9CYU068fJVeUu8pbo_du0Ui0lChPqpSsPuoYTlQG_nbr22dGZWCkjHCp5SyCBrJMEAMV3R24IKuWW2UISmEUJ3VJRXrtTOif20c5Kia_DSWvPaRKV9Mcso0eIe_CQD0kDiQLbu-aw82hmZ2eb/s271/download.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="271" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpGqtevuKbchGUYfNk4q00M2Qlt-mGc7WJgUngPB_9CYU068fJVeUu8pbo_du0Ui0lChPqpSsPuoYTlQG_nbr22dGZWCkjHCp5SyCBrJMEAMV3R24IKuWW2UISmEUJ3VJRXrtTOif20c5Kia_DSWvPaRKV9Mcso0eIe_CQD0kDiQLbu-aw82hmZ2eb/s1600/download.jpg" width="271" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung noted how Egyptian theology influenced Christianity thus- </p><div style="text-align: justify;">'The Osiris cult offers an excellent example. At first only Pharaoh participated in the transformation of the god, since he alone "had an Osiris"; but later the nobles of the Empire acquired an Osiris too, and finally this development culminated in the Christian idea that everyone has an immortal soul and shares directly in the Godhead. In Christianity the development was carried still further when the outer God or Christ gradually became the inner Christ of the individual believer, remaining one and the same though dwelling in many'. [9]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though little recognised, Browne's literary diptych is united through the symbol of the Pyramid. In <i>Urn-Burial </i>the burial chamber of the Pharaohs is condemned as a foolish endeavour in wanting to be remembered for eternity. The Christian moralist in Browne declaiming<i> </i>- 'Who can but pity the founder of the pyramids ?' and - 'Pyramids, arches, obelisks, were but the irregularities of vain-glory, and wilde enormities of ancient magnanimity.' </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as C.G.Jung observed, only the symbol is capable of transcending paradox. In <i>The Garden of Cyrus,</i> the Pyramid is once more encountered, only this time as a geometric shape, evident in optics and botany, and one of the Eternal Forms of Plato. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In summary, Browne's life-long study of ancient Egypt, at times misguided, was nonetheless pioneering. Though little known as an Egyptologist, he can be placed, alongside Kircher, as one of Europe's earliest Egyptologists. Furthermore, his diptych discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>are conjoined and united through psychologically dynamic proper-name symbolism derived from Browne's life-long interest in Ancient Egypt. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Notes</u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u><br /></u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Header photo</u> - Double-headed Sistrum fragment of Hathor 26th dynasty (663-526 BCE) Faience approx 8 cm. Sainsbury Centre, UEA SC 920</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the most recent realizations of Ancient Egypt occurs in the music of Philip Glass ( b. 1937) composer of the opera <i>'Akhnaten' </i> (1983) - 'Window of Appearances' </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ouiyjJ9LVU" width="320" youtube-src-id="0ouiyjJ9LVU"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>See also</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-is-more-beautiful-than-quincunx.html">On esoterism in 'The Garden of Cyrus'</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/paracelsus-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Paracelsus and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Books consulted</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> * Browne: Selected Writings. ed. with an introduction and Index by Kevin Killeen Oxford 2014 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Herodotus : The Histories. Penguin 1954</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man the Quest for Lost Knowledge</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> - ed. J. Godwin Thames and Hudson 1979</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* C.G. Jung Collected Works Vol. 14 <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis</i> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> * 'Egypt' BBC DVD 2005</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> * 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of T. Browne and E. Browne's libraries</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Author's 1658 edition of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>with <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Notes</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[1] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1:12</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[2] Book 2 of Herodotus The Histories includes his observations on Egypt.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[3] 'In his learned Pyramidographia' Browne marg. of 1658 3rd or 4th edition of <i>P. E. </i>Bk 2 chapter 3<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[4] R.M. Part 1:34</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[5] P.E. Bk 2 ch. 3 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[6] Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man the Quest for Lost Knowledge J. Godwin. 1979</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[7] C. W vol.14 <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis</i> Foreword</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[8] Sir Thomas Browne Peter Green -Longmans and Green 1959</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[9] C.W. Vol.9 part 1: 229</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This one for M. with thanks for encouragement.</span> </span></i> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-86390151397355104212022-06-09T09:47:00.076+01:002023-11-07T17:00:13.672+00:00The joy and alchemical play of jigsaws<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYnjtIWWohLejvcIvmNFyGhQ8cUu-HwGnEmeClaxK3pMgJpLy8KkvY3A2BOuNneaZxuwkNhmJAMJo8LGUSnMmkp-cwjduKYQCkZRKfsj5zKM899XCc8Dcx3xlTlsxRm90uw5UELG16kLdoeuiKNVU95ngkkc3ukHt3suxPaCE2wULh0hXuNQjpwrX/s2089/elephant.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2089" data-original-width="1889" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYnjtIWWohLejvcIvmNFyGhQ8cUu-HwGnEmeClaxK3pMgJpLy8KkvY3A2BOuNneaZxuwkNhmJAMJo8LGUSnMmkp-cwjduKYQCkZRKfsj5zKM899XCc8Dcx3xlTlsxRm90uw5UELG16kLdoeuiKNVU95ngkkc3ukHt3suxPaCE2wULh0hXuNQjpwrX/w384-h424/elephant.jpg" width="384" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">During the pandemic of 2019-2022 many people worldwide</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">discovered the joy of jigsaws.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> Faced with restrictions in social activities and confined indoors during lockdowns, the opportunity to escape from uncontrollable events and immerse oneself in a puzzle enticed many. Consequently, the past two years has seen a boom in the manufacture and sale of jigsaws globally in order to supply an unprecedented demand.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">It was the Englishman John Spilsbury (1739-69) a London cartographer and engraver who is credited with inventing the jigsaw puzzle. Spilsbury created the first puzzle sometime in the 1760's as an educational tool. He affixed a map of the world to wood and hand cut each country out using a marquetry saw. Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' </span><span style="text-align: left;">were used as teaching aids for geography.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> The technical name of the jigsaw enthusiast as a dissectologist </span><span style="text-align: left;">originates from Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' as does</span><span style="text-align: left;"> dissectology, the study of jigsaws. Because the word 'dissection' has an unfortunate association to surgery, the Anglo-Saxon of 'jigsaw builder' is preferred nomenclature here.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Scenic postcard views of mountains and lakes along with lighthouses, windmills and castles have long been the staple diet of jigsaws. The fantasy castle of King Ludwig of Bavaria, Neuschwanstein Schloss, the artistic inspiration for the Disney Castle logo is often reproduced as a jigsaw puzzle, as are the romantic destinations of Paris and Venice. Michael Ryba's interpretation of King Ludwig's castle and relationship to the German composer Richard Wagner is wittily expressed in the Heye brand 2000 piece puzzle entitled 'Bavaria' (below).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9GBEE1VMXFfzFi77GRdEkGzcdgESa_RMjjAaMeAyCmd7-oCXAgIt082UC8_NThTSAclU5Q3VzBtAyao8nr3u3vbYaNzi3-zSM4LdUMPiYcmxlwYxO7imtpXxovL5cM7F_xT8jaZKyEl_oly0A7gFcRHdt6wR04FtrZXnfDj6AfHGYCxY-ztajzMy/s2761/Bavaria%20best.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1987" data-original-width="2761" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9GBEE1VMXFfzFi77GRdEkGzcdgESa_RMjjAaMeAyCmd7-oCXAgIt082UC8_NThTSAclU5Q3VzBtAyao8nr3u3vbYaNzi3-zSM4LdUMPiYcmxlwYxO7imtpXxovL5cM7F_xT8jaZKyEl_oly0A7gFcRHdt6wR04FtrZXnfDj6AfHGYCxY-ztajzMy/w387-h278/Bavaria%20best.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established in Poland in 1985 the Trefl brand of puzzles have a matted finish with chunky, tactile pleasing pieces. Below- Dolomite mountain range, Italy. Trefl 500 pieces</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0-MRRrjBJz8YDNFI_3kaJNowvhbQFTYJNyx3LRX880rml6K2BVUJh6S3ycoEhIq-Bv6TssgAoT1Od9o2TkZyj7zQZgsXfEoQ7kcHHkCHX-fMLr0Ve6kVh2ckVDhIlf24tMmg0Uq1xZVnePtTJZ-h_Rrx3i7ul1E336jcOw1GnwHC5vQh4J1cYEoo/s2811/Dolomites.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2014" data-original-width="2811" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0-MRRrjBJz8YDNFI_3kaJNowvhbQFTYJNyx3LRX880rml6K2BVUJh6S3ycoEhIq-Bv6TssgAoT1Od9o2TkZyj7zQZgsXfEoQ7kcHHkCHX-fMLr0Ve6kVh2ckVDhIlf24tMmg0Uq1xZVnePtTJZ-h_Rrx3i7ul1E336jcOw1GnwHC5vQh4J1cYEoo/w385-h275/Dolomites.jpg" width="385" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its good to see that the Falcon brand includes a puzzle of the Norfolk Broads, an extensive network of shallow lakes and rivers which are famously alluded to in the David Bowie song, 'Life on Mars'<i> </i>(1973) <i>- 'See the mice in their million hordes/From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads'. </i>Norfolk-based jigsaws include - Cromer beach and pier, Norwich market place, windmills (below) and Sandringham House, residence of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022). <i> </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTFz8qi8XI-YD7HMH6db11L6i3udtFhjuLgC6vpR-200wbQBY2Kf2oWuZXyMiy27_oCwWNNUituCrq86RsjT--pdxDzfEc6aq4GloD6LjijMrsCckYvS4SdyLLBi6nHcLpouOxYCByLEWyPBQjiL5fIrt98V_AVwzCPnq-WNAZ9Vw1v7DwTcaFtZe/s3489/20210122_104355.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2515" data-original-width="3489" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTFz8qi8XI-YD7HMH6db11L6i3udtFhjuLgC6vpR-200wbQBY2Kf2oWuZXyMiy27_oCwWNNUituCrq86RsjT--pdxDzfEc6aq4GloD6LjijMrsCckYvS4SdyLLBi6nHcLpouOxYCByLEWyPBQjiL5fIrt98V_AVwzCPnq-WNAZ9Vw1v7DwTcaFtZe/w383-h277/20210122_104355.jpg" width="383" /></a></div><div><p style="text-align: justify;">The earliest jigsaw puzzles were hand-cut from wood and expensive to make, needing skilled workmanship for each individual jigsaw. The 20th century saw the rise of manufactured, mass-produced cardboard puzzles. The popularity of the jigsaw puzzle during the 1930's Depression as an inexpensive form of entertainment can be gauged from the novelist Daphne du Maurier's best-selling gothic love story <i>Rebecca</i> (1938). In du Maurier's fictitious first-person narration, jigsaws are flexible as metaphors, expressive of comprehension and error, along with revealing identity. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In <i>Rebecca </i>Du Maurier's anonymous narrator states-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'What he has told me and all that has happened will tumble into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'The jig-saw pieces came tumbling thick and fast upon me'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'They were all fitting into place, the jig-saw pieces. The odd strained shapes that I had tried to piece together with my fumbling fingers and they had never fitted'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'The jig-saw pieces came together piece by piece, and the real Rebecca took shape and form before me'.[1]</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Georges Perec (1936-82) was a film maker, essayist and author of the acclaimed novel</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"><i>'La vie, mode d'emploi'</i> (Life: A user's manual). J</span><span style="text-align: left;">igsaws are integral to the very structure as well as the central story of Perec's novel. Its narrative </span><span style="text-align: left;">moves from one room to another, the reader learning about the residents of each room, or its past residents, or about someone they have come into contact with, thus building a picture of an instant in time.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> <i>La Vie, mode d'emploi </i>is an extraordinary novel, containing painstakingly detailed descriptions and </span><span style="text-align: left;">hundreds of individual stories. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The central story of Perec's Post-modern masterpiece concerns itself with the Englishman Bartlebooth who devotes ten years acquiring the skill of painting in water-colours, then ten more years painting every harbour and port he visits while on a world-cruise. Each of Bartlebooth's finished water-colours are methodically dated and posted to a jigsaw maker in Paris. Upon returning to Paris, he devotes the remaining years of his life attempting to complete every jigsaw made from his paintings in precisely the same chronological order of his travels. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the preamble to <i>La vie mode d'emploi </i>Georges Perec makes a pertinent point about jigsaws, namely, that its</span><span style="text-align: left;"> how a jigsaw is cut which makes it easy or difficult to complete. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Contrary to a widely and firmly held belief, it does not matter whether the initial image is easy (or something taken to be easy - a genre scene in the style of Vermeer, for example, or a colour photograph of an Austrian castle) or difficult (a Jackson Pollock, a Pisarro, or the poor paradox of a blank puzzle), its not the subject of the picture, or the painter's technique, which makes a puzzle more or less difficult, but the greater or lesser subtlety of the way it has been cut; and an arbitrary cutting pattern will necessarily produce an arbitrary degree of difficulty, ranging from the extreme of easiness - for edge pieces, patches of light, well-defined objects, lines, transitions -to the tiresome awkwardness of all the other pieces (cloudless skies, sand, meadow, ploughed land, shaded areas etc.) [2] </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Its interesting to note that the logo of the </span><span style="text-align: left;">world-wide collaborative project known</span><span style="text-align: left;"> as Wikipedia consists of an incomplete globe made of jigsaw pieces. </span><span style="text-align: left;">The incomplete sphere symbolizes the room to add new knowledge</span><span style="text-align: left;"> as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XstBEka44r2LEZftNJKcLdfK-LyyKTZdrHA5o3sNIpsKJGpTmZzEA8ehU40mODiPeBK6-gM4Sgw8-ewlJMKUsMrPAF8k55Q08ErltRFDn6_5fmoFUc_bR7SwczgpmD7w1kkqKRvFhvo1spYhcy1VefwWyc0oV58aXgysQEufh6YbpsQCw9j79ftU/s800/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="800" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XstBEka44r2LEZftNJKcLdfK-LyyKTZdrHA5o3sNIpsKJGpTmZzEA8ehU40mODiPeBK6-gM4Sgw8-ewlJMKUsMrPAF8k55Q08ErltRFDn6_5fmoFUc_bR7SwczgpmD7w1kkqKRvFhvo1spYhcy1VefwWyc0oV58aXgysQEufh6YbpsQCw9j79ftU/w200-h183/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" width="200" /></a></div></span><p style="text-align: justify;">Many sub-genres of puzzles exist. Sentimental and kitsch depictions of puppies, kittens, cakes and cottages abound in jigsaw reproductions as well as art-works such as Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus', Monet's 'Poppies' and Bosch's 'Garden of Heavenly Delights'. The primitive artwork style of Charles Wysocki (1928 - 2002) whose work depicts an idealized version of American life of yesteryear and Thomas Kinade (1958 - 2012) a painter of pastoral and idyll scenes with warm, glowing colouration (Gibsons brand) are both well-loved by American jigsaw builders. Puzzles composed purely of brand labels are also popular in America, a long lasting aftereffect of the 1950's when advertising companies gave away free puzzles with their products.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Featuring the comic art-work of Graham Thompson (b. 1940), the so-called Wasgij puzzle (the word 'jigsaw' spelt backwards) challenges the jigsaw builder to have eyes at the back of their head in order to construct a mirror or 'what-happened-next' picture of the action depicted, a far more difficult task than simply referencing a box top picture. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span>Remembering the trauma of the world-wide health crisis in the past two years its little wonder that comic jigsaws retain their popularity. The prolific Dutch cartoonist Jan van Haasteren (b. Schiedam, Netherlands 1936) has</span> now supplied Jumbo puzzles with over 200 titles. Haasteren's artwork is instantly recognisable, not least for the same characters re-appearing in his puzzles. These include - a crook and tax official, Police Officers, a mother-in-law, Santa Claus, a cat and mouse, an octopus and crab, along with his trade mark, a Shark fin. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span>In Haasternen's 'Winter Sports' (below) v</span>arious activities associated with snow and ice are depicted. <span> Its a typically busy, crowded scene of masterful draughtsmanship, reminiscent of a canvas by Breughel. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLSGT0MA8Y9_WPMYSpXhVCT6uowoUIH7-jYY6N0N5i1ib8zV9wF7_fV2znyNQCTFNWMOm1qJcorUhAhMLFJq2NJkj_EYC6KwW-lY6ZyzzGLul0sAWU-uSHGr21IYUuKySSgKikTO1nd-n2Ti2mCkJk-DdgprRFWax1g0Bu-tmhOLMvHIXJEZjHw8y/s2048/273386806_4893848940702036_8902539588959993653_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="2048" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLSGT0MA8Y9_WPMYSpXhVCT6uowoUIH7-jYY6N0N5i1ib8zV9wF7_fV2znyNQCTFNWMOm1qJcorUhAhMLFJq2NJkj_EYC6KwW-lY6ZyzzGLul0sAWU-uSHGr21IYUuKySSgKikTO1nd-n2Ti2mCkJk-DdgprRFWax1g0Bu-tmhOLMvHIXJEZjHw8y/w379-h269/273386806_4893848940702036_8902539588959993653_n.jpg" width="379" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The British artist Mike Jupp (b.1948) is a best-seller of the Gibsons brand of jigsaws, a British family business since 1919. Mike Jupp became a freelance artist in 1974, moving into film and TV design in 1980. He spent some time in Holland before he relocated to America where he became a storyboard artist and scriptwriter. In the late 1990's Jupp applied his talent and sense of humour to creating designs for jigsaws. Jupp delights puzzlers with his <i>I Love</i> series, where he captures the comical and silly side of everyday life. Almost every inch of <i>I Love Spring</i> includes some kind of cheeky humour. There can also be seen - an International Worker's march, Druids, a Maypole dance, Morris men, a Wedding and Hell's Angels. In the foreground of <i>I Love Spring </i>(below) a young man falls off his ladder when spying a girl in a bubble bath. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08unyjS0Muc7SgnX9YZPaqjh1OlCOm-da0S66h9w_csXAy3lg3oY75P_EOAUQKjGb_wVntuQ4g3OiN-dYQ7eQ_9T7QqN3Cju1Lc6IOOFpFXCuRuFWFMMziKgobyvpP9jDj75iG5_NGUVIPUBh62uZaFBrMol2dYRV-QyTTH3D5fmT9xCZWYVG_553/s2939/I%20Love%20Spring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2137" data-original-width="2939" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08unyjS0Muc7SgnX9YZPaqjh1OlCOm-da0S66h9w_csXAy3lg3oY75P_EOAUQKjGb_wVntuQ4g3OiN-dYQ7eQ_9T7QqN3Cju1Lc6IOOFpFXCuRuFWFMMziKgobyvpP9jDj75iG5_NGUVIPUBh62uZaFBrMol2dYRV-QyTTH3D5fmT9xCZWYVG_553/w382-h278/I%20Love%20Spring.jpg" width="382" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Loup (1936-2015) studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon and worked as a cartoonist in Paris from 1969 until his death. A prolific contributor to a wide variety of magazines and publications, Loup was also an architect and a jazz pianist. In his <i>'Apocalypse 2000' </i>(below) Loup humorously mocks the fears and apprehensions associated with millenarian expectation including, an alien spaceship invasion, a falling meteorite, an earthquake and a plague of frogs. Many differing reactions to the World's End can be seen - Holding a playing card a man prepares to commit suicide, a woman prays on her knees, a priest thrusts a crucifix at a hairy demon who rolls around laughing at him, Hare Krishna followers chant, others are seen screaming or running away. Drinkers in a bar look on, slightly perturbed at all they're witnessing. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The cartoonist Loup along with the Argentinian cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo (1932-2019) were both widely published throughout the 1970's. Their artwork is featured on a handful of Heye puzzles, one of the most exciting of all puzzle manufacturers in the artistic scope and range of their jigsaws. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcF1tIpofpcSeHXZZkIL-Wxw1V7nwDij-M21BfZGCWGtsodD5Fl5KHIrfTrOHXWD1Wr0ZITfGGVKRmukDDULmGNfiwPpryQP7GAAgq7L7K-SbqLrwDQW4xwD78HRJjU3DWNyOvd_o3labSx9-YJvfURIgGcNJNuH0zmcInWSZFok9zneXe6nmeY9s/s3014/Apocalypse%202000.jpg" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3014" data-original-width="2086" height="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcF1tIpofpcSeHXZZkIL-Wxw1V7nwDij-M21BfZGCWGtsodD5Fl5KHIrfTrOHXWD1Wr0ZITfGGVKRmukDDULmGNfiwPpryQP7GAAgq7L7K-SbqLrwDQW4xwD78HRJjU3DWNyOvd_o3labSx9-YJvfURIgGcNJNuH0zmcInWSZFok9zneXe6nmeY9s/w384-h556/Apocalypse%202000.jpg" width="384" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Recent study at the University of Michigan, USA, has found that jigsaws improve visual-spatial reasoning along with IQ. They also help reduce memory, relieve stress and lower blood pressure and heart-rate. Scientific research also suggests that the simple satisfaction of placing a puzzle piece in its correct place, releases a micro-dose of the 'feelgood' neuro-chemical' dopamine which is associated with well-being and happiness. An even bigger 'feel good' chemical reward is released upon completion of a puzzle. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Long acknowledged as sharpening cognitive faculties through the correct identification of shape and colour, r</span><span style="text-align: left;">equiring hand and eye coordination through dedicated</span><span style="text-align: left;"> sessions of time, jigsaws</span><span style="text-align: left;"> teach and develop patience, concentration and logical thinking. When finally completed they </span><span style="text-align: left;">reward their builder with a real sense of achievement and improved self-esteem. </span><span style="text-align: left;">Whether</span><span style="text-align: left;"> of kittens or puppies, a favourite place visited, a comic cartoon or Leonardo da Vinci's <i>'The Last Supper'</i>, a completed jigsaw remains the builder's very own accomplishment. I</span><span style="text-align: left;">n an age of ubiquitous electronic entertainments its</span><span style="text-align: left;"> an achievement which is made through </span><span style="text-align: left;">finely-tuned hand and eye coordination </span><span style="text-align: left;">in conjunction with the much under-valued virtue of patience.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjiHuhFdJaGZ_fh7-SmMmwVzeDA0ndCK0bFSZrk9HeOZA3h0vm7fKCFaO9U8MWcwr7Ixil7RbY3HFny1wtkIoVR9CoIpyfvMhDkzxZFmlxmqHleFtcPRBle0fr5-uSR9R0kt3LouR01GH4GABw8lr02Rm7TOueTUS8hhGwSatxb05iW2424SN3IBf/s2117/Colour%20wheel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2117" data-original-width="2117" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjiHuhFdJaGZ_fh7-SmMmwVzeDA0ndCK0bFSZrk9HeOZA3h0vm7fKCFaO9U8MWcwr7Ixil7RbY3HFny1wtkIoVR9CoIpyfvMhDkzxZFmlxmqHleFtcPRBle0fr5-uSR9R0kt3LouR01GH4GABw8lr02Rm7TOueTUS8hhGwSatxb05iW2424SN3IBf/w320-h320/Colour%20wheel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwcB808rRcpjrM-lmIu6TrbyHtdz62_uQGoVFOYg58hcaMUpUTquKPNoASkXfVq3DAFYJy83iiLvNLNrxE7f3uLFmT6QGiuhfVkx6Az46Qiga4-yE-HV0EaGAMDUdt4vlKAJHJEcbO9BqzA6pNcp6FlLb3BDK8btsVpihIinkzp9CF_tAY7lm0RUb/s2300/Best%20circular.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2300" data-original-width="2250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwcB808rRcpjrM-lmIu6TrbyHtdz62_uQGoVFOYg58hcaMUpUTquKPNoASkXfVq3DAFYJy83iiLvNLNrxE7f3uLFmT6QGiuhfVkx6Az46Qiga4-yE-HV0EaGAMDUdt4vlKAJHJEcbO9BqzA6pNcp6FlLb3BDK8btsVpihIinkzp9CF_tAY7lm0RUb/s320/Best%20circular.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The alchemical play of jigsaws</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Constructing a jigsaw may be viewed as a reduced or simplified form of the alchemical opus. To begin with, the jigsaw builder, just like the alchemist, dedicates themselves for an unknown duration of time, often in solitude, sometimes facing self-doubt or a sense of futility, even risking sanity, in order to complete a 'Great Work'. Hope and despair are experienced by both alchemist and jigsaw builder alike in their endeavour to make the invisible become visible. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ancient alchemical texts frequently warn the adept of the many difficulties and dead-ends to beware of during the 'Great Work'; so too the jigsaw builder can expect setbacks, even disaster if their work-space is tampered or interfered with. The vision shared by alchemist and jigsaw builder upon completion of their task is one of unity, created from the chaos of the <i>massa confusa </i>or unsorted heap of puzzle pieces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was the seminal Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) who first identified distinct similarities between alchemy and the creative process. Jung's observations on the spiritual and psychological meaning of creativity are applicable to the artist more than jigsaw builder, nevertheless his following<span style="text-align: left;"> remark invites comparison with jigsaw building - </span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">'the first part was completed when the various components separated out from the chaos of the <i>massa confusa </i>were brought back to unity in the <i>albedo </i>and "all become one". [3]</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The dark, initial state which the alchemist called the <i>nigredo </i>stage was also known as the <i>massa confusa</i> or chaos, the </span><span style="text-align: left;">not yet differentiated, but capable of differentiation </span><span style="text-align: left;">disorder which the adept gradually reduced to order and unity. Hidden and invisible within the chaos of the <i>massa confusa</i> lay the vision of unity which the alchemist aspired to make visible. </span><span style="text-align: left;">For the jigsaw builder, contained within the thousand piece heap, which on first sight can arouse despair, there lays invisible within, the vision of a completed jigsaw.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The alchemical </span><span style="text-align: left;">discourse</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">The Garden of Cyrus </i><span style="text-align: left;">by the </span><span style="text-align: left;">English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) has a number of associations to the jigsaw. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Long viewed as one of the most difficult puzzles in the entire canon of English literature, most readers of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> have struggled and floundered attempting to piece it together, thwarted</span><span style="text-align: left;"> by the combination of its esoteric theme, dense symbolism and the </span><span style="text-align: left;">near breathless haste of its communication</span><span style="text-align: left;">. Very f</span><span style="text-align: left;">ew have ever completed Browne's jigsaw puzzle of an essay, yet alone stepped back upon completion to admire the beauty of its hermetic vision.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Composed from numerous 'stand-alone' notebook jottings, not unlike solitary pieces of a puzzle,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> Browne cites evidence of the inter-related symbols of</span><span style="text-align: left;"> Quincunx pattern, number 5 and letter X </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">in topics equal in diversity as jigsaw subject-matter, including- Biblical scholarship, Egyptology, comparative religion, mythology, ancient world plantations, gardening, generation, geometry, germination, heredity, the Archimedean solids, sculpture, numismatics, architecture, paving-stones, battle-formations, optics, zoology, ornithology, the kabbalah, astrology and astronomy, </span><span style="text-align: left;">in order to prove to his reader</span><span style="text-align: left;"> the interconnectivity of all life. Predominate</span><span style="text-align: left;"> themes of the discourse include - Order, Number, Design and Pattern, all of which are related to jigsaws.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Fascinated by all manner of puzzle throughout his life, whether hieroglyph, riddle, anagram or mystery in nature, Browne in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> connects the quincunx pattern found in mineral crystals in the earth below to star constellations in the heavens above; thus a</span><span style="text-align: left;"> primary objective of his discourse ultimately is none other than advocation of intelligent design. In Browne's hermetic vision, the cosmos itself is a fully interlocking jigsaw, designed through the 'higher mathematics' of the 'supreme Geometrician' i.e. God.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">If anything however, its perhaps more the art and design of the jigsaw cutter which Browne celebrates. He's credited by the Oxford Dictionary as the first writer to use the word 'Network' in an artificial context in the English language, (in the full running title of the discourse, <i>The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered</i>).<i> </i></span><span style="text-align: left;">The</span><span style="text-align: left;"> frontispiece to Browne's discourse resembles some kind of grid cutter for an unusual jigsaw or a gaming board for Go or Backgammon.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigt5sQd0N88zCxmpWsO-jz8V7D9mozfgHX1gYVNq5wxfQRB9EUZHfIK6lBl19oQWywbi6kRwajfhy4fKpV_eiizKOPH198CRqLLswVPzaUBuyGqQ4uz0o0rtGamdg1-FrUAUN_Lnf2y0T6GdAfKcr9XH633exzZJdVGYhk1pQLLcBSlGnjERYIvhF9/s387/3572098087_04db8370f5_o.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="268" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigt5sQd0N88zCxmpWsO-jz8V7D9mozfgHX1gYVNq5wxfQRB9EUZHfIK6lBl19oQWywbi6kRwajfhy4fKpV_eiizKOPH198CRqLLswVPzaUBuyGqQ4uz0o0rtGamdg1-FrUAUN_Lnf2y0T6GdAfKcr9XH633exzZJdVGYhk1pQLLcBSlGnjERYIvhF9/w222-h288/3572098087_04db8370f5_o.gif" width="222" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Its Latin quotation reads -'</span><i style="text-align: left;">What is more beautiful than the Quincunx, which, however you view it, presents straight lines'.</i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Browne also mentions various </span><span>leisure-time activities in his discourse. </span><span>Archery, backgammon, chess, skittles and knuckle stones are all fleetingly alluded to as examples of pleasure and play. </span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>Upon completion of a puzzle, sooner or later its broken into separate pieces and returned to its box awaiting to be completed once more, a cycle not unlike the cycle of birth, death and rebirth or 'Eternal Return' which alchemists alluded to in their writings, including Thomas Browne at the conclusion of his discourse. </div><div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="text-align: left;">'All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical Mathematicks of the City of Heaven'.</span></div></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">One particular jigsaw shape</span><span style="text-align: left;"> of interest to Browne in his quinary quest is </span><span style="text-align: left;">the so-called 'dancing man' or 'T-man' piece with its 4 + 1 structure (below left). Its a reduced form of ' Square man' by the Roman architect Vitruvius of the human form as drawn by the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci in his</span><span style="text-align: left;"> Vitruvian man (below, right) which is alluded to in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>thus - </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">'Nor is the same observable only in some parts, but in the whole body of man, which upon the extension of arms and legs, doth make out a square whose intersection is at the genitals. To omit the phantastical Quincunx in <i>Plato</i> of the first Hermaphrodite or double man, united at the Loynes, which <i>Jupiter </i>divided. [4]</span></p></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimxRohtLUiNS1Izz8yFbihSpvWYtcCjHjcT5Ffia8jfsxZCeqvo8SaCBoOab31kUQAjz9S8C5XiB8Ghvg-xULy0Dx2L3urIp-T1Vnw88Stjbb950aLp0_BzDOIp30gXxVZq8MoPeLe2ysGysxiNqe34vj6sE_4PA3JzOnn4Vzc2zVwlnckMMvhPoMX/s1597/dancing%20man.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1597" data-original-width="1440" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimxRohtLUiNS1Izz8yFbihSpvWYtcCjHjcT5Ffia8jfsxZCeqvo8SaCBoOab31kUQAjz9S8C5XiB8Ghvg-xULy0Dx2L3urIp-T1Vnw88Stjbb950aLp0_BzDOIp30gXxVZq8MoPeLe2ysGysxiNqe34vj6sE_4PA3JzOnn4Vzc2zVwlnckMMvhPoMX/w162-h179/dancing%20man.jpg" width="162" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6BxyuunhlHxsDv0CYJ9fM1VgBY4TdifXFIA2KDj5sY2i9HU8-mvo9RV6572URnUXTJrto8cbMlu27GGTrsB_onoIc_uGkz45u_DqHjYv1r36ZrrxJjUmdOxTV5mOmegfNxO7TmK6sLcsRLaN09ng8km2OKDHLit2CqJc8DE4VIT2NxMibHP-OaThv/s637/VitruvianMan_post.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="592" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6BxyuunhlHxsDv0CYJ9fM1VgBY4TdifXFIA2KDj5sY2i9HU8-mvo9RV6572URnUXTJrto8cbMlu27GGTrsB_onoIc_uGkz45u_DqHjYv1r36ZrrxJjUmdOxTV5mOmegfNxO7TmK6sLcsRLaN09ng8km2OKDHLit2CqJc8DE4VIT2NxMibHP-OaThv/w153-h165/VitruvianMan_post.jpg" width="153" /></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Adding in a little referenced footnote - 'elegantly observable in the Mesopotamian</span><i style="text-align: left;"> silhouette</i><span style="text-align: left;"> figurines, not unlike conjoyning tiles found in parlour amusements amongst us'. [5] </span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One is tempted to speculate that Thomas Browne's allusion to 'conjoyning tiles' may be some kind of precursor to the jigsaw puzzle, pre-dating fellow Englishman John Spilsbury's 'dissecting maps' by a full century. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In any case, the technical inventiveness in manufacture, the wide variety of artistic subject-matter and development of skills such as shape identification along with the therapeutic qualities of jigsaw puzzling would doubtless have been approved of by Browne. With his predilection for the microscopic in nature one imagines the seventeenth century physician-philosopher engaged in the challenge of constructing a miniature jigsaw, employing his 'occular observation' with tweezers and magnifying glass in order to construct it ! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><u>Photos</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Top - Wooden 60 piece puzzle of elephant. Wentworth. Completed January 2022</span> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Bavaria' Ryba, 2000 pieces Heye. Completed July 2022</p><p>Dolomite Mountains, Italy, Trefl 500 pieces, Completed March 2022</p><p>Norfolk Windmill and river Falcon 500 pieces. Completed Feb. 2021. </p><p>Winter Sports by Jan van Haasteren Jumbo 1000 pieces. Completed February 2022</p><p>'I Love Spring' by Mike Jupp Gibsons 1000 pieces. Completed May 2022</p><p>'Apocalypse 2000' by Jean Jacques Loup Falcon 1000 pieces. Completed June 2022</p><p>Colour Wheel. 1000 pieces. Made in China. Completed September 2022</p><p>The Table of the Muses. USA Springbok 1968. Completed November 2022</p><p>N.B. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_puzzle">Wikipedia</a> entry on puzzles has numerous links to articles about jigsaws.</p><p><u>Notes</u></p><p>[1] Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier First published by Victor Gollancz 1938 chapter 20.</p><p>[2] George Perec <i>La vie mode d'emploi </i>First published in France in 1978 by Hachette/ Collection P.O.L. Paris and in Great Britain in 1987 by Collins Harvill </p><p>[3] C.G. Jung Collected Works Vol 14. <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis </i>An enquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy translated by R. F. C. Hull 1963 paragraph 388</p><p>[4] Thomas Browne : Selected Writings edited by Kevin Killeen Oxford University Press 2014 . Quote from chapter 3 of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i></p><p>[5] An unpublished footnote from a source equal in veracity to<a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/misctracts/mummies.html" target="_blank"> Fragment on Mummies.</a></p><p><br /></p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-88360615929641555792021-10-19T11:01:00.128+01:002023-07-15T10:10:17.644+01:00 Dr. Browne's alchemical mandala<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztJEEu9svq0svYh3NqnwDtoXCbxMCl2cPE05N5yV7TujnmNAN9XMjZOIdZ0aj9I_hT7BxsGF0PL3e2QS2jUq-xVXrEixc6QLAvSdzCDH5iTxrCNHXGeKQIYRNUXua6qsNVVcl5FUlnRk/s1284/Alchemical+mandala.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1283" data-original-width="1284" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztJEEu9svq0svYh3NqnwDtoXCbxMCl2cPE05N5yV7TujnmNAN9XMjZOIdZ0aj9I_hT7BxsGF0PL3e2QS2jUq-xVXrEixc6QLAvSdzCDH5iTxrCNHXGeKQIYRNUXua6qsNVVcl5FUlnRk/s320/Alchemical+mandala.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">When first appraised as a two-in-one, unified work, literary critics declared Thomas Browne's discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) to be 'a paradox and a cosmic vision' and 'one of the deepest, complex, and most symbolically pregnant statements upon the great double theme of mortality and eternity'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">However, when those perceptive comments were made, almost 300 years after the first publication of <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus,</i> Browne's relationship to Western esoteric traditions had been little, if ever, discussed. Its only relatively recently that the many misapprehensions and prejudices which once surrounded Western esoteric disciplines such as Hermetic philosophy and alchemy have evaporated, primarily through the demise of Christianity as the dominant arbiter of spiritual values.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">From the ground-breaking scholarship of writers such as Frances Yeats and Adam Maclean in Britain, Joseph Campbell and James Hillman in America, and above all others the Swiss psychologist, C. G. Jung, we now possess the analytical tools necessary to understand and appreciate the vital influence which Western esoteric disciplines once wielded upon 'alchemystical' philosophers such as Thomas Browne. 'Though overlooked by all', Browne's discourses, <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>are revealed to be exemplary works of Hermetic philosophy in the canon of English literature.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">A quick perusal of the many esoteric titles listed as once in Browne's library swiftly dispels the notion that the philosopher-physician's interest in Western esotericism was merely casual, nor is there any reason to believe he ever deviated from his declaration in <i>Religio Medici </i>(1643) that-</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">'The severe Schools shall never laugh me out of the Philosophy of Hermes, that this visible world is but a picture of the invisible'. [1]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">And in fact Browne makes allusion and reference to concepts associated with Western esotericism in each and every one of his writings. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Composed during the seventeenth century, the 'Golden Age' of alchemy, <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> tick each and every box required of a mandala. Their polarity and symmetry, alongside their visual imagery, as well as the multiplicity of geometric forms and numbers encountered in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>permit a confident identification of Browne's diptych as forming an alchemical mandala, ingeniously crafted and unique in Western Literature. Crucially, Browne's discourses <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>engage the reader in the mandala's highest function, as art objects of great beauty, inspiring contemplation and capable of imparting spiritual wisdom to a receptive beholder. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">This essay discusses how Sir Thomas Browne's two discourses are structured upon templates associated with mandalas, namely circularity, symmetry and polarity. It concludes with a look at the historical background influencing Browne's creative motivation in writing two philosophical discourses and analysis of the symbol of the Quincunx; both of which take on new meaning when viewed through the prism of C. G. Jung's understanding of alchemy. First however, its worthwhile clarifying what exactly a mandala is.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The word 'mandala' originates from a Sanskrit word meaning 'disc' and many mandalas are circular in shape. Defined also as a geometric configuration of symbols which can be used as a spiritual guidance tool, mandalas are universal, they can be found not only in Tibetan Buddhist religious art, but also in Christian iconography, as well as the iconography of Western esoteric traditions such as alchemy, astrology and the kabbalah. Although usually associated as visual art-works, mandalas are not exclusively visual. The German composer J.S. Bach's late musical work <i>Die Kunst der Fuge </i> (The Art of Fugue BVW 1080) with its abstract and meditative thematically related canons and fugues, is in structure, content and function, an aural representation of a mandala [2]. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In nature many species of flower have radiating, wheel-like petals and circular centres making them mandala-like, their beauty inviting contemplation. In India there's a dance known as the <i>nyithya</i> dance which is named the mandala dance, while in the French choreographer Maurice Bejart's interpretation of Stravinsky's <i>Le Sacre du Printemps,</i> a mandala is formed by dancers with a sacrificial victim at their centre (below).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjZqt_W3pX-NawH6Xvl_phBjJjLCFy7PkZdsNdElnxytFN2nI5xczu-mUSwmnHNcGTtC4DZGVci0A-uv1XJHBJVwbw8z316NLxDVv_reCbFneHAEVZzkWiKlP9D3yJOO6GjHKOu-1Apw/s1200/bbl_lesacreduprintemps_creditfrancoispaolini_08-1200x800.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjZqt_W3pX-NawH6Xvl_phBjJjLCFy7PkZdsNdElnxytFN2nI5xczu-mUSwmnHNcGTtC4DZGVci0A-uv1XJHBJVwbw8z316NLxDVv_reCbFneHAEVZzkWiKlP9D3yJOO6GjHKOu-1Apw/w400-h266/bbl_lesacreduprintemps_creditfrancoispaolini_08-1200x800.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In his 'The Alchemical Mandala: A survey of the mandala in the western esoteric traditions' (1989) Adam Maclean (b.1948, Glasgow) the leading British authority on alchemy, discusses over thirty mandalas taken from the iconography of 17th century European alchemical literature. Each Western esoteric mandala is accompanied by the author's insightful knowledge of alchemy's rich and complex symbolism. Maclean notes that Western mandalas are an important but neglected aspect of art history which urgently require the attention of scholars and historians. From his generous reproduction of all three mandala variants in Andrea Libavius' <i>Alchemia </i>(1606) conclusive evidence of the seventeenth century funerary monument known as the Layer monument was cemented in 2013 [3].</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Returning to the dominant themes and imagery of <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>the Garden of Cyrus.</i> Inspired by a recent archaeological discovery in Norfolk, <i>Urn-Burial</i> opens with a survey of the burial rites and customs of various nations, highlighting Browne's comparative religion studies. Imagery of darkness, night, sleep and the invisible pervade its pages. Life's ending's and beliefs about death are sombrely surveyed, and Browne the doctor reminds his reader of their mortality, the inevitability of their death and the unlikeliness of their being remembered for very long.<i> Urn-Burial </i>has been lauded throughout the centuries for its stately, ornate Baroque flourishes of prose. The strongly Christian and stoical half of the diptych includes mention of ghosts, spirits, vampirism and even altered states of spiritual consciousness. <i>Urn-Burial </i>has been described as a threnody to the dead of the English Civil war, at a time when England's population was estimated to have been a little over 5 million its estimated that over 200,000 lives were lost in the seven year period of the English Civil war (1642-49) exceeding anything England has ever experienced to the present-day. English society was further traumatised psychologically when living under the experimental, Puritan Republic of Cromwell (1650 -59).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In complete polarity, <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> examines life's visible beginnings, including germination and growth in botany. Its hasty in style and playful in tone, whilst also repeatedly demonstrating the ubiquity of the number five and the Quincunx pattern in art, nature and religious symbolism. Imagery involving Light, optics and growth crowd its pages. Overtly hermetic in content, its alludes to several esoteric disciplines which Browne subscribed to, including Paracelsian medicine, physiognomy and the kabbalah. The discourse also features Browne's highly original proper-name symbolism, often originating from Biblical and Ancient world sources; its central chapter is crowded with numerous sharp-eyed botanical observations, botany being an essential pursuit for physicians in Browne's time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Just how <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> hasn't been positively identified as a literary writing influenced by hermetic philosophy before now remains a great mystery; its very first page features major themes, symbols and preoccupations associated with western esoteric traditions. Opening with the patron "deity" associated with Paracelsian alchemy, namely Vulcan, featuring Browne’s study of comparative religion, employing highly original spiritual-optical imagery, speculating upon the Creation and life’s beginnings, citing Plato’s discourse <i>Timaeus</i>, (the supreme authority for Hermetic philosophers) and finally, conjuring the potent alchemical '<i>coniunctionis' </i>symbol of <i>Sol et Luna</i>, Browne could not spell out the esoteric theme of his discourse harder if he tried. Little wonder that for three and a half centuries its pages have baffled most and delighted few, such as the Romantic poet, Coleridge for example. [4]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Browne reconciled the wisdom of Western esoteric traditions such as alchemy and the kabbalah to Christianity in exactly the same way as the vanguard Renaissance advocates of esotericism, Marsilio Ficino (b.19th October 1433- d.1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494); by giving credence to a <i>Prisca Theologia</i>, a belief in a single, true theology shared by all religions and whose wisdom is passed on in a golden chain through a series of mystics and prophets which included Moses and Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato. In particular, the mythic Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus or ‘thrice greatest’ (being the greatest priest, philosopher and king) was appropriated by Hermetic philosophers as a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christ. In reality the writings known as the <i>Corpus Hermeticum </i> attributed to Hermes Trismegistus originated from the early Christian era, and not before, as believed. Such imaginative comparative religion sanctioned the study of pagan philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato, and justified the Bible's antiquity, wisdom and superiority to devout Christians. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Frank Huntley is credited as the first to identify the circular nature of Browne's discourses. Huntley saw evidence of Browne's creative intent of the circle uniting his two Discourses in the penultimate paragraphs of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>where imagery involving night, darkness, sleep and death returns; thus Browne's essay on life's beginnings, <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> unites with <i>Urn Burial </i>with its thematic concern of life's endings and imagery of darkness, night and sleep<i>. </i>Huntley viewed this return of <i>Urn-Burial's</i> theme and imagery as evidence of Browne utilizing imagery of the tail-eating snake of alchemy, known as the Ouroboros, shaping his twin Discourses' overall structure [5]. Browne had reflected upon the tail-eating snake or Ouroboros in his medical essay <i>A Letter to a Friend </i>(c.1656) -</div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence, which tho' Astrology hath taken witty pains to salve, yet hath it been very wary in making Predictions of it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conclusion of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> uses imagery distinctly allusive to the Ouroboros. Browne reassures his reader, both contemporary and future, of a return to social and political stability.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">'All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical Mathematicks of the City of Heaven'. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">An early visual realization of the <i>Ouroboros</i> has the motto <i>Hen et Pan </i>(One is All) inscribed at its centre (below). The Ouroboros was adopted by Gnostics of the early Christian era and later by Renaissance alchemists as symbolic of their art and its considered to be the basic mandala of alchemy. Note how in the Gnostic illustration below duality or polarity is highlighted through the use of black and white, not unlike what is termed the basic mandala of eastern esotericism, the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrAlBlW6VYWsId7fMoI3dTNtGlKTHig-T1WKcAlmEtSHIhD0N8lCnTrASyI0_a5KNlcVXYuL-RvLXcrieKqyyNi3cR24guyIgHQViJ54nASA1ysZsxcJjJ9X9JGhCcKlaINBzx5m_No8/s480/Chrysopoea_of_Cleopatra_1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="436" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrAlBlW6VYWsId7fMoI3dTNtGlKTHig-T1WKcAlmEtSHIhD0N8lCnTrASyI0_a5KNlcVXYuL-RvLXcrieKqyyNi3cR24guyIgHQViJ54nASA1ysZsxcJjJ9X9JGhCcKlaINBzx5m_No8/s320/Chrysopoea_of_Cleopatra_1.png" width="291" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>One of C.G. Jung's greatest achievements was his discovery that at its deepest strata human consciousness is undifferentiated, thus symbols originating from civilizations remote to each other in time and geography nevertheless often display striking similarities. The symbols of the Greek Ouroboros (above) and the Chinese Yin Yang symbol (below) express the self-same duality or polarity, and balanced view of the total forces of good and evil, life and death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhTVzF4527lqbTsY_Erf0270nVCY4bOQTfX8268Da3Kx4nrZwr8M8Ia7BEJGRG8w-dN1R5t46RuXcOXnfLZAeh5H1YKFg1QDo985rMtJUjwYhlPYGKeloBMOwpkXVcnfMjOZ3fBY9h58/s225/yIN+yANG.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhTVzF4527lqbTsY_Erf0270nVCY4bOQTfX8268Da3Kx4nrZwr8M8Ia7BEJGRG8w-dN1R5t46RuXcOXnfLZAeh5H1YKFg1QDo985rMtJUjwYhlPYGKeloBMOwpkXVcnfMjOZ3fBY9h58/s0/yIN+yANG.png" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;">If <i style="text-align: left;">Urn-Burial</i><span style="text-align: left;"> with its grave meditations upon human mortality and death can be said to be the gritty and dark underbelly of Browne's literary serpent, then </span><i style="text-align: left;">The Garden of Cyrus</i><span style="text-align: left;"> with its repeated demonstrations of 'how God geometrizeth and observeth order', is surely the decorative, designed upper half of Browne's Ouroboros. And indeed, along with the menagerie of birds, insects and animals mentioned in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> several species of snake are included, thus -</span></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">'A like correspondency in figure is found in the skins and outward teguments of animals, whereof a regardable part are beautiful by this texture. As the backs of several Snakes and Serpents, elegantly remarkable in the Aspis, and the Dart-snake, in the Chiasmus and larger decussations upon the back of the Rattlesnake, and in the close and finer texture of the Mater formicarum, or snake that delights in Ant-hills; whereby upon approach of outward injuries, they can raise a thicker Phalanx on their backs, and handsomely contrive themselves into all kindes of flexures: Whereas their bellies are commonly covered with smooth semi-circular divisions, as best accommodable unto their quick and gliding motion'.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung noted that -The image of the circle was regarded as the most perfect form by Hermetic philosophers since Plato's <i>Timaeus, </i>the prime authority for Hermetic philosophers'. And of the circular figure of the Ouroboros he stated - 'In the age-old image of the ouroboros lies the though of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the <i>prima materia</i> of the art was man himself. The ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite i.e. of the shadow. This feedback process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the ouroboros that he slays himself and brings to life, fertilizes himself an gives birth to himself. [6] </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdNBYx7_4Pqq_fFarFu9cj9WxIzb9Oj9NDZEEDDGhf259Ny9mgmEeyqyv43ooJfLJEUwglB9mlkFj7NkA9TeKfvIEAfyN3Gye40o6Cr5ii8WY1oRtzVXnzORljTqwZE9SNrFLkKHA52o/s1024/Labyrinth_49x49-middle_ages.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdNBYx7_4Pqq_fFarFu9cj9WxIzb9Oj9NDZEEDDGhf259Ny9mgmEeyqyv43ooJfLJEUwglB9mlkFj7NkA9TeKfvIEAfyN3Gye40o6Cr5ii8WY1oRtzVXnzORljTqwZE9SNrFLkKHA52o/s320/Labyrinth_49x49-middle_ages.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Labyrinth is closely related to the mandala in several ways. Unlike a maze, a Labyrinth offers no alternative route, its unicursive path however, always leads to a centre, a feature common in many mandalas. Symbolic of pilgrimage during the Medieval era, labyrinth paths were laid out in ground plans of monasteries, cloisters and churchyards and walked as symbolic of ascending towards salvation. Walking their twisting turns, one loses track of direction, time and the outside world, calming the mind and inducing contemplation. Walking a labyrinth is therefore not unlike physically stepping into a mandala for spiritual exercise. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The earliest of all known Western mandalas originates from Ancient Greece, namely, the Cretan Labyrinth of Knossos along with Homer's descriptive account of Achille's shield in <i>The Illiad. </i>Both are featured in <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the Renaissance the study of numismatics provided easy access to the ancient world for collectors such as Browne. Coins from the Classical world of ancient Greece and Rome, supplied the antiquarian with a wealth of information. A numismatic depiction of the Labyrinth of Knossos sparks Browne's creative imagination in chapter two of <i>The Garden of Cyrus, </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>'And, though none of the seven wonders, yet a noble piece of Antiquity, and made by a Copy exceeding all the rest, had its principal parts disposed after this manner, that is, the Labyrinth of Crete, built upon a long quadrate, containing five large squares, communicating by right inflections, terminating in the centre of the middle square, and lodging of the Minotaur, if we conform unto the description of the elegant medal thereof in Agostino'. [7]</div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4TPLBklCneBIcOoJKNOu_WtXEqbECBL1ePEOQ0NqiR-EmBoaRVV-k4g0UB_LFWWE6i1gXy8J57dXW0vdhwfR4dqLE90THQVshNm9-rXCaFy1T8YyijeC8YMq30-5N9BLmN0gZK8r-QE/s500/55455334_2588721907869030_7922394342310805504_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="500" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4TPLBklCneBIcOoJKNOu_WtXEqbECBL1ePEOQ0NqiR-EmBoaRVV-k4g0UB_LFWWE6i1gXy8J57dXW0vdhwfR4dqLE90THQVshNm9-rXCaFy1T8YyijeC8YMq30-5N9BLmN0gZK8r-QE/w400-h190/55455334_2588721907869030_7922394342310805504_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> </div><div><br /></div><div>One of Western civilization's earliest mandalas originates from the poetry of the ancient Greek author Homer (circa 500 BCE). Homer's epic poems <i>The Iliad </i>and <i>The Odyssey, </i>not unlike Browne's discourses, are also a two-in-one literary work, the masculine theme of the Trojan war in <i>The Iliad </i>differs starkly to the adventures and affairs of the heart of <i>The Odyssey,</i> with its hero Odysseus endeavouring to return to his wife, Penelope. Both of Homer's epic poems are mentioned in <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>Its at the apotheosis of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> that Browne alludes to the weaponry of the Greek warrior Achilles, shortly before delivering his scientific credentials -</div><div><br /></div><div>'Flat and flexible truths are beat out by every hammer. But Vulcan and his whole forge, sweat to work out Achilles' his armour'</div><div><br /></div><div>Homer’s long and detailed description of the Achilles' shield of over 100 lines is utterly mandala-like in concept. Angelo Monticelli's visual realization of Achilles’ shield (circa 1820) divides the shield into five concentric rings. From its centre it depicts the whole universe, with constellations and planets, as well as human life, including a wedding, a marketplace and tribunal. Wartime is represented by a victim of a siege, peacetime by sowing, a harvest and dancing. The stream of Oceanus encircles the land mass. The twelves signs of the zodiac and Apollo riding a chariot of four horses can be seen at its centre. [8]</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUI1Q_8ZxyqvifobrhPs1vXcRsBWArEzlQW38Gh_Hn3GrU_Dvk9IBi_KVQ03TbF8PIhrZ2z4u-E2mikuq_6PNNoDqmE0d445_lLwWuaFA8v71bfXNm-_WTXd57tZqwJrwLmtmpuqnOPo/s849/800px-Angelo_monticelli_shield-of-achilles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUI1Q_8ZxyqvifobrhPs1vXcRsBWArEzlQW38Gh_Hn3GrU_Dvk9IBi_KVQ03TbF8PIhrZ2z4u-E2mikuq_6PNNoDqmE0d445_lLwWuaFA8v71bfXNm-_WTXd57tZqwJrwLmtmpuqnOPo/w376-h400/800px-Angelo_monticelli_shield-of-achilles.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><p>In alchemy the primordial symbolism of colour is represented by the colour schemata of <i>Nigredo </i>and <i>Albedo </i>(Blackness and Whiteness) . There's a strong case to be made for <i>Urn Burial</i> as a symbolic realization of the <i>Nigredo </i>stage of alchemy. As the first of four stages in the alchemical opus, the <i>Nigredo </i>(Blackness) represents the psychological state of melancholic gloom and despair which the adept faced beginning the alchemical <i>opus</i>. The historical circumstances in which <i>Urn-Burial</i> was written with its many grave and sombre meditations upon Death, mortification, putrefaction, embalmment, funerary urns and monuments, its repeatedly condemnation of the vain-glory of being remembered after death as a futile hope, makes it utterly exemplary of the <i>Nigredo </i>. Browne's poetic phrase, 'lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing' encapsulates the <i>Nigredo </i>stage of alchemy, which C. G. Jung describes thus-</p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'the <i>Nigredo</i> not only brought decay, suffering, death, and the torments of hell visibly before the eyes of the alchemist, it also cast the shadow of melancholy over his solitary soul. In the blackness of his despair he experienced grotesque images which reflect the conflict of opposites into which the researcher's curiosity had led him. His work began with a journey to the underworld as Dante experienced it'. [9] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It should come as no surprise that several 'Soul Journey's of Classical literature are named in <i>Urn-Burial, </i>for mandalas often symbolize the spiritual journey of the soul. Homer's Voyage of Ulysses, Plato's myth of Er, the Roman poet Macrobius' 'Dream of Scipio' and Dante's descent to the Underworld are all works of 'Soul Journey' literature which are named in <i>Urn Burial.</i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In contradistinction to the Job-like suffering of the <i>Nigredo, </i>the <i>albedo </i>or 'Whitening' of the alchemical opus represents a return to innocence. Closely associated with Biblical accounts of the Creation and Paradise, we can confidently view <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>as representative of the <i>Albedo </i>stage of alchemy. Browne opens <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> with the Creation, and etymological understanding of Paradise, before speculating on the location of the Garden of Eden. According to C.G. Jung -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'By means of the opus which the adept likens to the creation of the world, the albedo or whitening is produced.' [10]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'For alchemists Paradise was a favourite symbol of the albedo, the regained state of innocence'. [11]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLT7nd4CgoRzUQpgv_C3arfUurvN1vjY17Fu9WmuzZuzUog_y299NtHe50QQJ4nuclxwXzQuT05kiCUoihBzMVt3-aEOs5rmTqc06c0kw_A7MlsXX6k2xu3r71AkgramTpmRGl_IpxIU/s626/FB_IMG_1620424018026.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="613" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLT7nd4CgoRzUQpgv_C3arfUurvN1vjY17Fu9WmuzZuzUog_y299NtHe50QQJ4nuclxwXzQuT05kiCUoihBzMVt3-aEOs5rmTqc06c0kw_A7MlsXX6k2xu3r71AkgramTpmRGl_IpxIU/s320/FB_IMG_1620424018026.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Hamburg based physician and hermetic philosopher Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605) synthesized symbolism from Christianity, the Kabbalah and the mystic Rose of alchemy to form the mandala reproduced in his <i>Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae </i>of 1595 (Above).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The gordian knot of how and why of Browne's creative motivation in writing two 'conjoyned discourses remained uncut for centuries. In a typical self-depreciating manner, Browne states simply of the relationship between his two Discourses-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>That we conjoyn these parts of different Subjects, or that this should succeed the other; Your judgement will admit without impute of incongruity; Since the delightful World comes after death, and Paradise succeeds the Grave.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This solitary clue far from explains Browne's creative motivation for the multiplicity of polarities or <i>complexio oppositorum</i> in his diptych Discourses. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There's a multipicity of opposites or polarities in <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>their primary thematic polarities being Time and Space, Darkness and Light, Decay and Growth, Invisible and Visible, Accident and Design, Conjecture and Discernment, Microcosm and Macrocosm among others, as well as oppositional imagery and literary style. Such distinctive polarity alerts those familiar with basic tenets of Western esotericism, for polarity features strongly in nearly all esoteric schemata. One of the basic maxims of alchemy, <i>solve et coagula </i>for example, which exhorts the alchemist to <i>'</i>dissolve and coagulate' loosely approximating to the biology of decay and growth, is itself a polarized maxim which corresponds to the dominant themes of each Discourse respectively, <i>Urn Burial </i>being a meditative soliloquy on decay and life's endings, whilst <i>The Garden Of Cyrus </i>lyricizes upon life's beginnings and growth. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">C. G. Jung's radical interpretation of the psychological importance of alchemy did much to alleviate prejudices against Western esoteric traditions. When he died in 1961 the publication of his collected writings gathered apace. The very title of Jung's late <i>magnum opus </i>work, <i>Mysterium Coniunctions</i>: An enquiry and synthesis of the psychic opposites in alchemy', first published in 1963, has relevance to the psychic opposites of melancholy in <i>Urn-Burial </i>and cheerfulness in <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>In its foreword Jung trenchantly states - </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">-'the "alchemystical" philosophers made the opposites and their union one of the chiefest objects of their work'. [12]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The growing popularity of Jung's psychology throughout the 1960's was such that he was included in the pantheon of writers, artists, poets, pop and film stars assembled in Peter Blake's photomontage artwork for the Beatles album <i>Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club.</i> (1967). The British singer/songwriter David Bowie (1947-2016) also paid homage to Jung in his 1973 song 'Drive-in Saturday' ('Jung the foreman/prayed at work').</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amusingly, there's a slender connection between the 'fab four' landmark album <i>Sgt. Pepper </i>to the phantasmagoria of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> in as much as both can loosely be defined as psychedelic art-works (that is, in the original Greek meaning of the words, <i>Psyche </i>Mind/Soul + <i>Delos </i>'Clear, manifest'). The rapid, near kaleidoscopic procession of examples from art, nature and religious mysticism related to the Quincunx symbol in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> has indeed a psychedelic dimension. Throughout its pages the active imagination of the alchemist in operation is visibly manifest. Little wonder therefore that <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> has astonished and bewildered countless readers for centuries. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concluding this digression of loose associations to psychedelia in general, its also in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>that Browne introduces the medical word 'Hallucination' into the English language.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne possessed the ability to lucid dream, that is, the ability to manipulate and control the fantasy world of dreams at will. He informs his reader of this ability in <i>Religio Medici </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'yet in one dream I can compose a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reason is fruitful I would chose never to study but in my dreams'. [13]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Browne's gift of lucid dreaming is of great significance in the light of C.G. Jung's observation that,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'with the help of dreams, the unconscious produces a natural symbol technically termed a mandala which has the functional significance of a union of opposites, or a meditation'. [14] </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">C. G. Jung's ground-breaking study of alchemy illumines interpretation of <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> as an alchemical mandala. Structured upon the basic templates of life, namely Time (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) and Space (<i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>) there's a multiplicity of polarities, or 'oppositional conjunctions' in Browne's 'twin' discourses in their subject-matter, imagery , truth and even literary style. Any serious scholar of esotericism would immediately be alert to this fact, for polarity plays no small part in almost all esoteric schemata; the alchemical maxim <i>solve e coagula </i>(decay and growth) the declaration of the mythic Hermes Trismegistus of, 'As above, so Below,' the time-honoured schemata of the Renaissance of Man as Microcosm inhabiting the vastness of the Macrocosm, the alchemical colour symbolism of <i>Nigredo </i>and<i> Albedo </i>(Black and White) all utilize polarity in their symbolism and are fundamental templates to Browne's 'twin' discourses. Indeed, its from his study of magnetism that Browne, a vigorous coiner of new words, is credited with introducing the very word 'polarity' into the English language. Fundamental imagery involving Darkness in <i>Urn-Burial </i>and Light in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> pervade the respective pages of Browne's discourses. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to C.G. Jung the opposites play a decisive role in the alchemical process [15] In his view, 'the real subject of Hermetic philosophy is the <i>coniunctio oppositorum</i> [16]. One simply cannot think of a better examplar of a Hermetic philosopher delineating polarised opposites in highly original optical-spiritual imagery than Browne in his alchemical mandala. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The Jungian psychoanalyst James Hillman for one, explains why polarities such as Light and Darkness exist in alchemical literature thus- </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">'</span>The linking of light and darkness sets the stage for a fundamental and recurring theme in both alchemy and Jungian psychology, namely, the<i> coniunctio oppositorum</i>, the unity of opposites, a bringing together of light and darkness into an illuminated vision'.[ 17]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPPA-z0yJfiBrhKxv2Th_Y17vaD3dKWRu0rbOQ-pIpH2KazbK4ea-CI3O46JyDNAsOpD28MWwhss9eqENOdfT-zE9W27Y1MOEQ5igIMOO6YY8qY0Buawl1ai4Zv_14UfeziheOA30Vc4/s816/121282125_3453462474740697_1278288238271747256_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="816" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkPPA-z0yJfiBrhKxv2Th_Y17vaD3dKWRu0rbOQ-pIpH2KazbK4ea-CI3O46JyDNAsOpD28MWwhss9eqENOdfT-zE9W27Y1MOEQ5igIMOO6YY8qY0Buawl1ai4Zv_14UfeziheOA30Vc4/w320-h237/121282125_3453462474740697_1278288238271747256_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Johannes Daniel Mylius (c. 1583 – 1642) was a composer for the lute and writer on alchemy. The mandala reproduced in his <i>Opus medico-chymicum </i>dated 1618 (above) synthesizes symbolism taken from the Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy, avian symbolism and mythology. At its centre there stands an alchemist in a grove of trees representing the planetary metals. A raven symbolizing the <i>Nigredo </i>and the Swan representing the <i>Albedo </i>in the lower hemisphere along with a celestial choir in its upper hemisphere are only visible once the page unfolded. </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The 1650's decade saw the greatest volume of esoteric literature ever published in England. Many important esoteric titles were translated or made available in English for the first time under the liberalisation and relaxation of printing press licensing laws during the Protectorate of Cromwell. The antiquarian Elias Ashmole tested the waters of this new liberalisation in order to publish in 1652 his anthology of British alchemical authors, the <i>Theatrum Chemicum Brittanicum,</i><i> </i>a copy of which is listed as once in Browne's library. It was followed by Cornelius Agrippa's influential <i>Three books on Occult Philosophy </i>and by Thomas Vaughan's translation of the <i>Fama </i>and <i>Confessio </i>of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. Incidentally, the spiritual alchemist Thomas Vaughan (c.1621-65) who knew of, and admired Thomas Browne, may have had the diptych Discourses in mind when alluding to the dominant symbol of each Discourse he declared Mercurius, the patron 'deity' of alchemy, to be, 'not only a two-edged sword, but also our true, hidden vessel, the Philosophical Garden, wherein our sun rises and sets'. And a copy of Vaughan's evocatively titled <i>A Hermetical Banquet drest by a Spagyrical cook </i>(1652) is listed as once in Browne's library. [18]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It must have been nigh on impossible for an avid bibliophile such as Browne to be unaware of this publication trend throughout the 1650's decade. And the temptation to add his own influential voice to the chorus of esoteric literature which poured forth from England's printing presses, must surely have inspired him. This creative urge, along with experiencing extreme psychological distress from the uncertainty and vulnerable social status of being a defeated Royalist with a profession to protect in order to support his large family, may well have induced Browne, consciously or unconsciously, to construct his own personal mandala, for according to Jung-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'the Mandala encompasses, protects and defends the psychic totality against outside influences and seeks to unite the opposites and is an individuation symbol'. [19] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Individuation symbols such as those produced by the mandala were in Jung's view spontaneous products of the psyche which arise whenever the psyche is in crisis and in need of transforming or protection. C.G. Jung observed that alchemical symbolism frequently incorporated geometric forms stating -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Alchemical symbolism has produced a whole series of non-human forms, geometrical configurations like the sphere, circle, square, and octagon, or chemical configurations like the Philosopher's Stone, the ruby, diamond, quicksilver, gold, water, fire, and spirit (in the sense of a volatile substance). [20] </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Urn-Burial </i>focusses almost hypnotically upon the symbol of the Urn or Vessel which in alchemy was the womb-like matrix where the Philosopher's Stone incubated. ('Incubation' being yet another Of Browne's neologisms). In complete contrast <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> is jam-packed with symbols, geometric forms, numbers and hieroglyphs - the triangle, square, hexagon, pyramid, Egyptian Ankh, the letter X as well as the Quincunx pattern , all of which are utilized by Browne in his demonstration of the interconnection of the worlds of art, nature and religious mysticism. For Jung such symbols were none other than variants upon the foremost symbol of the psyche, the mandala , writing - 'Empirically the self appears spontaneously in the shape of specific symbols and its totality is discernible above all in the mandala and its countless variants'. [21] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">C. G. Jung was a keen scholar of comparative religion. He became familiar with the Quincunx symbol from his long study of alchemy. Originally, little more than a unit of measurement of 5/12th in the Roman era, the Quincunx gained its esoteric associations when the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) named it as an aspect of both astronomy and astrology. Kepler's books are well-represented in Browne's library. [22] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although its unlikely that C. G. Jung knew of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>other than from hearsay, Browne's discourse being utterly untranslatable, nevertheless he did know that - 'The <i>quinarius</i> or <i>Quinio</i> (in the form of 4 + 1 i.e. Quincunx ) does occur as a symbol of wholeness (in China and occasionally in alchemy) but relatively rarely.' [23] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jung even utilized the Quincunx pattern for his own purposes, stating in an essay, 'Their union in a quincunx signifies union of the four elements in a world-body' [24]. Astoundingly, in 'Flying Saucers: A modern myth' (1958) Jung likens the Quincunx to be, 'a symbol of the <i>quinta essentia </i>which is identical with the Philosopher's Stone. [25] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the centrepiece of Browne's mandala, the Quincunx pattern is thus a symbol of totality and wholeness, representing the achievement of <i>Unio mentalis</i> or self-knowledge of the alchemists. As Jung succinctly observed - 'The self is a <i>complexio oppositorum </i>itself'. [26] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's creative motivation in penning his twin discourses is to share his psychological understanding of the Self, the true Philosopher's Stone, in order to provide his reader with an unique spiritual text. His alchemical mandala is both a portrait of himself personally with his hobbies of archaeology and botany and of the Collective Self, with all the irrational fears and inspired ideas we share; it operates upon the reader primarily through the effects of synergy, which is defined as - the interaction of two or more agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects'. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Like all good empirical scientists, Browne knew that simply by juxtaposing object A with object B, a new perspective upon each object is gained, inasmuch as differences and similarities are heightened whenever objects, or indeed whenever philosophical discourses are placed within close proximity to each other. As C.G. Jung puts it - ''A judgement can be made about a thing only if its opposite is equally real and possible'. [27]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its the resultant synergy from reading these two quite different discourses which generates Browne's alchemical mandala and which effectively operates upon the reader. The individual reader's conscious and unconscious association of Browne's highly original, home-grown symbolism, their comprehension of his many Classical and Biblical references along with receptivity towards the dominant themes of each respective discourse which contribute towards psychic realization and activation of Dr. Browne's alchemical mandala.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To repeat, <i>Urn Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>adhere to mandala symbolism in their circularity and symmetry as well as their frequent usage of symbolism. Crucially, they engage in the mandala's highest function - as art-objects of great beauty worthy of contemplation and which remind their beholder of their own 'soul- journey' and place in the cosmos, thus bestowing spiritual enlightenment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Augmenting and summarizing in Adam Maclean's words- 'Hermetic philosophers such as Thomas Browne can be said to be pioneering proto-psychologists who were open to their inner worlds and perceptions which they 'projected' onto outer symbols, in doing so they discovered a universal language which transcended words to communicate their experience of the soul's architecture. Thomas Browne's ability to lucid dream is a vital contributing factor in this alchemical act of active imagination. If we choose to contemplate the symbolism of alchemical mandalas, whether they are visual, auditory or couched within literary works such as Thomas Browne's two philosophical discourses, they can lead us deep into the mysteries of our inner world. Thus, far from the received wisdom of <i>Urn Burial</i> being a gloomy antiquarian essay, with an essay on gardening appended, in order to bulk out for the printer, as was once believed, <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>can be conceptualized as an alchemical mandala, capable of unlocking the mysteries of the soul's architecture. [28] </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Notes</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[1] Opening quote from Heideman M.A. 'Hydriotaphia and The Garden of Cyrus' A Paradox and a Cosmic Vision' University of Toronto Quarterly, XIX 1950 . </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Next - Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Their Work, No.108 1959) followed by Browne <i>Religio Medici </i>1:12</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[2] Recommended recording : Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) - Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Harmonia Mundi 2011</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[3] See Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Layer_Monument">The Layer Monument </a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[4] Collected Works of C.G. Jung vol. 11: 92</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[5] Huntley, Frank . Sir Thomas Browne: A Biographical and Critical Study, Ann Arbour 1962</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[6] Collected Works 11. 92 and Vol 14 :759</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[7] Agostino's book is listed in the 1711 Sales Catalogue of Browne's Library p. 38 no. 5. The full title of Agostino's book is - <i>Ant. Agostini Dialoghi intorno alle Medaglie, Inscrissioni & altre Antichita Romanze tradotti di Lingua Spagnola in Italiana da D Ottav. Sada, e dal Medisimo accresciuti, con Annot. & illustrati con disegni di molte Medaglie &c. Rome </i>1650. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[8] Link to Book 18, lines 478-608 of Homer's Iliad .https://poets.org/poem/iliad-book-xviii-shield-achilles</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[9] C. W. 14: 93</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[10] C. W. vol. 9 ii : 230</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[11] CW ? 373</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[12] CW 14 Foreword</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[13] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 2 Section 11</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[14] CW 11:150</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[15] CW 12:557 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[16] CW 11: 738</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[17] The Soul's Code James Hillman Bantam 1991</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[18] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Sir_Thomas_Browne#Esoteric">A list of esoteric authors in Thomas Browne's Library</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[19] CW 10:621 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[20] CW 11:276</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[21] CW 9ii:426 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[22] See 1711 Sales Catalogue page 29 no. 18 S.C. page 29 no.34 S.C. page 28. no. 13</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[23] C.W. 10:737</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[24] CW 11:190</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[25] CW 18:1602</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[26] CW 11: 92</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[27] CW 11:247</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[28] Adam Maclean's words adapted from 'The Alchemical Mandala'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>See also</u> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2020/10/?m=0">Lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing</a><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html">Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-statue-in-alchemy.html">The statue in alchemy</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Books Consulted</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne: Selected Writings ed. Kevin Killeen pub. OUP 2014</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Adam Maclean -The Alchemical Mandala : A Survey of the mandala in the western esoteric traditions</p><p style="text-align: justify;">James Hillman - The Dream and the Underworld pub. Harpur 1979</p><p style="text-align: justify;">James Hillman - Pan and the Nightmare pub. Phanes 1989 second edition 2002</p><p style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung Collected Works vol. 11 Psychology and Religion</p><p style="text-align: justify;">C'.G. Jung - CW 9 part one - 'Concerning mandala symbolism' </p><p style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung - Collected Works vol. 14 <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">1711 Sales Catalogue of Edward and Thomas Browne's libraries -J.S. Finch pub. Brill Leiden </p>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-50371772158228269102021-01-27T15:00:00.041+00:002024-02-15T12:47:43.709+00:00Coincidence - A Window on Eternity <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2020/10/lost-in-uncomfortable-night-of-nothing.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgf9sNDvYk0udtB22gPuGt2CNhj_KEKEoiAmx2YYONhqX-TVLvKvK9ME8aZ7O0_cHlNBcy7EoRhX1GEQwVDqdEfGG5f2-yxRhTYuyCnNED2PLlIZn8MREAofqrAIBxIUO7caqjnd5ybp8/s0/27kkk.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span>'The depths of our psyche we know not, but inwards goes the mysterious way. In us or nowhere is eternity with its worlds: the past and the future'. - Novalis</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span><br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">*</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Many people world-wide have experienced a remarkable coincidence in their lives, and yet coincidence, in particular, meaningful or significant coincidence, remains a little understood phenomenon. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Although the word 'synchronicity' has now become a fashionable word to describe significant coincidence, very few know the word was coined by the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) to define his psychological theory on meaningful coincidence. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">However, long before C.G. Jung, the seventeenth century hermetic philosopher and physician Thomas Browne (1605-82) also held an interest in coincidence, introducing the word to English readers in his medical essay <i>A Letter to a Friend. </i>Browne was fascinated enough the phenomenon of coincidence enough to make it the very framework of his esoteric discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658). Throughout its highly compressed and dense imagery, Browne's ringmasters in rapid procession a multiplicity of coincidental evidence of the number five and the Quincunx pattern, firstly in art, then in nature, notably botany, to spiritual symbolism and finally to the 'Quincunx of Heaven'. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">New insights into the phenomenon of coincidence can be gained through juxtaposition of the ideas of C.G. Jung with those of Dr. Thomas Browne. The subject of coincidence is one of a number of interests the two physicians shared. Both men maintained a medical practice throughout their lives, both engaged in deep analysis of themselves and their dreams, both studied comparative religion and read alchemical literature closely, sharing an interest in the pioneering Swiss physician, Paracelsus (1493 –1541) along with his foremost advocate, Gerard Dorn (c.1530-84). And finally, both were interested in unusual psychic phenomena such as coincidence or synchronicity, as Jung termed it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">One of the most accessible books on C.G.Jung is his autobiography <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections </i>(1961) in which Jung narrates of his relationship to his one-time mentor, Sigmund Freud, his psychology and 'discovery' of the archetypes, his world-wide travels, visiting and hearing the dreams of various indigenous peoples along with his highly original interpretation of alchemy, as well as the many extraordinary coincidences which he experienced in his life-time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">C.G.Jung's <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections </i>is prefaced by a verse composed by the English poet Coleridge. Selected by Jung's secretary Aniela Jaffe to describe the Swiss psychologist, Coleridge's notebook verse is in fact about someone he greatly admired, none other than Thomas Browne ! A remarkable coincidence first detected in 1996 when beginning what is now a quarter century of Brownean studies. Coleridge's verse reads - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">He looked at this own Soul </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">With a Telescope.What seemed</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">all irregular, he saw and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">shewed to be beautiful</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Constellations: and he added</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">to the Consciousness hidden</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">worlds within worlds.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <i> </i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">C.G.Jung's major writing on coincidence 'Synchronicity:An Acausal Connecting Principle' was first published in 1952 . Its useful to be clear on the meaning of the word 'acausal' in the title of Jung's essay, which like the word 'asymptomatic', meaning without showing symptoms, acausal means without any known or perceived cause. Jung states- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We do know at least enough about the psyche not to attribute to it any magical power, and still less can we attribute any magical power to the conscious mind.....The great difficulty is that we have absolutely no scientific means of proving the existence of an objective meaning which is not a psychic product. We are, however, driven to some such assumption unless we want to regress to a magical causality and ascribe to the psyche a power that far exceeds its empirical range of action. [1]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Jung's essay on coincidence, which he terms Synchronicity, includes a long statistical analysis of astrological data of married couples and a chapter on the forerunners of Synchronicity naming Kepler, Paracelsus and Pico della Mirandola, among others, who speculated upon the phenomenon of coincidence, each of whom were once well-represented in Thomas Browne's library.</div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung found confirmation of his ideas on synchronicity in the Chinese oracle of the <i>I Ching, </i>also known as the Book of Changes. Consisting of 64 Hexagrams made through casting coins or yarrow-sticks which are read as either broken or whole, Yin or Yan, each of the 64 configurations of the <i>I Ching</i> has a highly philosophical verse attached to it. Readings of the <i>I Ching </i>naturally stimulate the possibility of synchronicity. In Jung's view -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Chinese mind, as I see it at work in the <i>I Ching, </i>seems to be exclusively preoccupied with the chance aspect of events. What we call coincidence seems to be the chief concern of this peculiar mind, and what we worship as causality passes almost unnoticed. ....Just as causality describes the sequence of events, so synchronicity to the Chinese mind deals with the coincidence of events. [2]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Unlike the Greek-trained Western mind, the Chinese mind does not aim at grasping at details for their own sake, but at a view which sees the detail as part of a whole...The <i>I Ching, </i>which we can well call the experimental basis of Classical Chinese philosophy, is one of the oldest known methods for grasping a situation as a whole and thus placing the details against a cosmic background - the interplay of Yin and Yang.<i> </i>[3]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Called by short-sighted Westerners a "collection of ancient magic spells" an opinion echoed by modernized Chinese themselves, the <i>I Ching </i>is a formidable psychological system that endeavours to organize the play of the archetypes, the "wonderous operations of nature" into a certain pattern, so that a "reading" becomes possible. it was ever a sign of stupidity to depreciate something one does not understand. [4]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXXVXGqJq56JjzSMIYb1Lkfq04cusCbRByRILb1JuxztYYakN7GMxXx2Ha-zSdGH3x8GJCQSDARaYQCmb7preXdz-EzSzygc89ROtdougR7wgg6jiw7zGaIaidIkP0733UZbPi013FJU/s435/hexagram27.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXXVXGqJq56JjzSMIYb1Lkfq04cusCbRByRILb1JuxztYYakN7GMxXx2Ha-zSdGH3x8GJCQSDARaYQCmb7preXdz-EzSzygc89ROtdougR7wgg6jiw7zGaIaidIkP0733UZbPi013FJU/w184-h200/hexagram27.png" width="184" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>Hexagram 27 of the I Ching (above) is named The Corners of the Mouth. Providing Nourishment. </div><div>Its accompanied by the verse -</div><div><br /></div><div>Perseverance brings good fortune.</div><div>Pay heed to the providing of nourishment.</div><div>And to what a man seeks</div><div>To fill his own mouth with.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jung concludes his essay on Synchronicity, defending his hypothesis thus-</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Synchronicity is no more baffling or mysterious than the discontinuities of physics. It is only the ingrained belief in the sovereign power of causality that creates intellectual difficulties and makes it appear unthinkable that causeless events exist or could even occur.... Meaningful coincidences are unthinkable as pure chance. But the more they multiply and the greater and more exact the correspondence is, the more their probability sinks and their unthinkability increases, until they can no longer be regarded as pure chance, but for a lack of a causal explanation, have to be though of meaningful arrangements... Their 'inexplicability' is not due to the fact that the cause is unknown, but to the fact that a cause is not even thinkable in intellectual terms [5] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHWN4jfVZNUB1_i-QERRgsGPV8qHKASnCgcwhTxV5iWtK6wmZOxqT0brSirPd6KBJO8HjJn32TPOb4Z_vZysHNlAzoNYQHr9QJERaGvzhGnWJnT3Q4aRKGbrRBr0yJ5dwUwwf9iH8Hqc/s512/c.g.+Jung+with+von+Franz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="309" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHWN4jfVZNUB1_i-QERRgsGPV8qHKASnCgcwhTxV5iWtK6wmZOxqT0brSirPd6KBJO8HjJn32TPOb4Z_vZysHNlAzoNYQHr9QJERaGvzhGnWJnT3Q4aRKGbrRBr0yJ5dwUwwf9iH8Hqc/s320/c.g.+Jung+with+von+Franz.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Marie-Louise von Franz (b. January 4th 1915 - d. 17th February 1998) was one of C.G.Jung's most gifted followers (above with Jung). She first met the Swiss psychoanalyst in 1933 when aged 18 and subsequently became his lifelong collaborator, translating important alchemical manuscripts for him until his death in 1961. Von Franz was one of Analytical Psychology's most original thinkers. In 2021 on January 4th, the date of Marie-Louise von Franz's birthday, the first volume of von Franz's collected works was published, with a projected plan for the subsequent 27 volumes to be published in the following 7 years until 2028. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Like the British broadcaster, writer, politician and chef Clement Freud (1924 - 2004) grandson of Jung's one-time mentor, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Von Franz was immune from Christianity's prejudice towards gambling, and once stated in her informal and intuitive lectures- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'If you are a gambler, and I hope you are, then you know that one is always torn between two possibilities - either to have a system, or to trust to what I would call the unconscious, and what another gambler would call his god of luck, Lady Luck or whatever'. [6]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Thomas Browne in his early years, also enjoyed the thrill of game play. In his spiritual testament <i>Religio Medici </i>he declares-</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Tis not a ridiculous devotion, to say a Prayer before a game at Tables; for even in sortilegies and matters of greatest uncertainty, there is a settled and pre-ordered course of effects; 'tis we that are blind, not fortune: because our eye is too dim to discover the mystery of her effects, we foolishly paint her blind'.[7]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">According to von Franz-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Gambling is one of the greatest of human passions. The fascination with it, in my view, comes from the fact that what one ultimately comes in contact with here is one's own unconscious, the secret of synchronicity, and thus with the creative activity of God or divine destiny'.. [8] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In his European best-seller Religio Medici (1643) Thomas Browne, like many devout Christians of his age then and now, attributed fortune and chance to the 'hand of God.' </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Fortune, that serpentine and crooked line, whereby he draws those actions his wisdom intends in a more unknown and secret way; This cryptick and involved method of his providence have I ever admired, nor can I relate the history of my life, the occurrences of my days, the escapes of dangers, and hits of chance with a Bezo las Manos, to Fortune, or a bare Gramercy to my good stars:....... Surely there are in every man's life certain rubs, doublings and wrenches which pass a while under the effects of chance, but at the last, well examined, prove the mere hand of God: [9] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It is however, the human mind or psyche, not God which concerns the modern-day psychologist when examining the phenomena of coincidence. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In a series of lectures collected under the title of 'Synchronicity and Divination' von Franz states- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'By introducing the concept of synchronicity, Jung opened the door to a new way of understanding the relationship between psyche and matter.... a completely unresearched area of reality.</div><div><br /></div><div>One cannot speak of alchemical symbolism without referring to Jung’s important - if not most important - discovery of the synchronicity principle, that is, his discovery that symbols produced spontaneously by the unconscious through the actions of the archetypes tend to coincide in a meaningful way with material occurrences in the external world, constituting an exception to the causal determination of all natural processes still widely espoused by natural science. This points empirically to an unobservable cosmic background, which imparts order to psyche and matter at once.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Marie-Louise von Franz was also one of the first to elaborate in depth upon fairytales, recognizing the wealth of archetypal material they contain as well as their mapping of the trials, dangers and rewards of the individuation process, that is, the hazardous journey in becoming a whole and integrated individual. A typical, astute remark and observation of her's being -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'In European fairytales, the wizard generally represents the dark aspect of the image of God which has not been recognised in the collective unconscious.' [10]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One motif in fairy-tales is the valued item which is returned through unexpected, coincidental ways. In Hans Christian Anderson's <i>The Tin Soldier, </i>a one-legged toy soldier is discarded, and after many adventures is swallowed by a fish. By a remarkable coincidence after the fish is caught and sold at market and prepared by a cook, the toy soldier falls out of the fish, returning to the home of the child who owned him. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span>The mystery of coincidence remained of interest to Sir Thomas Browne in his old age. In his </span><i>Museum Clausum </i><span>(circa 1673) a bizarre list of lost, imagined and rumoured to exist, books, pictures and objects, there can be found the item of -</span></div></div><div> <div style="text-align: justify;">A Ring found in a Fishes Belly taken about Gorro; conceived to be the same wherewith the Duke of Venice had wedded the Sea. [11]</div><div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Browne's discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) is surely his greatest contribution to the literature of coincidence. In what is one of the most idiosyncratic of all writings in English literature, Browne utilizes the coincidence of the number five along with its various derivatives, notably the Quincunx pattern, in order to demonstrate order and the myriad of interconnections in the universe. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Number has defined as the most primitive instrument of bringing an unconscious awareness of order into consciousness, and in <i>The Garden of </i>Cyrus Browne's fascination with Pythagorean numerology is given full vent, supplying his reader with evidence of the coincidence of the number five in subjects as diverse as Biblical scholarship, Egyptology, Comparative religion, the Bembine Tablet of Isis, mythology, ancient world plantations and gardening, geometry, sculpture, numismatics, architecture, paving-stones, battle-formations, optics, the <i>camera obscura,</i> zoology, ornithology, the kabbalah, astrology, astronomy and not least in numerous botanical observations which anticipate modern-day studies in genetics, germination, generation and heredity, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the opening of the third chapter of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> Browne adjusrs his focus from 'sundry works of art' to 'natural examples'. He seems surprised that the 'elegant ordination' of the Quincunx pattern which is 'elegantly observable' seems to have been 'overlooked by all'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Now although this elegant ordination of vegetables, hath found coincidence or imitation in sundry works of Art, yet is it not also destitute of natural examples, and though overlooked by all, was elegantly observable, in several works of nature'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unsurprising in this cheerful, light-hearted and playful half of Browne's diptych discourses, pastimes and games are alluded to including chess and backgammon, archery, skittles and knuckle-stones as well as singing and music-making. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since earliest time the uncertainty of life has inspired humanity to devise a number of ways to predict the future. In bibliomancy a random verse from the Bible is selected as advice, in hydromancy, the ripples and reflections of water are interpreted, and in belomancy, the flight and resting place of arrows is consulted. But perhaps the strangest of all divination methods must surely be gastromancy in which the rumblings and gurglings of the digestive tract and stomach are interpreted as if the speaking voices of spirits. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Browne alludes to the little known of esoteric art of Geomancy in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>, a divination technique and schemata which like the Chinese Book of Changes or <i>I Ching </i>involves a schemata based upon chance, but far less developed and rudimentary, with only 16 configurations to the <i>I Ching's </i>total of 64 configurations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Geomancy (from Greek of <i>Geo </i>earth and <i>mancy</i> divination) is a method of divination which interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most common form of geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process followed by analyzing them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Von Franz, 'Geomancy is a "terrestified" astrology. Instead of taking the constellations of the stars and using them for divination, one makes the constellation of the stars oneself on the earth (<i>Ge </i>means earth) and then proceeds as in astrology. [12]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Geomancy was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In England it was practiced by Robert Fludd (1574-1637) and John Heydon (1629 – 1667). It would appear that Browne also took an interest in Geomancy. He owned one of the very few books written exclusively on the subject, a copy of the little-known of Henry of Pisa's <i>Geomancy </i>is listed as once in his library. [13] </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its in a series of queries challenging his reader, slowly building to the apotheosis of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i> that Browne alludes to geomantic formations thus- </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Why Geomancers do imitate the Quintuple Figure, in their Mother Characters of Acquisition and Amission, &c somewhat answering the Figures in the Lady or speckled Beetle ?' </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJd8jjj5pazVElHXCy66OyZGbSjMrsACmHXnSoKNWUhp95PhScw1LJOUZ2FqrB8lTqdInNm13Nosz3PdqPbb9cASdi4omTw7cdNpInPl4qqJhiPduWt-hqK3nARA7eauZcCM3ntvWvHI/s322/5324c980e0483751a8a50e41afad2001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJd8jjj5pazVElHXCy66OyZGbSjMrsACmHXnSoKNWUhp95PhScw1LJOUZ2FqrB8lTqdInNm13Nosz3PdqPbb9cASdi4omTw7cdNpInPl4qqJhiPduWt-hqK3nARA7eauZcCM3ntvWvHI/s320/5324c980e0483751a8a50e41afad2001.jpg" /></a></div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The five points of the quincunx can be seen in the geomantic configurations of <i>aquisitio </i>and <i>amissio </i>(above)<i> </i>as well as <i>albedo </i>and <i>rubedo</i>, two stages of the alchemical opus<i>.</i> The two terms <i>aquisitio </i>and <i>amissio </i>mean gain and loss respectively. They are both equal values as a minus and plus and are associated with both the quincunx pattern and the number ten ( 5+5 = 10 -5 = 5). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus</i> can be interpreted as representing the 'whitening' or <i>albedo </i>of the alchemical opus; its apotheosis the short-lived red hot <i>Rubedo </i>of the alchemical opus. The other half of the diptych <i>Urn-Burial </i>equates to the black despair and melancholy of the initial <i>Nigredo </i>stage of the alchemical opus in its subject-matter and imagery. [14 ] </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Digressing slightly, another alchemical polarity which corresponds well to Browne's diptych discourses is the <i>Massa confusa </i>and the <i>Unus Mundus </i>of alchemy<i>. </i>With its procession of Time and successive civilizations, allusion to grieving, bereavement, the passions and the vain-glory of humanity, <i>Urn-Burial </i>can be said to portray the <i>Massa confusa</i>, loosely translated as Ball of Confusion, the initial, Nigredo-like stage of the alchemical opus. Likewise <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>with its persistent demonstration of the archetypal patterns of Geometric design, the Platonic Forms, Number and Order, are all indicative of the interconnectiveness of the Universe, and point towards the <i>Unus Mundus</i> or One World of alchemy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its in his vastly underrated essay <i>A Letter to a Friend </i>(circa 1656 pub. post. 1690) which is packed full of case-histories and medical gossip concerning health, disease and illness, that Browne makes an astounding analogy, likening coincidence to the tail-eating snake known as the Uroboros. Citing 'the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of Pierus', (pictured below) Browne states-</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div><div>'that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence, which tho Astrology hath taken witty pains to salve, yet hath it been very wary in making Predictions of it'.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWkaNdYFw7Kr3PammHQS7MltDoPJmGQdfJLvVEf_xOvtJh8ZQR89oakdkxzA5PPgkyOWT9eFhjmT0DTJGE-nfgKS62qOR0WgkPa8wCiinlPN2w6J8lc2Cv9SXcFWHD8YpEdqyTKk-QpM/s480/Chrysopoea_of_Cleopatra_1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="436" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWkaNdYFw7Kr3PammHQS7MltDoPJmGQdfJLvVEf_xOvtJh8ZQR89oakdkxzA5PPgkyOWT9eFhjmT0DTJGE-nfgKS62qOR0WgkPa8wCiinlPN2w6J8lc2Cv9SXcFWHD8YpEdqyTKk-QpM/w182-h200/Chrysopoea_of_Cleopatra_1.png" width="182" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div>The symbol of the uroboros is in many ways the basic mandala of alchemy. Originating in ancient Egypt, Greek depictions of it stress its duality or polarity through contrasting colours. The words <i>Hen to pan '</i>Everything is One', are inscribed in its centre.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a symbol of Eternal Return or Recurrence, Thomas Browne surely knew of the complex symbolism of the uroboros involving Time and Space. His associating it with the phenomena of coincidence is quite remarkable. It was the Brownean scholar Frank Huntley who first noted that Browne's diptych Discourses of 1658 are uroboros-like in their circular construction</div><div><br /></div><div>C.G. Jung noted - In the age-old image of the uroboros lies the though of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the <i>prima materia </i>of the art was man himself. The uroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite i.e. of the shadow. This feedback process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the uroboros that he slays himself and brings to life, fertilizes himself an gives birth to himself. [16]</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Conclusion</b></div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Although the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer considered coincidence to only be meaningful to those to whom it happens, here's a few personal ones, several of which seem to be connected with books, unsurprisingly. On arriving at the North Sea, commencing reading an Aldous Huxley novel, within a minute the words 'North Sea' on its page. Showing a book on flower symbolism to a lover with the same name as the author, recovering from the shock of a gas-boiler 'boom' to sit down and begin a new chapter of Charles Dicken's 'David Copperfield' entitled 'I take part in an explosion'. Listening to music on earphones in a park, the word 'Michael' is sung, a split-second later someone calls out the name 'Michael. But perhaps most intriguing of all, daily living a coincidence for 25 years. My home address is identical not only to the date of birth but also to zodiac sign, albeit by substitution of Latin astrological nomenclature to Saxon. (Aquarius/Waterman). </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At its very lowest level detection of a coincidence affirms that an an individual is being attentive and aware, able to observe the world around them, possessing a good memory, and able to make connections about the world around them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From personal experience I can confirm that coincidences often occur when an emotionally charged situation arises. An aura of the numinous is often attached to them. It is also sometimes when the archetypes are activated that coincidences can occur. Near endless in number the dominant archetypes in Jungian psychology include the lover, the old wise man, the great mother, the helpful animal, the trickster and death. Coincidences can occur when the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious meet or collide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At present synchronous events can be seen as reminders that we are far from understanding everything about humanity's place in Time and Space, or of the human psyche. As C.G Jung states- 'Consciousness is too narrow and too one-sided to comprehend the full inventory of the psyche'. [16] Coincidence, in particular meaningful coincidence, serves to remind us that we neither fully understand ourselves, nor our relationship to Nature, on either a collective or an individual basis. As if nodal points on an invisible Network of Time and Space, (incidentally, Thomas Browne is credited as the first to use the word 'Network' in its meaning of an artificial construction) or black holes in deep Space which puzzle science, synchronicity and meaningful coincidence are windows which can open to eternity. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <u>Books</u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u><br /></u></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><div>* Thomas Browne: Selected Writings ed. Kevin Killeen pub. OUP 2014</div><div>* Synchronicity An Acausal Connecting Principle C.G.Jung pub. RKP 1972</div><div>* The I Ching or book of Changes Cary F. Baynes pub. RKP. 1951</div><div>* Alchemical active imagination -Marie Louise von Franz pub. Shambala 1997</div><div>* Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche -Marie-Louise von Franz pub. Shambala Press 1999 </div><div>* On Divination and Synchronicity - Marie-Louise von Franz pub. 1980 Inner City </div><div>* The Feminine in Fairytales - Marie-Louise Von Franz pub. Spring Publications 1988</div></div><div><br /></div><div><u>Notes</u></div><div> </div><div>[1] C.G. Jung Foreword to Baynes edition of <i>I Ching</i></div><div>[2] CW 10 968/973</div><div>[3] <i> </i>C. G. Jung Foreword to Baynes edition </div><div>[4] CW 14:401</div><div>[5] On Synchronicity</div><div>[6] On Divination and Synchronicity - Marie-Louise von Franz </div><div>[7] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1 : 18</div><div>[8] p.67 Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche -Marie-Louis von Franz</div><div>[9] Religio Medici Part 1 Section 17</div><div>[10] Miscellaneous Tract 12 Item 20 of 'Antiquities and Rarities of Several Sorts'</div><div>[11] The Psychological Meaning of Redemption motifs in Fairytales - Von Franz</div><div>[12] On divination and Synchronicity- Von Franz</div><div>[13] 1711 Sales Catalogue p.30 no. 11 H. de Pisis Geomantia Lugd. 1638 </div><div>[14 ] See post - '<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2020/10/lost-in-uncomfortable-night-of-nothing.html">Lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing</a>'</div><div>[15] CW 14: </div><div>[16] CW 14:759</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This one for the Jungian blogger, Ms. Monika Gemini with thanks for her insights and virtual company over the years. </div><div><br /></div><div>Postscript - Norwich's local newspaper, the EDP published an article featuring historical photographs of the statue of Sir Thomas Browne on January 27th. <a href="https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/famous-norwich-scholar-who-watches-from-hay-hill-6912688?fbclid=IwAR21LLLSmea9u7pYySeXuFapjeDsPrGyfPTOrppu_S4SMRGEI4WcGBRbnkA">Link to photos of statue of Sir Thomas Browne</a> </div></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-63336264507967414862020-11-07T14:03:00.036+00:002023-12-01T11:07:13.058+00:00William Taylor of Norwich - 'Kräftig, aber klappernd'.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZJAG1kicSjBHSkVWU1MT7LN18AH0bpeBTJFSJ2t0KJ6ThSd49Qc6ebIihhSD6hbo2upsp-dOuwMlNgz0IDlBMpLvgrDGCcR7R7wWzPWFZwMtqhvyc1-n9hxw89DeFTSNl8VLGrw1UWk/s350/William_Taylor.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="298" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZJAG1kicSjBHSkVWU1MT7LN18AH0bpeBTJFSJ2t0KJ6ThSd49Qc6ebIihhSD6hbo2upsp-dOuwMlNgz0IDlBMpLvgrDGCcR7R7wWzPWFZwMtqhvyc1-n9hxw89DeFTSNl8VLGrw1UWk/w306-h360/William_Taylor.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYA9LP7qiN3men25tStFltv8ttWqSiBiQl6nJiLmmYABqK5iBTuQt8tmD-oCOAVGG3AJtI-vPDHZg-_ztN7B574Df4fvTaRUfDD-kp7cGNztfkXn2ro9L7W7HO0gxWQ2qKMyXxIuBY3k4/s439/William_Taylor.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Born in Norwich, William Taylor (7 November 1765 - 5 March 1836) was an essayist, scholar and translator of German Romantic literature. Along with Coleridge and Thomas De Quincey he was also a leading mediator in Anglo-German literary relations. Indeed, it was because of Taylor's early advocacy of German literature that the influential <i>Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung </i>(Universal Literary Newspaper) could declare in 1796 -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'Incidentally, German literature has the greatest number of followers in Norwich, for understandable commercial reasons.' [1] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In his lifetime Taylor was widely read. Importantly, his translations of German poetry bridged German Romanticism to English Romanticism. Taylor's translations influenced the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth to produce <i>Lyrical Ballads </i>(1798), a vanguard literary work of Romanticism which, with its inclusion of Coleridge's long poem <i>The rime of the Ancient Mariner</i>, changed the course of English poetry. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">More recently, Taylor's name and contribution to English appreciation of German literature is featured in Peter Watson's <i>tour-de-force</i> survey of German science and culture, <i>The German Genius </i>(2010) [2]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">William Taylor's diverse interests included - philology, etymology, chronology, topography, history sacred and profane, ancient and modern, political economy, statistics, international law, municipal law, Talmudic legend, Muslim ethics, Biblical texts, churches and sects, parliamentary reform, slave trade and almost every category of modern European literature. Among the thousands of reviews and essays which he wrote are those with titles such as, 'The Jews in England', 'Songs of the Negroes of Madagascar', 'Historic doubts concerning Joan of Arc', 'On the Sublime and Beautiful', an 'Ode in Praise of Tea' and, 'Of the Use of Ice as a Luxury'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As the only child of a wealthy merchant who traded and exported Norwich goods to continental Europe, Taylor was fortunate in his education. He was taught by the English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature, Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743 - 1825) at her Palgrave Academy in Suffolk. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Barbauld informed her former pupil of her reading aloud a poem translated by him at an Edinburgh literary <i>soiree </i>and of the reception it received<i> -</i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'Are you aware that you made Walter Scott a poet ? So he told me the other day I had the gratification of meeting him. It was, he says, your ballad of <i>Leonora</i>, and particularly the lines-</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Tramp, tramp across the land they speed: Splash, splash, across the sea'. [3]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Later, Taylor lauded Barbauld as, 'the mother of his mind'. Barbauld's own career as a poet ended abruptly in 1812, with the publication of her <i>Eighteen Hundred and Eleven</i>, in which she severely criticized Britain's participation in the Napoleonic Wars. Shocked by the vicious reviews it received, she published nothing more. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6qIn4-n_ClT18eA8NAdfvtlEG0HGuxRBQAfQqn_VTc6Dz5gl18FDEtg6mmj-YxPT4-Vhwf7_Y2Enl5d9MZNJiIijhdWZMKHBpC0hVIt71mFFKvg-338dYXJzI2Mtb5aw3BofmVmKjEEw/s2400/Portraits_in_the_Characters_of_the_Muses_in_the_Temple_of_Apollo_by_Richard_Samuel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2017" data-original-width="2400" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6qIn4-n_ClT18eA8NAdfvtlEG0HGuxRBQAfQqn_VTc6Dz5gl18FDEtg6mmj-YxPT4-Vhwf7_Y2Enl5d9MZNJiIijhdWZMKHBpC0hVIt71mFFKvg-338dYXJzI2Mtb5aw3BofmVmKjEEw/w374-h314/Portraits_in_the_Characters_of_the_Muses_in_the_Temple_of_Apollo_by_Richard_Samuel.jpg" width="374" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Anna Barbauld can been in a group of three Muses, standing beside an easel with arm raised, in Richard Samuels' painting <i>Nine Living Muses of Great Britain </i>(1779). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Devoted to his mother, Taylor never married, but did have a friendship unto the death, begun during his schooldays when meeting the serious-minded theologian and antiquarian Frank Sayers (1763-1817) at Barbauld's Palgrave Academy. A portrait of Sayers painted by John Opie dated 1800, hung for many years in William Taylor's library, and in all probability both men were homosexual. [2] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For many years Taylor's daily routine consisted of rising early and studying until noon, swimming in the River Wensum from a bath house upstream from the city, followed by a long walk in the afternoon. In the evening he liked to drink (heavily) and discuss linguistics, literature and philosophy in society. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In May 1790 Taylor visited France; arriving at Paris he declared himself to have ‘kissed the earth on the land of liberty.’ He spent nine days at the National Assembly, listening to its speakers debate upon the governance of the new, revolutionary France. The fever of the times are characteristically described by him thus-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'I am at length in that point of space where the mighty sea of truth is in constant agitation and every billow dashes into fragments some deep-rooted rock of prejudice or buries in a viewless gulph some institution of gothic barbarism and superstition. I am at length in the neighbourhood of the National Assembly, that well-head of philosophical legislation whose pure streams are now overflowing the fairest country on earth, and will soon be sluiced off into the other realms of Europe, fertilising all with the living energy of its waters.' [4]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Upon his return to Norwich Taylor translated some of the decrees of the National Assembly and read them at a meeting of the Revolutionary Society (which was named after the 1688 British revolution, not the recent French revolution). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In 1802, during the Peace of Amiens, Taylor embarked on another tour of Europe, visiting France, Italy and Germany, partly on business for his father. In Paris he met the Norfolk-born political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary, Thomas Paine, author of <i>The Rights of Man </i>(1791)<i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In 1792, while visiting the Norfolk market-town of Alysham, the English satirical novelist and playwright Frances Burney, (1752-1840) noted of Norwich's political life -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'I am truly amazed to find this country filled with little revolution societies which transmit their notions to the larger committee at Norwich which communicates the whole to the reformists in London. I am told there is scarce a village in Norfolk free from these meetings'. [5] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It was the British Prime Minister Pitt the Younger who called Norwich the Jacobin city after the clandestine French political movement which agitated for improved worker's rights and conditions. The historian E.P. Thompson in his groundbreaking work <i>The Making of the English Working Classes </i>sets the scene for the radical politics of late 18th century Norwich. <i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Norwich, an ancient stronghold of Dissent, with an abundance of small masters and artisans with strong traditions of independence, many have even surpassed Sheffield as the leading provincial centre of Jacobinism......... In August 1792, when the Norwich Revolution Society sponsored a cheap edition of<i> Rights Of Man, </i>it claimed to have forty-eight associated clubs. By October it claimed that the 'associated brethren' were not fewer than 2,000.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But Norwich, was, in other respects, by far the most impressive provincial city. Nineteen divisions of the Patriotic Society were active in September, and, in addition to the weavers, cordswainers, artisans, and shopkeepers who made up the society, it still carried the cautious support of the patrician merchant families, the Gurneys and the Taylors. Moreover, Norwich owned a gifted group of professional people, who published throughout 1795 a periodical - <i>The Cabinet </i>- which was perhaps the most impressive of the quasi-Jacobin intellectual publications of the period. Its articles ranged from close analysis of European affairs and the conduct of the a war, through poetic effusions, to disquisitions upon Machiavelli, Rousseau, the Rights of Women and Godwinian Socialism. Despite the many different degrees of emphasis, Norwich displayed a most remarkable consensus of anti-Ministerial feeling, from the Baptist chapels to the aspiring <i>philosophes </i>of <i>The Cabinet </i>from the 'Weavers Arms' (the headquarters of the patriotic Society) to the House of Gurney, from the Foxite Coke of Holkham to the labourers in the villages near the city. The organisation extended from Norwich to Yarmouth, Lynn, Wisbech and Lowestoft. [6]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbZWAehFW4hqTTnle1OUHIeAQFmJwdiv-1g1QlPOVhMp_SpS_GNdq2HyWshChaqfNcgk916J9wufDccjHgMWXq3TONbgwYbcKF5bF1AshjwlQ9CnKBogb4ih1ccvNFcGAon0l4Az8HeA/s1500/octagon1%25402x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbZWAehFW4hqTTnle1OUHIeAQFmJwdiv-1g1QlPOVhMp_SpS_GNdq2HyWshChaqfNcgk916J9wufDccjHgMWXq3TONbgwYbcKF5bF1AshjwlQ9CnKBogb4ih1ccvNFcGAon0l4Az8HeA/s320/octagon1%25402x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Throughout his life William Taylor was a Unitarian, attending the newly-built Octagon chapel which was completed in 1756 in the Neo-Palladian style by architect Thomas Ivory (above). Classified as 'liberal' in the family of churches, Unitarians place emphasis on reason when interpreting scripture. Freedom of conscience and the pulpit are core values of its tradition. Unitarianism is also known for rejecting several orthodox Christian doctrines, including original sin, predestination, and the infallibility of the Bible. The Unitarian's tolerant creed catered well for the liberal beliefs of several leading Norwich citizens including William Taylor from the year of the Octagon Chapel's completion in 1756 to the present day. [7]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In Taylor's day, the late 18th and early 19th century, the Octagon congregation included most of Norwich's principal Whig families - the William Taylors and John Taylors (unrelated one to the other, the Marsh family (the carriers), several leading medical families, the Aldersons, Dalrymples and Martineaus, beside Alderman Elias Norgate, the Alderman John Green Basely, the Bolingbrokes, some of the Barnards and J.E. Smith the botanist. [8]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor's great literary <i>protégé</i> without doubt was George Borrow (1803-1881) who lived at Willow Lane while attending Norwich Grammar School during his teenage years. In many ways Norwich's connection to the Romantic movement is embodied in George Borrow who was of a dashing, Byronic-like appearance, of athletic build, over 6 feet tall with a shock of white, not blonde, hair. A pugilist with a fiery temper, holding strong opinions including being a fervent anti-Papist, he was keen to study the culture and language of the Romany people who he first encountered on Mousehold Heath. As a young man Borrow roamed the length and breadth of Britain as a tinker, while also studying the Romany language and its culture. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Its in Borrow's <i>Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest</i> (1851) a literary work which hovers somewhere between the genres of memoir and novel, and which has long been considered a classic of 19th-century English literature, that a conversation between an old man and a young man is recollected. Taylor speaks first,- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div>‘Suicide is not a national habit in Germany as it is in England.’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">‘But that poor creature, Werther, who committed suicide, was a German.’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>'Werther is a fictitious character, and by no means a felicitous one; I am no admirer either of Werther or his author. But I should say that, if there ever was a Werther in Germany, he did not smoke. Werther, as you very justly observe, was a poor creature. He is a fool who breaks his heart on any account; but it is good to be a German, the Germans are the most philosophic people in the world, and the greatest smokers: now I trace their philosophy to their smoking......[9] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the sequel to <i>Lavengro, </i>the equally unclassifiable <i>The Romany Rye, </i>(1857)<i> </i>Borrow refers to his mentor as - <i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'a real character, the founder of the Anglo-German school in England, and the cleverest Englishman who ever talked or wrote encomiastic nonsense about Germany and the Germans'. [10] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">With Taylor's encouragement, George Borrow embarked on his first translation, Klinger's version of the Faust legend, entitled <i>Faustus, his Life, Death and Descent into Hell </i>which was first published in St Petersburg in 1791. Borrow, in his translation however, changed the name of one city, making one passage read:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'They found the people of the place modeled after so unsightly a pattern, with such ugly figures and flat features that the devil owned he had never seen them equaled, except by the inhabitants of an English town, called Norwich, when dressed in their Sunday's best'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For his ridiculing of Norwich society, the Norwich public subscription library burned Borrow's first publication. The ultimate harsh review.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VdKDjJriJc5U4vE_shlX0BRHqyV1Q0UJGh4_9l02vtDtBTdN33bYLp1URWLxGd4Y7SA4PxrZwleISQGLTwap4uCX-q-QU5dXcMErWq8BHGEBEM6ql2MA3DA8euImlbcUPQZx5Q1LclE/s1168/George+Borrow+on+Mousehold.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VdKDjJriJc5U4vE_shlX0BRHqyV1Q0UJGh4_9l02vtDtBTdN33bYLp1URWLxGd4Y7SA4PxrZwleISQGLTwap4uCX-q-QU5dXcMErWq8BHGEBEM6ql2MA3DA8euImlbcUPQZx5Q1LclE/s320/George+Borrow+on+Mousehold.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Above - The artist Alfred Munnings' depiction of George Borrow with his gypsy companion Jasper Petulengro at the summit of St. James Hill with its panoramic view of Norwich. Petulengro says - 'There's a wind on the heath brother, who would wish to die?'</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor made his name translating Gotthold Lessing's <i>Nathan the Wise, </i>the themes and subject-matter of Lessing's drama greatly appealing to his radical and progressive convictions.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Nathan the Wise</i> by Gotthold Lessing (1729-81) is set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. It describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and a Templar knight resolve the misunderstandings between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication. Primarily an appeal for religious tolerance, its performance was banned by the church, and was not performed until 1783, after Lessing's death. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Far more problematic is the relationship between the German giant of literature, Johann Goethe (1749-1832) to Taylor. Henry Crabb Robinson, who was a classmate of Taylor's at Barbauld's Academy, informed Goethe in 1829, 'Taylor’s <i>Iphigenia in Tauris</i>, as it was the first, so it remains the best, version of any of your larger poems'. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor sent his translation to Goethe in Weimar; but he never heard whether the poet received it, and for this perceived snub he became hostile in his judgement of Goethe in his last years. A statement in Goethe's <i>Tages und Jahreshefte</i> suggests the fault and negligence lay with Goethe himself, for he stated- 'A translation of the <i>Iphigenia</i> appeared in England; Unger reprinted it, but I retained neither the original nor the copy'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But in fact, not only is the original edition and Unger’s reprint recorded as once in Goethe's library, but also Taylor’s <i>Historic Survey of German Poetry</i>, which includes the complete <i>Iphigenia</i> in its third volume. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Goethe also wrote about Taylor erroneously, and of his monumental work he rather dismissively stated, on 20 August 1831 to Carl Friedrich Zelter -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“I received '<i>A Survey of German Poetry’</i> from England, written by W. Taylor, who studied 40 years ago in Göttingen, and who lets loose the teachings, opinions, and phrases that already vexed me 60 years ago.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But in fact Taylor never studied at Gottingen. Worse harsh criticism was to come for Taylor in 1831 when Thomas Carlyle published a review of his<i>Historic Survey of German Literature. </i>Carlyle's scathing review seriously damaged Taylor’s literary reputation to the present-day and his hostility and intolerance towards Taylor is also evident in <i>Sartor Resartus </i>(1836)<i> </i>with its pun-like Latin title of<i> 'The tailor retailored'</i>. There may even be intentional word-play upon the proper name of Taylor and the lowly occupation of tailor in its title. Carlyle's novel also includes sharp and critical remarks upon Taylor's creed, that of Utilitarianism, as well as repeated mocking of the excesses of German philosophy and idealism. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">During Norwich's 'Golden Age' in literary and artistic life (circa 1760-1832), William Taylor became acquainted with several of the Norwich School Painters and gave lectures to the Norwich Philosophical Society on art. In a lecture of 1814 he advocated architecture and Urban settings to be higher artistic subjects than those of rural life. His comment may well have been directed towards leading artist of the Norwich movement, John Crome (1768-1821) who produced a number of urban Norwich riverscapes, some of which are set almost on his doorstep, including <i>Back of New Mills </i>(below) dated circa 1814 -17. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEIHNyQJB_uEEbQXiIKYx5BrGVp_LMuM6OOw7k05PwiaxcPyTRx9eE-epswuZWWZkm6s9paGv3flrBpfkbimlmMU2gVB51YCuyVYWxzhEFlRZLiQOdfDMLEvTPMBirfx7O5PWC9uwaNY/s800/Back+of+New+Mills.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="800" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEIHNyQJB_uEEbQXiIKYx5BrGVp_LMuM6OOw7k05PwiaxcPyTRx9eE-epswuZWWZkm6s9paGv3flrBpfkbimlmMU2gVB51YCuyVYWxzhEFlRZLiQOdfDMLEvTPMBirfx7O5PWC9uwaNY/w338-h261/Back+of+New+Mills.jpg" width="338" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">There's the distinct possibility that Taylor's influence upon the aesthetics of theNorwich School of Painters may be far greater than hitherto has been acknowledged. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One genre of literature which Taylor shared an interest with Anna Barbauld and the poet Southey, was children's literature, in particular, the fairy-tale. Southey is credited as being the author of the original version of <i>Goldilocks and the Three Bears, </i>in 1837, a year after Taylor's death,<i> </i>while Taylor himself wrote a version of <i>Bluebeard </i>and <i>Cinderella.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCL8qaeFzCKkt6bbCwXuhF6hwVUH7C0yigu8jVfUw2W-FluiIowBpWNhsdO4NdIZKfwiqM9M-tAeXhuQc5p__TUX1vlgXGHZlEzrfeoyplktjVTPxHI0s4a3s6gOhrw8P0oXPKKD7PE3s/s800/Robert_Southey_by_Vandyke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="641" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCL8qaeFzCKkt6bbCwXuhF6hwVUH7C0yigu8jVfUw2W-FluiIowBpWNhsdO4NdIZKfwiqM9M-tAeXhuQc5p__TUX1vlgXGHZlEzrfeoyplktjVTPxHI0s4a3s6gOhrw8P0oXPKKD7PE3s/s320/Robert_Southey_by_Vandyke.jpg" /></a></div><br />William Taylor's friendship with Robert Southey (above, circa 1795) began in 1798 when Southey visited Norwich as Taylor's guest; the poet revisited him at Norwich in February 1802. In correspondence to Taylor, Southey asks him-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Can you not visit Creswick next summer ? Coleridge will talk German with you; he is desirous of knowing you; and he is a sufficient wonder of nature to repay the journey'. <i> </i>[11]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'I wish you could mountaineer it with us for a few weeks, and I would press the point if Coleridge also were here: but even without him we could make your time pass pleasantly; and here is Wordsworth to be seen, one of the wildest of all wild beasts, who is very desirous of seeing you'. [12]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Its testimony to their long friendship that the poet Southey (1774 -1843) who was Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death thirty years later, (Walter Scott having declined the post) could criticize Taylor's literary style yet their friendship remain intact, after writing to him, firstly-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">' you too often (like your admirable old townsman Sir Thomas Browne) go to your Greek and Latin for words when plain English might serve as well'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Perhaps influenced by his German reading, Taylor was fond of introducing newly coined words, most of which were as incomprehensible to the average reader as his ideas. The editors of the periodicals to which he contributed objected about his neologisms, his friends pleaded with him to abandon the habit. Sir James Mackintosh however, remarked of Taylor's idiosyncratic style, 'He does not speak any language but the Taylorian; but I am so fond of his vigour and originality that... I have studied and learned his language'. [13] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Southey persisted in his pleas-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'How are plain Norfolk farmers - and such will read the <i>Iris</i> - to understand words which they never heard before, and which are so foreign as not to be even in Johnson's farrago of a dictionary ? I have read Cowper's Odyssey and to cure my poetry of its wheyishness; let me prescribe the <i>Vulgar Errors</i> of Sir Thomas Browne to you for a likely remedy.' [14] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Ignoring Southey's advice, the poet now severely admonished the Norwich scholar- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Now I will say what for a long while what I have thought. That you have ruined your style by Germanisms, Latinisms and Greekisms, that you are sick of a surfeit of knowledge, that your learning breaks out like scabs and blotches upon a beautiful face.......Wordsworth, who admires and reverences the intellectual power and the knowledge which you everywhere and always display, and who wishes to see you here [in the Lake District] as much as I do, frets over your barbarisms of language, which I labour to excuse, because there is no cure for them.' [15]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor defended his literary style thus-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Were I reviewing my own reviewals, I should say, This man's style has an ambitious singularity which like chewing ginseng, which displeases at first and attaches at last'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'And yet my theory of good writing is, to condense everything into a nutshell: I grow and clip with rival rage, and produce a sort of yew-hedge, tangled with luxuriance and sheared with spruceness. The desire of being neat precludes ease, of being strong precludes grace, of being armed at points than being impervious at any'. [16]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Southey repeatedly invited Taylor to stay with him, along with Coleridge and Wordsworth at the Lake district, but Taylor repeatedly declined. It may in fact have been far livelier at the Creswick cottage in the Lake District than Taylor could imagine. Government spies were sent to watch the comings and goings of the poet's residence, for Wordsworth and Coleridge were both known to the authorities for their radical political views, while in 1799 Coleridge and Southey were involved with early experiments with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) supervised by the scientist Humphrey Davy. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor's aesthetic preference of the urban over the rural is trenchantly expressed in correspondence with Southey thus - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'How can you delight in mountain scenery ? The eye walks on broken flints; not a hill tolerant of the plough, not a stream that will float a canoe; in the roads every ascent is the toil of Sisyphus, every descent the punishment of Vulcan: barrenness with her lichens cowers on the mountain-top, yawning among mists that irrigate in vain; the cottage of a man, like the aerie of an eagle, is the home of a savage subsisting by rapacity in stink and intemperance: the village is but a coalition of pig-sties; where there might be pasture, glares a lake; the very cataract falls in vain,- there are not customers enough for a water-mill. Give me the spot where victories have been won over the inutilities of nature by the effort of human art, - where mind has moved the massy, everlasting rock, and arrayed into convenient dwellings and stately palaces, into theatres and cathedrals, and quays and docks and warehouses, wherein the primeval troglodyte has learned to convoke the productions of the antipodes'. [17]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">To which the poet Robert Southey parried -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'You undervalue lakes and mountains; they make me happier and wiser and better, and enable me to think and feel with a quicker and healthier intellect. Cities are as poisonous to genius and virtue in their best sense, as to the flower of the valley or the oak of the forest. Men of talent may and will be gregarious, men of genius will not; handicraft-men work together, but discoveries must be the work of individuals. Neither are men to be studied in cities, except indeed, as students walk into hospitals, you go to see all the modifications of the disease'. [18]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tpE5PmhQ4r6oirqf8q30Nst7kwZ2YTsdCozxw8FyHQjecWYQxeZx-vxtCtq-DXyMHf4NhyNIMKndl4NGr-ZOLejoLjf_MLNVh4t6WvM-jI_no6Ztoqm7QcNWvya8SdCc_Uk6AUFaUoI/s599/482px-William_Taylor_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_21538.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="482" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tpE5PmhQ4r6oirqf8q30Nst7kwZ2YTsdCozxw8FyHQjecWYQxeZx-vxtCtq-DXyMHf4NhyNIMKndl4NGr-ZOLejoLjf_MLNVh4t6WvM-jI_no6Ztoqm7QcNWvya8SdCc_Uk6AUFaUoI/s320/482px-William_Taylor_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_21538.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In his lifetime William Taylor (above) attracted considerable hostility for his radical religious and political views. Nicknamed 'godless Billy' by fellow Octagon Chapel member, Harriet Martineau (1802-76) who petulantly reminisced of him:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'his habits of intemperance kept him out of the sight of ladies, and he got round him a set of ignorant and conceited young men, who thought they could set the whole world right by their destructive propensities'. [19]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Taylor was not without a stochastic ability either. As early as 1804 he made the suggestion that ships could be powered with steam before the world’s first commercial steamboat, the North River Steamboat, began operating out of New York in 1807. In 1824 he introduced the idea of cutting through the isthmus of Panama when the first attempt to construct a canal through what was then a province of Colombia at Panama, did not begin until 1881. [20] </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Both Taylor's life and writings offer a few cautionary lessons to writers, especially those not living at the hub and centre of either conventional society or London, the literary capital of England. Just as Taylor's contemporaries, the various painters associated with the 'Norwich School' discovered, Norwich, with its rural hinterland of Norfolk and its North Sea coast-line was inspirational for creating art, but its patronage was thin. Art sales and advancement were facilitated far easier in London than Norwich. Likewise, the damage inflicted from a single malignant review can unjustly ruin a writer's reputation, sometimes long after their death. One possible reason for unjust and critical hostility against Taylor would be prejudice against his sexual orientation. At one time Taylor considered a vacancy at the British Museum, but it was taken before he applied. One suspects that he loved the familiar charms of Norwich far too much to ever leave the 'Do different' City. There's more than a hint of humorous self deprecation in his stating- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Contented mediocrity is always the ultimate destiny of us provincials'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But, as his words quoted here hopefully demonstrate, William Taylor was a highly expressive writer, a Vulcan-like wordsmith who wrote thousands of literary reviews and articles on an extraordinary range of topics in his lifetime.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the late nineteenth century the German literary critic George Herzfelde considered Taylor's translation of <i>Iphigenie auf Tauris</i> to be <i>'Kräftig, aber klappernd' </i>('Powerful but Clattering') [21]. Herzfelde's pithy observation seems apt of much of Taylor's idiosyncratic writings and translations.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A single sentence suffices to highlight Taylor's Classical learning, aesthetic sensibility and subtle wit -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">'Those who can die of a rose in aromatic pain have not grief in reserve for Medea's last embrace of her children'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u>Books</u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* William Taylor of Norwich: A Study of the Influence of Modern German Literature in England (1897) by Georg Herzfeld </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* C.B. Jewson -The Jacobin City 1975 Highly Recommended</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* The Making of the English Working Class - E.P. Thompson 1963 reprinted in 1980 Pelican</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">*John Warden Robberds A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich (1843).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">*Review from The Quarterly (1843-44).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u>Notes</u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><u><br /></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[1] In the original - <i>Uebrigens hat die deutsche Literatur aus sehr begreiflichen mercantilischen Gründen die zahlreichsten Anhänger in Norwich'</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[2] Peter Watson - The German Genius (2010) pub.Simon and Shuster page 314</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[3] Chandler, David "Taylor, William" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) speculates upon Taylor's sexuality. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[4] John Warden Robberds - A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich (1843).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">[5] The Making of the English Working Class - E.P. Thompson 1963 reprinted in 1980 Pelican</div><div><br /></div><div>[6] C.B. Jewson -The Jacobin City 1975</div><div><br /></div><div>[7] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>[8] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>[9] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>[10] Appendix III Romany Rye</div><div><br /></div><div>[11] Robberds</div><div><br /></div><div>[12] - [18] <i>Ibid.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>[19] The Life of George Borrow by Herbert Jenkins</div><div><br /></div><div>[20] Perhaps from his reading Sir Thomas Browne's speculation that - 'some Isthmus have been eat through by the Sea, and others cut by the spade: And if policy would permit, that of Panama in America were most worthy the attempt: it being but few miles over, and would open a shorter cut unto the East Indies and China'.</div><div><br /></div><div>[21] William Taylor of Norwich: A Study of the Influence of Modern German Literature in England by Georg Herzfeld (1897)</div><div><br /></div></div></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-78891286731361055912020-10-19T13:10:00.089+01:002023-06-21T07:49:55.574+01:00 Lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhin_jxN8LsoqtAylO_1Lwl6t3boXO8vY4HVSNLq0JDw4tQuHHCPh86O7IwYZ6O83tk5D0oWZhKdIq3wU4oYuIug5JD6XLO1v3jm_FHz39gy9BFoty7xnNi82S3jyRYuIm9rVIftK_K8UE/s720/saturn-night.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhin_jxN8LsoqtAylO_1Lwl6t3boXO8vY4HVSNLq0JDw4tQuHHCPh86O7IwYZ6O83tk5D0oWZhKdIq3wU4oYuIug5JD6XLO1v3jm_FHz39gy9BFoty7xnNi82S3jyRYuIm9rVIftK_K8UE/s320/saturn-night.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Although long recognized as a work of World literature, for many <i>Urn-Burial </i>(1658) is neither easy or comfortable to read. With its melancholic meditations on the uncertainty of life, the unknowingness of the human condition, the fragility of our mortality and the certainty of death, all couched in splendid flourishes of Baroque oratory, Thomas Browne's philosophical discourse will never be everyone's favourite bedtime reading. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In addition to its ornate literary style and to modern sensibilities near taboo subject-matter, another stumbling block hindering appreciation of <i>Urn-Burial</i> is that it frequently shifts focus, giving expression to quite different facets of its author. This results in surprising changes of perspective, alternating from the viewpoint of pioneering scholar of comparative religion to that of local historian, to scientist and archaeologist, to antiquarian and Christian moralist, often without any warning to the reader, other than beginning a new paragraph.</div></div><p style="text-align: justify;">In modern times <i>Urn-Burial </i> has been recognized as closely corresponding to the <i>Nigredo </i>of alchemy. The black despair and melancholy experienced by the adept beginning their quest is encapsulated in Browne's succinct phrase <i>lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing </i>an expression apt for the suffering of millions world-wide today, anxious about income and future, grieving, ill or depressed in the wake of the current pandemic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Browne began his medical career in Norwich in 1637, just a few years before English society was sufficiently polarized to engage in Civil war (1642-49) resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths. Never one for political controversy, Browne occupied himself with establishing his medical practice in Norwich and in 'snatches of time, medical vacations' with compiling and revising his encyclopedia <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>(1646),<i> </i> first published during the English Civil war.<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The very title of Browne's colossal endeavour depicts superstition and erroneous beliefs as if a disease.(Lt. <i>Pseudo </i>false, <i>Doxia </i>Truth, <i>Epidemica </i><span style="text-align: left;">widespread occurrence of an infectious disease</span>). The prescription for curing such epidemics of 'vulgar errors' for Browne is the combined medicine of -consultation of the Classical authors of antiquity, empirical experiment, inductive reasoning and collaborative debate with contemporaries. Often engaging in all of these methods in order to ascertain truth, Browne is credited as one of the first to introduce up-to-date scientific journalism to the English reading public as well as examples of scientific hypothesis in the pages of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's in a chapter of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>which discusses whether the mythic creature known as the Basilisk is capable of emitting deadly rays from its eyes that Browne engages in a medical speculation of great importance to our times-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'if Plagues or pestilential Atoms have been conveyed in the Air from distant Regions, if men at a distance have infected each other,........there may proceed from subtler seeds, more agile emanations, which contemn those Laws, and invade at distance unexpected'. [2] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As a doctor Thomas Browne (1605-82) naturally took an interest in disease. Along with his interest in ancient Greek medicine, primarily the writings of Hippocrates. He also took an interest in ancient Greek mythology. In his medical essay <i>A Letter to a Friend</i> (circa 1656) Browne alludes to the Greek myth of the origin of disease, Pandora and her Box. The Greek myth recounts how Pandora was given the gift of a sealed jar which held within it all the misfortunes for humanity. Her great curiosity overcame her fear of what the jar contained and breaking its seal she released disease, sorrow, conflict and war with only hope remaining inside the jar. The name Pandora means 'All Gifts' both good and bad gifts being bestowed upon Humanity. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its whilst alluding to the Greek myth of Pandora and theorizing upon the origin of disease in his <i>A Letter to a Friend</i> that Browne introduces the word 'Pathology' into the English language<i>.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">'New Discoveries of the Earth discover new Diseases: for besides the common swarm, there are endemial and local Infirmities proper unto certain Regions, which in the whole Earth make no small number: and if Asia, Africa, and America should bring in their List, <i>Pandora's</i> Box would swell, and there must be a strange Pathology'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whether Browne, during his travels in Continental Europe from 1629-32 attending the Universities of Padua in Italy, Montpelier in France and Leiden in Holland, upon hearing of an outbreak of the plague in Milan, steered well clear of visiting the Italian city, or, alternatively, viewed the column erected in Milan informing of the crime and punishment of those believed to have started the outbreak, is not known. However, the Milan plague was still in Browne's memory in his old age, its mentioned in his bizarre inventory of lost, rumoured and imaginary books, paintings and objects known as <i>Museum Clausum </i>(<i>c. </i>1675) in the sinister fantasy item of -</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>* Pyxis Pandoræ</i>, or a Box which held the <i>Unguentum Pestiferum</i>, which by anointing the Garments of several persons begat the great and horrible Plague of Milan. [3]</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsjH-qd0UOdGPjcVLOtIOl80hr9c1ABeCm6566un82FzTBo7-QEKn3zTszJoAho94eChTbgDzR8lZjkY3fi8sfJ0353nXeAfd13meB2o8XdRqQnsv-VabvWE2qTpjMW4LSQMG519rem0/s640/death+head.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsjH-qd0UOdGPjcVLOtIOl80hr9c1ABeCm6566un82FzTBo7-QEKn3zTszJoAho94eChTbgDzR8lZjkY3fi8sfJ0353nXeAfd13meB2o8XdRqQnsv-VabvWE2qTpjMW4LSQMG519rem0/s320/death+head.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">As a Royalist Browne must have been under intense psychological distress during the years of the Protectorate of Cromwell (1650-59) and his <i>Urn-Burial</i> </span>has been described as a threnody to the waste of human life during the English civil war. Prompted by the accidental unearthing of several burial urns in a Norfolk field just as its secondary title <i>A Discourse upon the supulchrall urnes lately found in Norfolk</i>, informs, <i>Urn-Burial</i> opens with dazzling literary showmanship naming the main themes of the discourse, notably Time and Memory, Death and the after-life. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In his scientific, spiritual and mystical analysis of death and the after-life, Browne first surveys the burial rites and customs of various nations throughout history. His early comparative religion skills references the Chinese, Persian, Roman, Greek and Egyptian civilizations, the Moslem, Hindi and Judaic religions, as well as making one of the very earliest references to the Zoroastrian religion in Western literature. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Like his near contemporary, Athanasius Kircher (1602-80), Browne recognized the syncretic nature of religious symbols, but just like Kircher, he was often misguided in his comparative religion studies.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The unknowingness of the human condition is illustrated<i> </i>in striking medical imagery thus- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'A Dialogue between two Infants in the womb concerning the state of this world, might handsomely illustrate our ignorance of the next, whereof methinks we yet discourse in Plato's den, and are but Embryon Philosophers'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Closely related to Browne's medical imagery, there is also what might be termed opiate imagery in <i>Urn-Burial.</i> Widely in use since the sixteenth century, the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) was among the earliest advocates of opium. Such was its widespread usage in the seventeenth century that the so-called 'Father of English medicine' Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-89) whose books are well-represented in Browne’s library, once declared- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Among the remedies which has pleased the Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium.'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Observations upon dosage and effects of opium can be found in Browne's commonplace notebooks whilst knowledge of its recreational usage with sex can be found in <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'since Opium it self is conceived to extimulate unto venery, and the intent and effect of eating Opium, is not so much to invigorate themselves in coition, as to prolong the Act, and spin out the motions of carnality'. [4]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In <i>Urn-Burial</i> the poppy flower, Opium and Oblivion are invariably interconnected. 'But the iniquity of Oblivion blindly shaketh her poppy' for example. In a heady fusion of philosophical stoicism, medical imagery and empirical observation, Browne declares of the human condition and also perhaps of the psychological effects of opium -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'There is no antidote against the Opium of Time, which temporally considereth all things.'</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Its been proposed that one reason why the prose of <i>Urn-Burial </i> and its twin <i>The Garden of Cyrus, </i>in particular the transcendent prose of the fifth and last chapter of each Discourse is unlike any other seventeenth century English literature, may have been from Browne writing under the influence of opium. As a physician Browne was licenced to obtain Opium, the only available painkiller available in his day. During the decade of the Protectorate of Cromwell (1650-59) and the highly uncertain days which it engendered, it may have been very tempting for Royalist supporters, particularly those of an empirical nature such as Browne, to reach into the medicine cabinet.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i>Urn-Burial</i> also features a short, but detailed description of Browne's single, credited scientific discovery, the formation of the waxy substance which coagulates upon the body fat of a corpse, named as adipocere. </div><p style="text-align: justify;">'In a Hydropicall body ten years buried in a Church-yard, we met with a fat concretion, where the nitre of the Earth, and the salt and lixivious liquor of the body, had coagulated large lumps of fat, into the consistence of the hardest castile-soap: whereof part remaineth with us'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Burial, putrefaction and interment are all synonymous with the <b><i>N</i></b><i><b>igredo</b> </i><span style="text-align: left;">stage of alchemy defined by C.G. Jung thus - </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">'the original half animal state of unconsciousness was known to the adept as the <i>Nigredo</i>, chaos, confused mass, as inextricable interweaving of the soul with the body'. [5] </p><p><i> </i>According to Jung-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'the <i>nigredo</i> not only brought decay, suffering, death, and the torments of hell visibly before the eyes of the alchemist, it also cast the shadow of melancholy over his solitary soul. In the blackness of his despair he experienced.. grotesque images which reflect the conflict of opposites into which the researcher's curiosity had led him. His work began with a <i>katabasis</i>, a journey to the underworld as Dante also experienced it'. [6] </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Urn-Burial </i>alludes to several Soul journeys of classical literature including Homer's <i>Odyssey</i> in which the wily hero Ulysses descends into the Underworld, Macrobius's commentary on the planetary Soul journey <i>Scipio's Dream</i> and the Greek philosopher Plato's myth of Er, as well as Dante's <i>Inferno</i>. The religious mystic in Browne knew that each one of us from birth, conscious or not of the fact, embarks upon a soul-journey with Death as a final port of call.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Swiss psychologist C.G.Jung (1875-1961) freed modern-day scholarship from many of the prejudices and misunderstandings which have hindered study of western esoteric traditions. <span style="text-align: left;">Today, the thematic concerns of </span><i style="text-align: left;">Urn-Burial</i><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">can confidently be identified as matching the <i>nigredo </i>of alchemy and may even be the template upon which Browne modeled his discourse upon. <i>Urn-Burial</i>'s</span> counterpart, <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> reinforces this interpretation for its opening pages muse upon paradise, a frequent symbol of the <i>albedo</i> or whitening in the alchemical opus succeeding the <i>Nigredo.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">C.G. Jung states- 'As we all know, science began with the stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious, the "gods," as well as the curious psychological qualities of the zodiac: a complete projected theory of human character'. [7] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the most remote planet known to the ancients, Saturn was believed to be a cold, heavy planet, qualities which were confirmed millennia later by modern science. In the western esoteric traditions of alchemy and astrology, Saturn is associated with restriction, contraction, limitation and melancholy. As the ruler of isolation and quarantine, Saturn is the god of lock-down <i>par excellence</i>. 'Old Father Time' depicted with his scythe as the Grim Reaper is a variant upon symbolism associated with Saturn.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgddpiUyyZjSaxoVE06RCdx1lzb7FaRGZm5BZEoiNYTSwKNPUqlmq3N1UvIWGYdZ44H6Fq5dK2PgFrnVE4mfe-QxZJjq5WdiCvGFH0g9xtn-nK68p5DapUwDB9HA8sy8SVySJjKRIXF5xA/s640/ALIM2544.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgddpiUyyZjSaxoVE06RCdx1lzb7FaRGZm5BZEoiNYTSwKNPUqlmq3N1UvIWGYdZ44H6Fq5dK2PgFrnVE4mfe-QxZJjq5WdiCvGFH0g9xtn-nK68p5DapUwDB9HA8sy8SVySJjKRIXF5xA/s320/ALIM2544.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Originally an Italian agricultural god, other implements associated with Saturn include the pruning-hook, spade and the hour-glass, as well as the oar for its slow, regular strokes which, like the ticking of a clock, propel a boat through time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Positive aspects of Saturn's symbolic attributes include the highest insight of the scholar, spiritual revelation and the crystallization of ideas. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Interest and knowledge of astrology and alchemy along with planetary symbolism advanced considerably during the Renaissance. Browne's era, the seventeenth century is considered to be the Golden Age of alchemy, its long decline beginning at the century's close. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In his spiritual testament <i>Religio Medici </i>(1643)<i> </i>Thomas Browne candidly confesses-</div><div><br /></div><div>‘If there be any truth in Astrology, I may outlive a Jubilee, as yet I have not seen one revolution of Saturn, nor hath my pulse beat thirty years’. [8]</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like many thinkers and artists during the Renaissance, Thomas Browne was able to identify with the psychological aspects of planetary symbolism, stating in <i>Religio Medici -</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>'I was born in the planetary hour of Saturn and I think I have a piece of that leaden planet in me'. [9] </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although often associated with melancholy, Saturn like Mercury, was also associated with transformation, and the two alchemical 'gods' are frequently linked together in western esoteric tradition literature and iconography. Because of its powers of transformation Saturn was also considered by alchemist and hermetic philosopher alike, to be a touchstone of the alchemical art as much as Mercury or Hermes, the more commonly associated 'deity' of alchemy. Hermetic themes preoccupy much of <i>Urn-Burial's </i>counterpart, <i>The Garden of Cyrus, </i>a literary work which is replete with planetary symbolism.<i> </i></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its interesting to note in passing that Browne's Saturnine characteristics seem to have appealed to the German author, translator and UEA academic, W. G Sebald (1944-2001). Meditations about Browne and his prose weave throughout W.G. Sebald's much admired hybrid work <i>The Rings of Saturn </i>(1995 English translation 1998).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxn-8tzHFYrhA09b2xVNRVM0nw3vFat30Pcd8hlcGNPNthVmcFXR4p64IREXX9x3qihY-cb81RLcqkLSxBU45XhPcS0EUvmLpn3xet5t34aCvpOY4xElYPPWRoTdl8fPY3-kWZGdhyphenhyphen22M/s720/saturn-night.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxn-8tzHFYrhA09b2xVNRVM0nw3vFat30Pcd8hlcGNPNthVmcFXR4p64IREXX9x3qihY-cb81RLcqkLSxBU45XhPcS0EUvmLpn3xet5t34aCvpOY4xElYPPWRoTdl8fPY3-kWZGdhyphenhyphen22M/s320/saturn-night.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The woodcut reproduced in the <i>Theatrum Chemicum</i> (above) is a symbolic illustration of the <i><b>Nigredo</b> </i>of alchemy. The adept, seen encased within a bubble has the two great luminaries, the Sun and Moon, along with the five planets above him. He is depicted as under the influence of the black star, Saturn. A raven, of the <i>Corvid </i>family of birds, alights upon his stomach while two angels keep watch over him. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Consisting of five folio volumes the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>(1613) was the most comprehensive anthology of alchemical writings in the seventeenth century and the handbook of many a would-be hermetic philosopher. Both C.G. Jung and Thomas Browne owned an edition of the <i>Theatrum Chemicum.</i><i> </i>Isaac Newton filled the margins of his copy with annotations. [10]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The woodcut illustration of the <i>Nigredo </i>was copied and reproduced in countless editions of alchemy until the 18th century. It must have fascinated C.G.Jung for he reproduced it in his collected works twice. Highly apt as <i>lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing</i>,<i> </i>it wouldn't have been totally out of place as a frontispiece for <i>Urn-Burial.</i> </div><p style="text-align: justify;">The first volume of the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i> (Theatre of Chemistry) features over 400 pages of writings by the Belgian physician Gerhard Dorn (c. 1530 - c. 1584). The foremost promoter of Paracelsian alchemy, Dorn devised his own planetary symbolism in order to express his psychological insights, including that of an 'invisible sun'. We can be confident that Browne read the <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>closely, he appropriated Dorn's planetary symbolism of an 'invisible Sun' for his own purposes, featuring it at the apotheosis of <i>Urn-Burial </i>as the mysterious life-force we each possess. In a high flourish of Baroque oratory Browne declaims- </p><p style="text-align: justify;">'But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of bravery, in the infamy of his nature. Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us'....</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A major theme of <i>Urn-Burial </i>is the futility of the endeavour to be remembered after death, especially through funerary monuments, including the earliest and most spectacular, the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Thomas Browne did not need to look far from his doorstep for ostentatious displays of vain-glory or 'pompous in the grave' monuments. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Though little known, the city of Norwich is home to one of the world's largest and finest collections of funerary monuments. Erected by various civic dignitaries, Norwich's surviving monuments are evidence of the great wealth which it once generated as an important European trading City. Browne would have had opportunity to see these extravagant and costly monuments, mostly sculpted from marble stone, some of which are adorned to saturation point with obscure and learned religious symbols which the City's merchant mayors loaded onto them, seemingly in competition with each other. But it is just as Browne repeatedly stresses in <i>Urn-Burial, </i>the dignitaries who wanted their names to be remembered and their monuments admired, are now long forgotten and their monuments are housed behind locked or restricted access doors of mainly disused or redundant churches. It was only as recently as 2012 that the source of the Layer monument's (below) iconography was identified. A wealth of religious symbolism, some of which is esoteric, <span style="text-align: left;">remains to be studied on the funerary monuments of the medieval churches of Norwich</span>. Photographs and details of Norwich funerary monuments are featured throughout this essay.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUanksbTztxcpwmJXQPR1of_sCdBZR-isYaYoGyt74EW3DPoCL7OGqxdoYgn4nF8hB7KQOTZMh17c1s_nqti6scqVuGPHDOaiizUZQSy83YBbTTmDh9U_f4CExHCbdP8axsCNgVpVma4Q/s400/St+John+the+Baptist+Church+-+Layer+Monument+%25233+Resampled+to+1400+pixels+wide+2013-09-26+IMG_1683.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="379" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUanksbTztxcpwmJXQPR1of_sCdBZR-isYaYoGyt74EW3DPoCL7OGqxdoYgn4nF8hB7KQOTZMh17c1s_nqti6scqVuGPHDOaiizUZQSy83YBbTTmDh9U_f4CExHCbdP8axsCNgVpVma4Q/s320/St+John+the+Baptist+Church+-+Layer+Monument+%25233+Resampled+to+1400+pixels+wide+2013-09-26+IMG_1683.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As great a religious mystic as Julian of Norwich or Meister Eckhart, Thomas Browne was well-aware of altered states of spiritual consciousness, naming several at the conclusion of <i>Urn-Burial </i>thus-</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'And if any have been so happy as truly to understand Christian annihilation, extasis, exolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kiss of the Spouse, gustation of God, and ingression into the divine shadow, they have already had an handsome anticipation of heaven; the glory of the world is surely over, and the earth in ashes unto them'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Much of Browne's mysticism rests in his highly original proper name symbolism along with the plexiformed construction and relationship of his two 1658 discourses. Although appearing identical, each being prefaced with a dedicatory epistle and consisting of five chapters, Browne's twin Discourses, not unlike two side-by-side white, crystalline substances, once tasted are found to differ sharply; <i>Urn-Burial</i> is discovered to be the bitter salt of Stoicism, a sprinkling of which is essential for spiritual well-being in the face of illness or disease, death and the grave. In complete contrast, the sweetness of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>with its playful delight in nature, is written in a literary style not unlike a hyperactive sugar rush. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A large part of esoteric schemata involves correspondences and polarities or opposites. Together the diptych discourses display polarity in theme, imagery and style. (Browne is credited as introducing the very word 'Polarity' into the English language). It was Frank Huntley who first advanced the interpretation that Browne's Discourses simultaneously progress in sequence from the Grave to the Garden, mirror each other in imagery, such as darkness and light, and are circular with <i>Cyrus</i> concluding Oroboros-like returning to night, sleep and darkness. [11]</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A plethora of opposites exist between the two Discourses including and this list is far from exhaustive - Earth and Heaven, Grave and Garden, Accident and Design, Darkness and Light, Doubt and Certainty, Death and Life, Ephemeral and Eternal, Time and Space, Microcosm and Macrocosm. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Contemplation of the body and soul in <i>Urn-Burial</i> gives way to a preoccupation with ideas associated with the mind and Spirit in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. In terms of planetary symbolism <i>Urn-Burial</i> is strongly Saturnine with its theme of Time while <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> has Space as its template and is utterly Mercurial in its communication of esoteric revelations. Even stylistically the two Discourse differ, the slow-paced, Baroque oratory of <i>Urn-Burial's </i>primary appeal is to ear its sonorous prose is best appreciated read aloud. In complete contrast the sensory organ of the eye and the visual in design, pattern and shape is prominent throughout the hasty, excited prose of <i>Cyrus</i>.<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Given Browne's deep interest in the esoteric we cannot overlook C.G.Jung's observation that the opposites and their union was the chief preoccupation of alchemists. Jung's study of alchemy led him to believe that the opposites are one of the most fruitful sources of psychic energy and for him their union played a decisive role in the alchemical process stating -'the "alchemystical" philosophers made the opposites and their union one of the chiefest objects of their work'. [12] The resultant synergy and unconscious associations for the reader between the two Discourses may well be Browne's literary concept of the Philosopher's Stone.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fzOimR3HLurj8CryX_-kyNHt8H-rWlXrFO1SdCTty-7FXmMHry6WYOiPFlZ-XwX6lRpxVGVzqU4EA9gxS3MnRKx1nYkXIGzb49V2DmnHOLOIqFOjfFAvfgraHm_zbhTKBE8u4diFh8c/s628/SCIOLTA+best.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="464" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fzOimR3HLurj8CryX_-kyNHt8H-rWlXrFO1SdCTty-7FXmMHry6WYOiPFlZ-XwX6lRpxVGVzqU4EA9gxS3MnRKx1nYkXIGzb49V2DmnHOLOIqFOjfFAvfgraHm_zbhTKBE8u4diFh8c/s320/SCIOLTA+best.JPG" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The psychological element in Browne's writings was admired by the poet Coleridge who declared of him that he, 'added to the consciousness hidden worlds within worlds' The Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung when introduced to Browne's declaration in his <i>Religio Medici </i>that- <i>There is all Africa and her prodigies in us</i> was deeply moved and immediately wrote it down. Understanding of the relationship between the two doctors Browne and Jung, is a rich, yet little explored field. Both naturally held a deep understanding of the human condition acquired from their profession, and both knew that with suffering comes spiritual growth. Browne's <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>as well as his <i>A Letter to a Friend </i>were all written as condolences for bereaved patrons.<i> </i></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne describes the blessings of not knowing the future and the relationship between memory, suffering and self-preservation in <i>Urn-Burial </i>thus -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Afflictions induce callosities, miseries are slippery, or fall like snow upon us, which notwithstanding is no unhappy stupidity. To be ignorant of evils to come, and forgetful of evils past, is a merciful provision in nature, whereby we digest the mixture of our few and evil days, and our delivered senses not relapsing into cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by the edge of repetitions'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Writing currently at a time of great sorrow and potentially in the near future of great anger, strife and conflict if the consequences of the Pandemic and the socio-economic inequalities it has highlighted throughout the world are not resolved, C.G. Jung reminds us that -</p><p style="text-align: justify;">'Tears, sorrow, and disappointment are bitter, but wisdom is the comforter in all psychic suffering. Indeed, bitterness and wisdom form a pair of alternatives: where there is bitterness wisdom is lacking, and where wisdom is there can be no bitterness'. [13] </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The dark, sombre and gloomy half of Browne's literary diptych speaks for our times and for all times. The worthy doctor gently draws to our attention to the fact that - 'the certainty of death is attended with uncertainties, in time, manner, places', and of how little we know of ourselves, and how unlikely it is we will be remembered beyond a generation or two at most. Our days are finite and numbered and the inescapable port of call on our soul-journey is death he reminds us, in ornate, baroque prose. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Browne's <i>Urn-Burial</i> is a high watermark in English prose. Acknowledged as a work of World Literature, its pages, as countless readers throughout generations have discovered, are a valuable source of wisdom. Reading <i>Urn-Burial </i>today is a timely reminder of how vulnerable we are to the invisible and unseen, and of how temporal our lives are; something which the devout Norwich physician seldom, if ever, needed reminding of.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguK3CihYimvOqDGFK9jRWMnOskrVR06x3htVcV-hZVJ2Td0wJozLvWYI9V7ukyhOZAHxUUEtWcVQz22LMV5tTCj6QPldOKkjMvchj_agMVfPCETfsrV2w2Tmg3KOxM5U5TgEYsAAJHtgQ/s3264/20201009_113048.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguK3CihYimvOqDGFK9jRWMnOskrVR06x3htVcV-hZVJ2Td0wJozLvWYI9V7ukyhOZAHxUUEtWcVQz22LMV5tTCj6QPldOKkjMvchj_agMVfPCETfsrV2w2Tmg3KOxM5U5TgEYsAAJHtgQ/w400-h225/20201009_113048.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Notes</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">[1 ] The great plague of Milan in 1630 was alleged to have been started by a Milanese barber and the Commissioner of Public Health. They were executed and a column was erected in Milan in August 1630 informing of their crime. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[2] <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> Book 3 chapter 7 of 'On the Basilisk'.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[3] Miscellaneous tract 13 item 24 of Antiquities and Rarities of several sorts in <i>Museum Clausum</i> (circa 1675)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[4] <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> Book 8 chapter 7</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[5] Collected Works Vol. 14:696</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[6] C. W. Vol.14: 93</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[7] C.W. Vol. 12:346. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[8] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 2 :11</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[9] <i>Religio Medici</i> Part 2 :6 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[10] The <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>is listed in the 1711 Sales Catalogue of Browne Library on page 25 no. 124 as 5 vols. Strasbourg 1613</p><p style="text-align: justify;">[11] Frank Huntley Sir Thomas Browne: A Biographical and Critical Study, pub. Ann Arbour 1962 </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[12] CW 8:414 and CW 12: 557 and CW. vol. 14 Foreword </p><p style="text-align: justify;">[13] C.W 14: 330</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Books consulted </u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Reid Barbour - Sir Thomas Browne A Life pub. Oxford University Press 2013</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Thomas Browne: Selected Writings edited and with an introduction by Kevin Killeen pub.Oxford University Press 2014</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Images</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">*Top - Woodcut, the <i>Nigredo </i>Vol. 4 <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>(1613) </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Death wearing a Crown (<i>Corona</i>) Joseph Paine Monument (1673), St. Gregory's, Norwich<i> </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Detail of allegorical figure of Time from the Sotherton Monument (1611), Saint Andrew's, Norwich.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* Woodcut, the <i>Nigredo </i>Vol. 4 <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>(1613)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* The Layer Monument (1608) St.John the Baptist, Maddermarket, Norwich</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* SCIOLTA (Freed) Allegorical image of the soul released from the cage of the body. Suckling Monument (1616) St. Andrew's Norwich </p><p style="text-align: justify;">* 4th edition of <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> with first publication of <i>Urn-Burial</i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> appended.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Recommended Listening</u></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Icelandic composer Johann Johannson (1968-2018) is still missed in the music world. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">His song 'The Sky's gone dim and the Sun is Black' could not be more <i>nigredo </i>in mood.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vz06J3oOTOU" width="320" youtube-src-id="Vz06J3oOTOU"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The English composer William Alwyn (1905-85) was a prolific film-score composer who had a life-long love of the writings of Sir Thomas Browne. His 5th Symphony entitled <i>Hydriotaphia</i> is based upon his reading of Browne and was first performed in Norwich in 1973.</div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4oKIKTKMjRU" width="320" youtube-src-id="4oKIKTKMjRU"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Stevie Wonder's <i>Saturn</i> (1976) with lyrics - </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>We can't trust you when you take a stand/</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>With a gun and bible in your hand/ </i></div><div><i>Saying, Give us all we want or we'll destroy.</i></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p3KpUO6t9qQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="p3KpUO6t9qQ"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Links to Wikipedia entries on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigredo">Nigredo</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrum_Chemicum">Theatrum Chemicum</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Dorn">Gerhard Dorn</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This essay with thanks to Dr. E. Player.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <i>In Memoriam</i> Richard Paul Faulkner (1958-2020)</p><div><br /></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-39391578794536607012020-09-13T10:00:00.046+01:002024-03-07T06:21:27.516+00:00 The River, the City, and the Artist.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHaGMM1m0QASYlKm5EusZYHINNVSDkh6RQq-4VFvBr0tvJUODjQBr-F17v87ajP4mYobVCwPmRkxl2d9i1fVKe5lpXtnAsJ_Ps8HKlnCCACJloaugLWtkw9VPNClIHa3E_KLWT8uH-uk/s769/View_Of_Norwich.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="769" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHaGMM1m0QASYlKm5EusZYHINNVSDkh6RQq-4VFvBr0tvJUODjQBr-F17v87ajP4mYobVCwPmRkxl2d9i1fVKe5lpXtnAsJ_Ps8HKlnCCACJloaugLWtkw9VPNClIHa3E_KLWT8uH-uk/w370-h266/View_Of_Norwich.jpg" width="370" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">One of Europe's oldest cities, Norwich has a long and illustrious history. Like many great cities, it was founded on the banks of a river. Vital to Norwich's development and growth in trade and commerce, transport and culture, in the nineteenth century the river Wensum became a popular setting for artists of the Norwich School of Painters. </div><p style="text-align: justify;">In the briefest, highly selective sketch of Norwich's history - </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Norwich's origins can be traced back to three Danish-Saxon fishing communities which once dwelt upon the terraced shingle banks of the Wensum known as <i>Conesford</i>, <i>Westwic</i> and <i>Norwic</i> which unified under the name of of Norwic (North port or settlement) to become Norwich. Fully established as a town by the 10th century CE Norwich had its own mint which issued coins with the word NORVIC inscribed upon them. Following the Norman conquest of 1066, stone quarried from Caen in Normandy was transported across the North Sea and river to build and construct the City's two Norman architectural jewels, its Castle and Cathedral. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The City's independence and trading status were enhanced under a Charter granted by King Richard I (the Lion heart) in 1194 for an annual payment to the King which freed the City and its citizens from all rents, tolls and taxes previously paid and permitted them to elect their own Reeve, (the senior official responsible under the Crown who often acted as chief magistrate). King Richard's Charter, granted in reward for Norwich's contribution to his ransom when kidnapped whilst returning from the Crusades, effectively allowed the City to be self governing, giving Norwich the same rights as London.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">From the 13th century onward Norwich became a manufacturing city, exporting a wide variety of goods including pottery, wool and textiles, via the river Wensum. The river effectively connected the City to trade as far afield as Scandinavia and Russia, Germany and the Baltic North Sea cities as well as the Netherlands and Flanders. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Norwich's trade and commerce with the Netherlands and Flanders in particular was vigorous throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Dutch and Flemish (modern-day Belgium) influences in fields as diverse as horticulture, architecture, textiles in particular wool, painting, religious denomination, civic social policy and not least, migration over the centuries have all been significant in contributing to Norwich's economic well-being and cultural heritage. </p><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="630" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkGKzS6sw4qjC1MJ400GGmN3_UVPefyHSE5zpxHVp7vmJrTystXreaNrbBTi0e2ZAv9sd0-zKeDKJwui52D-vj0S1BBGYYbaJMYJlq56cDGXZerNuVJqZ5jqMqTaYU-71erzQ7J_I-l5Q/w400-h284/norwich-city-walls-NU.jpg" style="text-align: left;" width="400" /><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Like many cities in medieval Europe, Norwich built a wall around itself for defense, taxation of goods and control of entry to trade in the City. The city walls were built circa 1280 to 1340. At around 4 kilometres in length they enclosed an area larger than the city of London. Norwich's city walls were supplemented by Cow tower and Bishop gate bridge strengthening defenses at its weakest point, the exposed bend of the river which semi-circles around the Cathedral. The Wensum was integral to the defense of medieval Norwich. Its semi-circular bend from New Mills at the north of the City to Carrow south-east of the City effectively functioning as a wall. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The medieval river-gate at Carrow is unique to European city defenses. Consisting of two 'Boom' towers' one standing on each side of the river, by placing either a timber 'boom' or chains between them, effectively prevented any vessel from sailing further upstream. Their ruins at Carrow bridge, along with a long stretch of the city's medieval walls nearby, survive to the present-day. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgWpJEzWldWyMaHmDeNvXJF9IlX8NLTZsUWym7lyPi04awKhoREimjKOoXFk56eeMjJpvXR4Uf-GAlueByiPw9Hrjz5PEkQC5X0Cph8l3XlQB89dI0QNJWvJeNdZ6d4RGHk8soTsabdw/s640/Norwich+City+WallsA3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgWpJEzWldWyMaHmDeNvXJF9IlX8NLTZsUWym7lyPi04awKhoREimjKOoXFk56eeMjJpvXR4Uf-GAlueByiPw9Hrjz5PEkQC5X0Cph8l3XlQB89dI0QNJWvJeNdZ6d4RGHk8soTsabdw/w379-h300/Norwich+City+WallsA3.jpg" width="379" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">It would have been after passing between the 'Boom-towers' water-gate at Carrow (historical photo above) that visitors by river to Norwich would have seen the city's many churches towers, (Norwich has the large number of medieval churches in Northern Europe). The city's two largest architectural structures, the Castle perched upon earthwork mound and Cathedral with flying buttresses and spire pointing heavenwards would have been visible many miles from the low viewpoint of water before arriving at the walled city. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirka5sLIP7JrAmVt0pQc5FLnDYaS1FdUXSuiGPidW8Z_FH520RW6poQ2VMsSIAt5M69i0rtz_Vc940UThJNhicu43JtwBWfvuOWuT-ShmK7urpvtQ5TPfLPFkSxW8eAWw4TbqxWz5Kc6A/s279/Boom+towers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="181" data-original-width="279" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirka5sLIP7JrAmVt0pQc5FLnDYaS1FdUXSuiGPidW8Z_FH520RW6poQ2VMsSIAt5M69i0rtz_Vc940UThJNhicu43JtwBWfvuOWuT-ShmK7urpvtQ5TPfLPFkSxW8eAWw4TbqxWz5Kc6A/w376-h274/Boom+towers.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">A spectacular section of the old city wall survives to this day. It rises sharp up the valley with the Black Tower at its summit. The surviving section is a remarkable display of medieval engineering skill and dramatic to view. Poorly signed, this section of the City's medieval walls remains unknown to many locals even.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Tragically, shortly after the completion of the City wall, Norwich, like almost every other city in Europe suffered from the pandemic of the Black Death which peaked from 1347 to 1351. The Black Death was the second disaster affecting Europe during the 14th century, the Great Famine occurring 1315–1317. The Black Death plague is estimated to have killed between 30% to 60% of Europe's population. Norwich was not exempt from this death-toll with over half its population dying from the disease. It was against the background of the Black Death that the city's Christian mystic Julian of Norwich (1343–c.1416) wrote her <i>Revelations of divine Love</i>, the first book to be written by a woman in English,which continues to grow in popularity for its spiritual message. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">A major contributing factor to Norwich's identity occurred during the Elizabethan era when Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands were invited to settle in Norwich to invigorate the City's declining textile industry. In 1565 some 30 households of master weavers and their families, 300 people in total, traveled from the Netherlands to Norwich seeking refuge from Spanish Catholic persecution. Reports of the City's religious tolerance resulted in many more religious refugees migrating from the Netherlands and contributing to Norwich's manufacturing industries of weaving and wool. At one time almost one third of Norwich's population consisted of skilled artisan refugees, a crucial factor in shaping the City's identity. 'The Strangers' as they were known, brought with them their pet Canary birds. Fancy breeds of the Canary bird were bred in in the city and in the early 20th century they became emblematic of Norwich football team. The Canaries holds claim to having the world's oldest football supporter's song, <i>On the ball, City.</i> </div><p>England's first provincial newspaper the <i>Norwich Post</i> was printed in Norwich in 1701. Succeeded by the <i>Norwich Mercury </i>in 1737, its reflective of the city's high literacy rate as well as its radical politics. Support for the French revolution was initially high in Norwich, its leading intellectual William Taylor even visiting Paris in order to kiss the soil of Liberty. Norwich's radical and sane politics continues to the present-day. In the 2016 advisory Referendum it voted for the UK to Remain in the European Union. </p><p>Its been said that prosperity and literacy were the two factors which were the driving forces between 1750-1850 which contributed to Norwich's theatrical, artistic, philosophical and musical life. Together, they cross-fertilised Norwich's cultural life in a way that was unique outside London. </p><p><span style="text-align: left;">In contrast to its close continental connections Norwich was, and still is, geographically remote from any other English town in transport links, a situation which was not improved until the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of the railway. Indeed, its been said that it was sometimes quicker for a Norwich citizen to travel via river, sea and canal to Amsterdam than to London until the arrival of the railway. Travelling to London involved traversing marsh and forest on poor roads with the risk of robbery and overnight hostelry and rest for horses. In contrast, travelling to Amsterdam involved transportation via tidal river, sea and canal, its primary hazard being crossing the North Sea.</span></p><p><span style="text-align: left;">Whether because of its radical politics or more likely a received perception of the City as a 'back-water', Norwich was not officially recognized as a seat of learning until 1963 when elected as the host city to the University of East Anglia. The University was named 'East Anglia' as representative of the region as a whole rather than its host city, resulting in few even today knowing its location. The University didn't however hesitate to adopt Norwich City's 'Do Different' motto as its own. </span></p><p><span style="text-align: left;">Currently teaching over </span><span style="text-align: left;">17,000 students statistically UEA is the British University with the highest percentage of students nationwide who choose to settle in the city of their graduation, a major contributing factor to the City's 9% population growth in the past decade. Prestigious</span><span style="text-align: left;"> UEA alumni include the geneticist, Paul Nurse, awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine and novelist, Kazou Ishiguru, awarded the Nobel prize for Literature in 2017. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">With its many continental connections and influences its not too surprising that Norwich is</span></span> one of the most European influenced of all English cities. The City's 'Do different' mindset is in evidence today in its growth as a regional retail centre, as a place of academic excellence and as a place which has a unique blend of international and local artistic life. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: justify;">2. Norwich School of Painters</b></div></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Zy-fMcd45JdF8VJDwEH7cTOaTheT_m-s-GimcNc22ZDqDTRKoPZWJxT4vMQD6jx0eghFjd28bqdxk8Ze0aJknpikHIIji9h-nRbUN2SPqHkpsKTyGywtjZ23Kie26QRKDAgk4yWJw8c/s680/DF0LXTbWsAASeoF.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="680" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Zy-fMcd45JdF8VJDwEH7cTOaTheT_m-s-GimcNc22ZDqDTRKoPZWJxT4vMQD6jx0eghFjd28bqdxk8Ze0aJknpikHIIji9h-nRbUN2SPqHkpsKTyGywtjZ23Kie26QRKDAgk4yWJw8c/w372-h235/DF0LXTbWsAASeoF.jpg" width="372" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">John Thirtle's (1777-1839) watercolour <i>Rainbow effect, King Street,</i> (40 x 63 cm) depicts the City's busy river. The low eye-level of Thirtle's water-colour creates the effect of the viewer as part of the river-traffic. A rainbow, reflected in water following an evening downpour makes for a dramatic moment. Observation of Nature, including atmospheric effects such as weather and changes of daylight being of particular interest to the Norwich School of artists.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In the foreground of Thirtle's water-colour there can be seen the river vessel most commonly associated with Norfolk, the wherry, a low draught, single sail craft capable of transporting heavy loads. In the background can be seen a segment of the city wall rising steep up the wooded valley with the Black tower at its summit. This section of the old city wall as previously discussed, survives to the present-day. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">John Thirtle was one of a number of Norwich artists associated with The Norwich Society of Artists which was established by the two friends who married sisters, John Crome (1768-1821) and Robert Ladbrooke (1768 –1842). The Society was formed in 1803 in order to hold regular meetings and discussions to establish 'An enquiry into the Rise, Progress and Present state of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, with a view to point out the Best Methods of study to attain the Greater Perfection in these Arts'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The clear-cut world of Classical representation of form and content is finely balanced with Romanticism in many artworks of the Norwich School, not least in the bold and skillfully executed water-colours of J.S. Cotman (1769-1842) including his <i>Trowse Hythe </i>(Below)<i>. </i>Trowse,<span style="text-align: left;"> on Norwich's outskirts, is where the smaller river Yare joins the Wensum and where the river Wensum mysteriously ends</span>.<i> </i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil23qkhCGkK6HTQnDQZfKT0ZbL-jFtPndn94KM_k9Ew-WGe0e05RxMH6RVfLikh7G3Ijvzvhlt_J-nkU9fyv7G2zO4Cuul7jJhaZx5II74COh4J4BKtFNO9YJL9J-ai3SBJaDjyAX-u5Q/s1280/Trowse.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="1280" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil23qkhCGkK6HTQnDQZfKT0ZbL-jFtPndn94KM_k9Ew-WGe0e05RxMH6RVfLikh7G3Ijvzvhlt_J-nkU9fyv7G2zO4Cuul7jJhaZx5II74COh4J4BKtFNO9YJL9J-ai3SBJaDjyAX-u5Q/w371-h251/Trowse.webp" width="371" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Its the sheer modernity of J.S. Cotman's art, in particular his water-colours which arrests the viewer today. Unsurprisingly Cotman's art received a mixed reception in his life-time. Curator and expert on the Norwich School of Painters Ms. Giorgia Bottinelli assesses J.S. Cotman thus- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'One of the most original watercolourists of the nineteenth century, John Sell Cotman never achieved fame as an artist in his lifetime, something he so desperately craved and which fleetingly appeared to be within his grasp early in his career. On the whole his work did not appeal to the 19th century taste for the romantic and the picturesque: it was often controlled and unsentimental, with a focus on abstracted shape and inherent structure. It was not until the early 20th century and the rise of modernism that his work finally achieved the recognition it rightfully deserved'. [1] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="398" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI76DhPFm4SEtuz-YJvTXP1WQrtsWT8GlSP-IgollMLRZqbAqCnLe-9meYWDpeDMMD5tamo2yotuLsASpYsc3_PtC3ML6wJFbLIDfJMKZh8qaw-ukwdz8YYoSJhpOdT2mEsTAyR3bXSAs/w391-h278/Norwichriver.jpg" width="391" /><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Several of John Crome's greatest art-works are set within only a short walk from his doorstep, the Colgate region of Norwich, including his late work <i>Norwich river: Afternoon </i>(above).<i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Usually considered to be the leading light of the Norwich School of artists, John Crome was a shrewd, self-taught artist who survived the perils of bankruptcy, debt, imprisonment, madness, early death from disease, alcoholism and lack of patronage which others in the Norwich School suffered in their precarious careers as artists. In 1816, following Napoleon's defeat when it was once more safe to visit France Crome did so, exhibiting and selling his paintings in Paris as well as purchasing paintings there.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">John Crome studied the works of 17th Dutch masters closely in particular those by Hobbema, Cuyp, and Ruisdael to create art which celebrated the beauty of the Norfolk landscape. Far from merely imitating Dutch painting styles Crome learnt from the Dutch masters to develop his own unique style and today his paintings are ranked alongside Turner and Constable as amongst the finest in nineteenth century British art. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The bright colouration and highly-polished finish of John Crome's <i>Norwich river:Late Afternoon </i>has often been commented upon. Its title reflects the close attention Norwich School artists played to qualities of light. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Scientific analysis of the canvas of <i>Norwich river:Late Afternoon </i>revealed that it was not in fact canvas but mattress ticking, a cotton or linen textile tightly woven for durability and to prevent feathers poking through the fabric. It was used to cover mattresses. Whether Crome's usage of mattress ticking was from necessity or experiment is not known. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">It was whilst working on a painting entitled <i>A view of the Water Frolic, Wroxham Broad</i> in mid-April 1821 that John Crome contracted a fever, dying later in the month. His last words were reputed to be, 'Oh Hobbema, my dear Hobbema, how I have loved you !' </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Z6kD5hDxs3qLfV0Y9bA9PKVB6chtOoqWxMxeSwjZodjv1jQJx723X6k9PSV9qqf0oh5K5IB7VhdeAfykBPr5RJf2zw_21JSAWW1AtxuoVGHx6Yv6tD2RQHkEjVi9Jz_ST612ONr5hzA/s800/800px-Thorpe_Water_Frolic%252C_Afternoon+-+Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="800" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Z6kD5hDxs3qLfV0Y9bA9PKVB6chtOoqWxMxeSwjZodjv1jQJx723X6k9PSV9qqf0oh5K5IB7VhdeAfykBPr5RJf2zw_21JSAWW1AtxuoVGHx6Yv6tD2RQHkEjVi9Jz_ST612ONr5hzA/w375-h275/800px-Thorpe_Water_Frolic%252C_Afternoon+-+Copy.jpg" width="375" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> Joseph Stannard's </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon</i><span style="text-align: justify;">. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">(Height 109.8 x Width 175.8 cm. dated 1824). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Joseph Stannard (born Norwich September 13th 1797 - died Norwich 6th December 1830) began exhibiting his paintings in 1811 when aged just 14. Like his younger brother Alfred, he was keen oarsman. He was also an accomplished ice-skater who entertained Norwich folk with his skating skills during cold winters. Often in financial difficulties and/or poor health, Stannard's growing years were dominated by the Napoleonic wars which were prohibitive to travel in mainland Europe. When stability did return to Europe with the victory of Waterloo, he took the opportunity to visit Holland where he viewed paintings by seventeenth century Dutch landscape masters Ruisdael, Berchem and Hobbema which deepened his interest in marine and seascape subjects; the marine artist Van de Velde in particular influenced him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> In 1824 Joseph Stannard's fortune changed when the Norwich manufacturer, art collector and patron, John Harvey commissioned him to paint <i>Thorpe Water Frolic:Afternoon.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Harvey was inspired with the idea of having a festivity on the river at Thorpe, just outside Norwich, from his witnessing water-festivities at Venice while on the Grand tour of Europe. The first water-frolic at Thorpe in 1824 attracted crowds of over 30,000 when the population of Norwich was little more than 10,000. Harvey's agenda was to establish Norwich as a sea-port for the export of his merchandise. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Like all good sailors particular attention is paid to weather conditions and a vigorous cloudscape frames Stannard's water-frolic.There's an interesting inter-play between Stannard the sailor who has depicted the rigging and canvas sails of boats with every rope in its correct place and the medium of canvas on which he painted. The canvas of <i>Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon</i> is dominated by a large canvas, a sail catching the breeze. Stannard's own boat <i>The Cytherea</i> is on the extreme right and was described in a contemporary newspaper report of the event -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'its colour is purple; the inside is adorned with an elegant gilt scroll, which completely encircles it; on the back-board where the coxswain sits, is a beautiful and spirited sea-piece, representing a stiff breeze at sea, with vessels sailing in various directions, painted in oils, and the spoons of the oars are neatly covered with gilt dolphins'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Art historian Trevor Fawcett speculated- 'If the Thorpe water frolics were really great pageants, as the <i>Norwich Mercury</i> suggested, and if the multitudes who attended were all actors, then Stannard played his part thoroughly...[2]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although there is a judicious amount of poetic licence in Stannard's <i>Thorpe Water Frolic</i> its also an important social document. Norwich's textile and loom workers, courting couples and rugged seamen all enjoying a care-free day on the river away from cramped working conditions are all depicted. They, along with Stannard in red, shielding his eyes to view his patron, are on the right bank of the river. Thomas Harvey standing in a gondola, the growing middle-class, civic dignitaries, naval officers and the aristocracy of Georgian England are on the left bank of the river. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HjcmSQI1QoIJVI_4DnDWLke51eButDtEQEQ-h39zXsu0wC0o7-PdaeIHqyt2a89LLBCOqpvI46hhDQRz7mBS8b4AZYrZ_jRXW9a5WJWLIu5eD7DGemerV1EJG0TLZMRvsJzuRpApm28/s234/detail+of+frolic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="215" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HjcmSQI1QoIJVI_4DnDWLke51eButDtEQEQ-h39zXsu0wC0o7-PdaeIHqyt2a89LLBCOqpvI46hhDQRz7mBS8b4AZYrZ_jRXW9a5WJWLIu5eD7DGemerV1EJG0TLZMRvsJzuRpApm28/w280-h305/detail+of+frolic.jpg" width="280" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Joseph Stannard never became an official member of the Norwich School but nevertheless he clearly admired and was influenced by John Crome and an enigmatic relationship exists between the two artists. As a precocious artist, Stannard's family requested Crome to teach young Joseph, but Crome quoted an astronomical fee which was seen as a blank refusal by the Stannard family. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Curiously, Stannard's <i>Thorpe Water Frolic</i> shares two details with John Crome's late work <i>Norwich river:Afternoon </i>firstly, of a small boy at the stern of a boat trailing a toy, and secondly of a woman dressed in bright yellow apparel, also at boat's stern. (The first recorded use of chrome yellow as a colour name in English was in 1818).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Norwich surely lost a great artist with Joseph Stannard's early death from tuberculosis aged just 33. However, his masterpiece, the river-scene <i>Thorpe Water-Frolic:Afternoon </i>remains a jewel in the crown of Norwich Castle Museum's extensive collection of paintings by the Norwich School.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Joseph Stannard has been assessed thus-</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'As a draughtsman Joseph Stannard stands out as a major figure, there being almost a majestic grace and simplicity about his work. Whilst most of the Norwich School painters specialised in landscape, he retained an interest in seascape painting and achieved a quality which not only outrivalled most of his fellow painters, but most of the painters of the 19th century. The late Major boswell, whose family had dealt in the Norwich School paintings for generations, maintained that Joseph Stannard was the greatest genius of the School'. [3]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Norwich School of Artists great achievement was that a small group of self-taught working class artists were able to feature urban Norwich with its churches, court-yards and cityscapes and rural Norfolk with its windmills, heath, marsh, woodlands and waterways as settings for their art. Undaunted by meagre local patronage, together, leading artists Crome and Cotman, along with Joseph Stannard, established a school of landscape which continues to grow in reputation and stature.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The art historian Nikolaus Pevsner claimed that the picturesque was England's greatest contribution to European visual culture. Defined as visually attractive, especially in a quaint or charming way, English picturesque art is now, largely through the pioneering achievements of the Norwich School of artists, can now be recognised as Norwich's greatest contribution to European painting.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>3. Just a little Browne and Norwich's future</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><p>According to the church historian Thomas Fuller (1608-61) 17th century Norwich was, 'either a city in an orchard, or an orchard in a city, so equal are houses and trees blended in it' . This blending of the urban with leaf continues in present-day Norwich with its reputation as one of greenest of English cities. Thomas Browne, the city's first botanist, natural historian, archaeologist and literary figure of significance, was a contemporary of the historian Thomas Fuller, and indeed a book by Fuller is listed as once in Browne's vast library. </p><p>In many ways Thomas Browne (1605-82) is one of most dazzling and valuable jewels in the crown of Norwich's cultural heritage. Known of world-wide, contributing to diverse fields of knowledge Browne's star is currently in the ascendent with a resurgence of interest in the physician-philosopher and his diverse literary works. Browne was also, as the archaeologist Alan Carter noted, one of the first to speculate upon Norwich's origins. In <i>Urn-Burial</i> (1658) he alludes to coins minted in Norwich (the earliest with the inscription name <i>Norvic</i> is dated 850 CE), to the city being established sometime after the Roman occupation of Britain, and to it being a place of size before destruction by fire following a Viking raid by King Swen Forkbeard in 1004 CE-</p><p>'Vulgar Chronology will have Norwich Castle as old as Julius Caesar; but his distance from these parts, and its Gothick form of structure, abridgeth such Antiquity. The British Coins afford conjecture of early habitation in these parts, though the City of Norwich arose from the ruins of Venta, and though perhaps not without some habitation before, was enlarged, builded, and nominated by the Saxons. In what bulk or populosity it stood in the old East-angle Monarchy, tradition and history are silent. Considerable it was in the Danish Eruptions, when Sueno burnt Thetford and Norwich', [4]</p><p>More often than not Thomas Browne refers to the Wensum simply as 'the Norwich river'. Its been speculated that the word 'Wensum' is a corruption of the old English of 'wendsome' meaning winding, and this, as almost all old rivers, the Wensum certainly is, as can be seen in the photo below of the river Wensum at Drayton, a few miles north-west of Norwich. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SpyQqpPj5e_wPKEx-LSxP18iiEo7vFU23a9_F2MqYmGE5GakAkt-GMKrkZ-fLvHu7JUtgv0X_mBp1Y7730T2YULdqkX8ei_GJaFBmI-zYRHdvliM8TifqozR1B5TDumf0MsUHgRgcx4/s1600/P4130012.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1SpyQqpPj5e_wPKEx-LSxP18iiEo7vFU23a9_F2MqYmGE5GakAkt-GMKrkZ-fLvHu7JUtgv0X_mBp1Y7730T2YULdqkX8ei_GJaFBmI-zYRHdvliM8TifqozR1B5TDumf0MsUHgRgcx4/w365-h274/P4130012.JPG" width="365" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="text-align: left;">Geographically speaking, the Wensum is an old or senile river, that is a river with a low gradient and low erosive power and with having flood-plains. Today the Wensum is listed as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and as a Special Area of Conservation. Nevertheless it is under threat of environmental damage from a proposed Western Link Road (WLR) which will seriously damage river wildlife and its immediate environment with little, if any benefit to the easing of traffic in the region whatsoever.[5]</span></p><p>On several occasions in his Natural History notes Thomas Browne refers to the network of shallow lakes in the north-east quarter of Norfolk as 'broad waters' . In all probability its from his description that the nomenclature of these shallow lakes originated from to become known as the Norfolk Broads. Today, the Norfolk Broads have National Park status and protection 'however it was not until the 1960's that aerial photography determined the Norfolk Broads were in fact not natural but man-made, the product of many years of digging for peat as a source of heat which following flood and inundation from the sea, formed the present-day Broads. </p><p>On the river upstream between New Mills to Hellesdon Mills its possible to often spot the iridescent blue plumage and bullet-like flight of the kingfisher zipping low over the water. As a keen ornithologist who at one time or another kept an eagle, cormorant, bittern, owl and ostrich to study, Browne noted of Norfolk -</p><p>The number of rivulets becks & streams whose banks are beset with willows & Alders which give occasion of easier fishing & slooping to the water makes that handsome coloured bird abound which is called <i>Alcedo Ispida</i> or the King fisher. They build in holes about gravel pits.. their nests wherein is to bee found great quantity of small fish bones. & lay very handsome round & as it were polished eggs.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-u8F23rjcPH1X-zzvRTFludn4Bdv4JnB5i6hOSTuB9q4nyWodxxH57jCQi0gXOcOTt3vnIRFzt_-1TEew4KRMTRoe_LyogGAkYrfbVPolElfdZho8JDONb9sAA21f6WK917_Y3FQ6uWI/s668/kingfisher.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="668" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-u8F23rjcPH1X-zzvRTFludn4Bdv4JnB5i6hOSTuB9q4nyWodxxH57jCQi0gXOcOTt3vnIRFzt_-1TEew4KRMTRoe_LyogGAkYrfbVPolElfdZho8JDONb9sAA21f6WK917_Y3FQ6uWI/w320-h208/kingfisher.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="text-align: left;">Browne was a keen botanist and noted of the aquatic plant </span><i style="text-align: left;">Acorus Calamus</i><span style="text-align: left;"> known as </span><span style="text-align: left;">Sweet Flag (photo below).</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqA2voXv_EbUX1TN0nNpm_lEKYtD9qbSWKww-saDsAJaWg2Ck_333XZ7rAoUP_nOVkyxqtedFrgkRsFU4tn_WVQpZQ3D57RbILbuxpV3cAkxPB51Z0uFwA1pryBhWFNqRIWoXwRPFQkkM/s3264/20200820_154505.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqA2voXv_EbUX1TN0nNpm_lEKYtD9qbSWKww-saDsAJaWg2Ck_333XZ7rAoUP_nOVkyxqtedFrgkRsFU4tn_WVQpZQ3D57RbILbuxpV3cAkxPB51Z0uFwA1pryBhWFNqRIWoXwRPFQkkM/w358-h253/20200820_154505.jpg" width="358" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">'This elegant plant groweth very plentifully and beareth its Julus yearly by the banks of Norwich river chiefly about Claxton and Surlingham. & also between norwich & Hellsden bridge so that I have known Heigham Church in the suburbs of Norwich strewed all over with it, it hath been transplanted and set on the sides of Marish ponds in several places of the country where it thrives and beareth ye Julus yearly. [6]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Sweet Briar bridge to Hellesdon (photo above) is a great example of the legacy from the 1930's. Constructed in 1932, Sweet Briar bridge, along with the acres of landscaped parks of Eaton and Wensum, innovative social housing at Mile Cross, libraries, and urban regeneration in general, were all constructed and achieved through the collective work-force of the unemployed of Norwich during the Great Depression of the 1930's era.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxRNiUNarPQxxUbbuSqQ34ceX0wLlWOV04DR7CY_HyCEu9M_pXD_kyxZhumTK0sFv8cBi_lNRuaSt0jccXRk9MXfjwRm1p0QFDwFxMxwo_cJsb64B2zT2WNZOzlOiDZ1r34lzmwd_zO4/s3264/20200921_110436.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="1836" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxRNiUNarPQxxUbbuSqQ34ceX0wLlWOV04DR7CY_HyCEu9M_pXD_kyxZhumTK0sFv8cBi_lNRuaSt0jccXRk9MXfjwRm1p0QFDwFxMxwo_cJsb64B2zT2WNZOzlOiDZ1r34lzmwd_zO4/w315-h560/20200921_110436.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The river Wensum upstream of New Mills is navigable only to light, non-powered vessels and is at turns scenic, neglected and wild. Its only with one's eye at water level that one gains a perspective of the sheer size and abundance of mature trees growing near the river. Approaching Hellesdon Mill two varieties of willow can be seen growing together. (above). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p><span style="text-align: left;">The weeping willow is a naturally occurring mutation of <i>Salix babylonica </i>which was introduced to England from China in the early 17th century during a time of fascination with all things Chinese ts cultivated for it's beautiful appearance. The more common willow <i>Salix fragilis</i>, 'crack willow', is named for the loud noise it makes when it breaks. Grown on the river-bank so that its binding roots protect the bank from erosion its us</span><span style="text-align: left;">ed for commercial willow farming (withey beds) and is</span><span style="text-align: left;"> managed by pollarding. </span><span style="text-align: left;">Some of humans' earliest manufactured items may have been made from willow. A fishing net made from willow discovered by archaeologists dates back to 8300 BCE and basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub house walls, were often woven from osiers or withies (rod-like willow shoots, often grown in coppices). [7]</span></p><p><span style="text-align: left;">The Dictionary of British Place-names states that the name Hellesdon comes from <i>Hægelisdun</i> (the spelling of the location 985 CE), meaning 'hill of a man named Hægel', with the spelling changed to <i>Hailesduna</i> by 1086. <i>Hægelisdun</i> is recorded traditionally, as the place where King Edmund was killed by Viking invaders in 869 CE, although there remains no agreement on exactly where King Edmund died.</span></p><p>Its intriguing to think that momentous history such as King Edmund dying in battle near Norwich remains ultimately unknown, such speculation returns our far from exhaustive essay where it began, the remote in time origins of the city, whilst also exploring the fascinating relationship between city, river and artist.</p><p><span style="text-align: left;">At the current time of writing, Norwich faces the same challenge as many cities throughout the world in the wake of the Pandemic (2020 - ?) how to make the city, in particular its centre, a safe place to visit, work, socialise and be entertained. Norwich, having survived war, plague, flood, fire, famine, rebellion and riot in its thousand plus year history, will surely become a busy, enterprising city, proud to 'Do Different' once more in the near future.</span></p></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmMlv6pNafE5lbVHmLtVMfD9chouPZICGwhM2KdZS3JTg75TwnnoZ88WivW48UOIm3cFIRFWt8Mmfukfpny61SxrTAbgfWdF6W8S0VBR-Nj4homJLoxpGx8bxlgSCIL3OmBes8xE4kRbY/s3264/20200824_154243.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmMlv6pNafE5lbVHmLtVMfD9chouPZICGwhM2KdZS3JTg75TwnnoZ88WivW48UOIm3cFIRFWt8Mmfukfpny61SxrTAbgfWdF6W8S0VBR-Nj4homJLoxpGx8bxlgSCIL3OmBes8xE4kRbY/w378-h235/20200824_154243.jpg" width="378" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The Wensum river at 'The Willows', five minutes from my doorstep.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u style="text-align: justify;">Books </u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><u><br /></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* The Anglo-Saxon origins of Norwich: the problems and approaches by Alan Carter Anglo-Saxon England Vol. 7 (1978), pp. 175-204 pub. Cambridge University Press</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* The Norwich Knowledge: An A-Z of Norwich - the Superlative City Pub. 2011</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">by Michael Loveday. Highly recommended</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">* Norwich, the growth of a city. Green and Young Norfolk museums Service 1981</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">* The Norwich School of Painters - Harold Day pub. Eastbourne Fine Art 1979</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">* The Norwich School of Artists - Andrew Moore pub. HMSO Norfolk Museum Services 1985</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">*Romantic Landscape:The Norwich School of Painters -Brown/Hemingway/Lyles pub. Trustees of the Tate Gallery 2000</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">* A Vision of England : Paintings of the Norwich School ed. Bottinelli pub. Norfolk Museums 2013</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Notes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[1] EDP May 20th The artist they called too colourful</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[2] from article by Trevor Fawcett-Roper in Norfolk Archaeology 1976</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[3] The Norwich School of Painters - Harold Day pub. Eastbourne Fine Art 1979</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[4] Urn-Burial (1658)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[5] <a href="https://www.edp24.co.uk/motoring/norfolk-wildlife-trust-to-object-to-western-link-1-6817699?fbclid=IwAR3V97kRvz0SpA9i6LDcJDSiU9OMPqgihRfWUQN12cY50YrsTtvttR19LG4" target="_blank">Environmental threat to the Wensum</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[6] Notes on Natural history of Norfolk especially its birds and fishes pub. Jarrolds 1905.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">[7] Info on Willow by Nik Thomson with thanks.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Archaeological maps of the development of early Norwich.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEx_nJM7uTJplWmJliPzLKb5vDKub0qNRX1JC2uEznLuBShL0Yt2tzwPlHZiad5dEOLfC6dkg3J92bptup2vr8UOl2vhKKMtLjY9TzEHL9cUbMIz_a266S-lrqn601XKBQQMvzDkuald4/s904/emed_312_f1.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="667" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEx_nJM7uTJplWmJliPzLKb5vDKub0qNRX1JC2uEznLuBShL0Yt2tzwPlHZiad5dEOLfC6dkg3J92bptup2vr8UOl2vhKKMtLjY9TzEHL9cUbMIz_a266S-lrqn601XKBQQMvzDkuald4/w369-h500/emed_312_f1.gif" width="369" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">*All text identical to the Wikipedia entry on the Norwich School of Artists was penned by myself in 2003.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">* Essay dedicated to the memory of the Norwich artist Joseph Stannard, b. Norwich, 13th September 1797 - 1830. Stannard's premature death surely lost the City a great artist.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Also in memory of Jennifer Carrier, long-time friend and Norwich 'old girl'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-15618746477437820842020-07-01T17:09:00.015+01:002024-02-09T22:50:03.913+00:00 Dr. Browne's 'readie way to read the characters of Morpheus'.<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Thomas Browne's short tract <i>On Dreams </i>is exemplary of the seventeenth century physician-philosopher's deep learning and dedication to his medical profession. Furthermore, Browne's <i>On Dreams</i> reveals him to be a pioneering psychologist, not least for anticipating concepts associated with the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.<br />
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Its worthwhile reminding ourselves of the nature of dreams and the historical antecedents of their interpretation. Dreams can have a wide variety of moods and feelings, frightening or anxious, exciting and adventurous, sometimes with a magical content or empowering, sometimes with a sexual element and most often simply puzzling. Dreams can give a creative or inspiring thought, and in the past they've been viewed as a conduit of God-given revelation and prophecy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 2100 BCE. In one of the world's oldest literary works <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh </i>the hero Gilgamesh escapes the vengeance of the gods by paying attention to dreams which warn and show him how to overcome his enemy. The Greek physician Hippocrates (469–399 BCE) had a simple dream theory: during the day, the soul receives images; during the night, it produces images, similarly, the Greek historian Herodotus in his <i>Histories</i>, wrote, "The visions that occur to us in dreams are, more often than not, the things we have been concerned about during the day".<br />
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Thomas Browne<i> </i>(1605-82) demonstrates his familiarity with Hippocrates' theory to the causes of dreams stating in accordance to the ancient Greek physician, 'the thoughts or actions or the day are acted over and echoed in the night'. Browne himself had an intimate relationship to the world of dreams. Living in an age of grim living conditions and little entertainment, dreaming was a welcome diversion in seventeenth century England. Browne confesses of his enjoyment of dreaming in <i>Religio Medici</i> (1643) thus-<br />
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'There is surely a nearer apprehension of any thing that delights us in our dreams, than in our waked senses........I thank God for my happy dreams, as I do for my good rest, for there is a satisfaction in them unto reasonable desires, and such as can be content with a fit of happiness; and surely it is not a melancholy conceit to think we are all asleep in this world, and that the conceits of this life are as mere dreams to those of the next, as the Phantasms of the night, to the conceit of the day'. [1]<br />
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Dreams were rich nourishment for Browne's imagination, not least because he was able to lucid dream, that is, to be conscious of oneself actually dreaming, and thus able to take an active instead of a passive role in the events occurring in a dream, effectively controlling the action of a dream. Browne elucidates on his rare gift in <i>Religio Medici</i> thus -<br />
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'yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof; were my memory as faithful as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams, and this time also would I choose for my devotions, but our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted understandings, that they forget the story, and can only relate to our awaked souls, a confused and broken tale of that that hath passed'. [2]<br />
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<i>On Dreams</i> opens with fleeting allusion to night and sleep, themes which, together with dreams inspired some of the greatest passages of Browne's literary art. Citing the Old Testament book of Genesis and its story of Jacob's dream, Joseph's interpretation of the Egyptian pharaoh's dreams and Nebuchadnezzar's demand not only for the interpretation of his dream but of his dream itself, Browne in common with other Renaissance thinkers viewed dreams as God-given communications and their interpretation sanctioned in the Bible. </div>
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Even as late as the seventeenth century the little-understood psychic phenomena of the dream was believed to be of either divine or diabolical origin. Browne's remark<i> </i>that, 'We have little doubt there be demoniacal dreams' seems to be an observation based upon personal, first-hand experience. If there are demonic dreams Browne argues -<br />
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'Why may there not be Angelical ? If there be Guardian spirits, they may not be unactively about us in sleep, but may sometimes order our dreams, and many strange hints, instigations, or discoveries which are so amazing unto us, may arise from such foundations'.<br />
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And in fact a belief in Guardian angels as well as witches was integral to Thomas Browne's spiritual hierarchy. Its unsurprising therefore that the Christian in Browne is concerned in <i>On Dreams </i>about the possibility of sinning in one's dreams. In his short tract he also condemns those who have paid too close attention to their dreams at the expense of common sense, stating, 'Yet he that should order his affairs by dreams, or make the night a rule unto the day, might be ridiculously deluded'.<br />
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<i>On Dreams </i>includes examples of Browne's 'dimensional imagery' in which the very large and very small are juxtaposed, noting that in dreams -<br />
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'the phantastical objects seem greater than they are, and being beheld in the vaporous state of sleep, enlarge their dimensions unto us; whereby it may prove easier to dream of Giants than pygmies'.<br />
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The very same juxtaposition of giant and pygmies, Browne's 'dimensional imagery' is featured in his late work <i>Christian morals, </i>in moralizing highly relevant to our own day.<br />
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'without which, though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity, and may hold a pitiful rank in that triple division of mankind into Heroes, Men and Beasts'. (C.M. 3:14)<br />
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In the<i> </i>painting <i>The Gentleman's Dream </i>or <i>Disillusion with the World</i> (1655) by the Spanish Baroque-era artist Antonio de Peruda (c.1611-1678) a courtier sleeps and dreams beside a table displaying various <i>vanitas</i> objects. A guardian angel unfurls a scroll with the words, "Eternally it stings, swiftly it flies and it kills", inscribed upon it, a waspish allusion to the sting of Time.<br />
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Browne references both ancient and modern philosophers in <i>On Dreams </i>including the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, a big influence upon Browne who declared in <i>Religio Medici - </i>'I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras' and a creative influence of the discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i>[3]<br />
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In addition to Pythagoras, the Italian physician, mathematician and general polymath Jerome Cardan is also mentioned twice in the tract. Jerome Cardan (1501-76) was highly influential in various disciplines, writing over 200 works on science. His interests included medicine, biology, engineering, chemistry, astrology and astronomy and he's credited with inventing several mechanical devices including the combination lock and the Cardan shaft with its universal joints which allow for the transmission of rotary motion at various angles and used in car-motors to the present day. He was often short of money and kept himself solvent by being an accomplished gambler and chess player. Cardan had a reoccurring dream which ordered him to write <i>De subtilitate rerum </i>(1550) a book which Thomas Browne was critical of when assessing Cardan in his encyclopedic endeavour <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> (1646-72) -</div>
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'We had almost forgot Jeronymus Cardanus that famous Physician of Milan, a great Enquirer of Truth, but too greedy a Receiver of it. He hath left many excellent Discourses, Medical, Natural, and Astrological; the most suspicious are those two he wrote by admonition in a dream, that is <i>De Subtilitate</i> & <i>Varietate Rerum</i>. Assuredly this learned man hath taken many things on trust, and although examined some, hath let slip many others. He is of singular use unto a prudent reader but to him that desireth hoties, or to replenish his head with varieties, like many others before related, either in the original or confirmation, he may become no small occasion of error'. [4]<br />
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Browne's judgement of Jerome Cardan didn't prevent him from acquiring sometime in 1663 or shortly after (he often purchased books upon notification of their publication by book-dealers) an edition of Jerome Cardan's complete works which included <i>Somniorum Synesiorum, omnis generis insomnia explicantes, libri IIII </i>(Synesian dreams, dreams of all kinds set forth, in four books). [5]<br />
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Jerome Cardan's work on the interpretation of dreams is partly inspired by Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413 CE) a Greek bishop of ancient Libya and author of <i>De insomniis </i>(On dreams). Cardan divided dreams into four categories based on their causes: digestive dreams caused by food and drink; humoural caused by imbalances in the four humours; anamnestic caused by passions or changes in emotion; and finally prophetic dreams of a supernatural or divine origin. Jerome Cardan viewed the first three categories as natural and ordinary bodily processes. Most of this work however, is devoted to a discussion of prophetic dreams which he views from a philosophical perspective.<br />
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Jerome Cardan is one of several independent-minded figures from Renaissance intellectual history whom Browne was highly critical of, yet read closely. Other notable candidates of similar critical influence upon Browne include Cardan's countryman, the polymath Giambattista della Porta (1538-1615) the Belgian scientist Van Helmont (1577-1644) the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1494-1541) and the German scholar of comparative religion Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). <br />
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Browne sometimes wrote with his most recent reading in mind. From his mention of the Italian polymath and physician Jerome Cardan twice in <i>On Dreams</i> its possible to tentatively date <i>On Dreams</i> as written circa 1663 from two facts. According to the 1711 Auction Sales Catalogue an edition of Jerome Cardan's <i>Opera </i>(Complete works) dated 1663 is listed as once in Browne's library. [5]. Coincidentally, almost half of Browne's eldest son Edward Browne's dissertation for his bachelor of medicine degree, on the use of dreams to the physician, was written in 1663.[6] Its therefore possible to speculate that Browne may have composed <i>On Dreams </i>to assist his son. In any event the short tract <i>On Dreams</i> isn't dissimilar in either its literary style or subject-matter to Browne's <i>A Letter to a Friend </i>(circa 1656) in which dreams as experienced by the dying are commented upon. As such <i>On Dreams </i>may be read as an appendage to <i>A Letter to a Friend</i>,<i> </i>Browne's major medical writing.<br />
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There's a fascinating relationship between Thomas Browne to the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). For example, both men were physicians who took their psychiatric responsibilities seriously, both studied comparative religion and alchemical literature in depth and both had a big interest in their own and others' dreams. I've written at length about this fascinating relationship elsewhere on this blog. [7] </div>
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C.G.Jung's <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections </i>(1963) like Browne's <i>Religio Medici </i>(1643) is an autobiographical account and spiritual testament which includes many philosophical digressions. The biggest difference between the two autobiographies being whilst <i>Religio Medici </i>was penned before its author embarked upon a medical career,<i> </i>C.G. Jung's <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections </i>was written after a long medical career, shortly before the author's death. It includes recollections of some of the many dreams Jung had, of digging up the bones of prehistoric animals, of kneeling to hand a girl an umbrella, of a tree transformed by frost, of his father reading a fish-skin bound Bible and many equally bizarre others. According to Jung-<br />
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'The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness....All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of the more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. [8]<br />
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In <i>On Dreams</i> Browne declares- 'We owe unto dreams that Galen was a physician, Dion an historian, and that the world hath seen some notable pieces of Cardan' to which one might add we owe unto dreams that the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung embarked upon a long study of alchemy.<br />
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Jung's dream which heralded his encounter with alchemy occurred in 1926 when he dreamt he was travelling through the Lombardy plain in Northern Italy. Upon viewing a large manor house located near Verona he entered its courtyard. Suddenly its gates slammed shut and he thought to himself, 'Now, we are caught in the seventeenth century'. Only much later did Jung come to realize that his dream alluded to his many years of studying alchemy, the golden age of alchemy being the seventeenth century.<br />
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Amazingly, <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections</i> includes an endorsement of Browne as a psychologist. Jung's autobiography is prefaced by a verse chosen by his secretary Aniela Jaffe to describe the psychologist, but the author of the verse, the English romantic poet Samuel Coleridge is eulogizing upon Thomas Browne, not C.G. Jung. This verse is notable for its early usage of the word 'consciousness' which the Oxford English Dictionary attributes to the poet William Wordsworth, Coleridge's sometime mentor as the first to use and in all probability was 'borrowed' from him. Coleridge's enthusiastic response to Browne focuses upon the self-analytical and mind-expanding qualities of the physician-philosopher.<br />
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He looked at his own Soul<br />
With a Telescope. What seemed<br />
all irregular he saw and<br />
shewed to be beautiful<br />
Constellations: and he added<br />
to the Consciousness hidden<br />
worlds within worlds.<br />
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Thomas Browne's anticipation of a Jungian interpretation of dreams is boldly declared in <i>On Dreams </i>-<br />
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Many dreams are made out by sagacious exposition from the signature of their subjects; carrying their interpretation in their fundamental sense & mysterie of similitude, whereby he that understands upon what natural fundamental every notional depends, may by symbolical adaptation hold a readie way to read the characters of Morpheus.<br />
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Browne's proposal of 'symbolical adaptation' as 'a readie way to read the characters of Morpheus' (the god of sleep is known as 'Fashioner' in Ancient Greek: μορφή meaning 'form, shape') requires elaboration.<br />
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Its worth remembering first that the word 'symbol' derives from the Greek σύμβολον symbolon, meaning "token, watchword" from σύν syn "together" and βάλλω bállō " "I throw, put". The meaning of symbol as "something which stands for something else" was first recorded in Edmund Spenser's epic poem <i>The</i> <i>Faerie Queene </i>(1596)<i>. </i><br />
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According to C.G Jung - 'Symbols are never simple - only signs and allegories are simple. The symbol always covers a complicated situation which is so far beyond the grasp of language that it cannot be expressed at all in any unambiguous manner. [ 9]<br />
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'If symbols mean anything at all, they are tendencies which pursue a definite but not yet recognisable goal and consequently can express themselves only in analogies.' [10]<br />
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The Renaissance study of nature included the study of human nature. It was the radical 'Luther of Medicine' the Swiss physician-alchemist Paracelsus who first encouraged and urged the physician to take dreams and seriously, declaring-<br />
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"The interpretation of dreams is a great art. Dreams are not without meaning wherever they may come from - from fantasy, from the elements, or from another inspiration". [11]<br />
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Orthodox Christian theology did not however always possess a clear-cut view or answer to the new spiritual and psychological concerns experienced by many during the Renaissance, an age of great change. The effects of urbanization for example increased interaction between widely differing social, cultural, moral and religious perspectives and increased awareness of sexuality. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From their close understanding of the human condition and dissatisfied with Christian dogma alchemist-physicians as diverse as Paracelsus, John Dee, Van Helmont, Jerome Cardan and Thomas Browne either augmented concepts originating from the western esoteric traditions or coined home-grown neologisms and symbols in order to describe their understanding of the psyche. Each of these aforenamed alchemist-physicians took their own dreams far more seriously than most in contemporary society today; each recognized their dream-lives to be of great importance to their self-development or individuation process in Jungian terms. From alchemist-physicians analysis of their dreams there emerged the beginnings of the modern-day science of psychology. Their rudimentary and tentative understanding of the self and unconscious psyche several of whom C.G. Jung found confirmation of his psychology, in particular Gerard Dorn, were the fruits of the Renaissance spirit of enquiry into nature, which includes human nature. As C.G.Jung explains-</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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'the language of the alchemists is at first sight very different from our psychological terminology and way of thinking. But if we treat their symbols in the same way as we treat modern fantasies, they yield a meaning - even in the Middle Ages confessed alchemists interpreted their symbols in a moral and philosophical sense, their "philosophy" was, indeed, nothing but projected psychology'. [12]<br />
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Thomas Browne's fascination with symbols is writ large throughout his <i>oeuvre.</i> Allusion to symbolism involving the alphabets of various languages, numbers, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mercurial characters, kabbalistic signs and geometric symbols as well as metaphors, allegories, anagrams and riddles can be found in his writings, not least in his highly hermetic discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) a literary work densely packed with symbolism. Not only is the ubiquity of the number five in art and nature prominent in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>but also its many closely-associated extensions including the V shape and the Latin numeral for 5, which by mirror doubling becomes the figure X, significant to Christians as the first letter of the name of Christ in Greek, the ten commandments as well as the Pythagorean tetraktys, which by multiplication (X) becomes the reticulated network, as seen illustrated on the discourse's frontispiece. (Below)<br />
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The literary critic Peter Green recognized- 'there is nothing vague or woolly about Browne's mysticism...Every symbol is interrelated with the over-all pattern'. [13]<br />
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Crucially, in relation to Jungian psychology, Browne not only employs one of the earliest usages of the very word 'archetype' in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>but even attempts to delineate the archetype of the 'wise ruler' through utilizing highly-original proper name symbolism, alluding to Solomon, Moses, Alexander the Great, Augustus and of course the titular hero of the discourse, Cyrus. Browne's proper-name symbolism also alludes to the archetypal figure of the ‘Great Mother' as a symbol of fertility and fruitfulness with mention of Sarah, Isis, Juno, Cleopatra and Venus. But if ever there were a sly, Royalist supporter's opposition to Cromwell's rule of England (1650-1658), its surely in Browne's repeated citing of examples of the 'Wise ruler' from history in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>.<br />
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The religious mystic and symbol go together hand in glove. For most Christian mystics the inexhaustible symbolism of the Cross was sufficient for expression of their spiritual thought. The Elizabethan mathematician and hermetic philosopher John Dee (1527-1608) however devised his very own mystical symbol, the <i>Monas Hieroglyphica </i>a complex, metaphysical 'explanation' of the cosmos. Dee's <i>Monas </i>symbol became a printer's colophon which was avidly reproduced by various alchemystical philosophers in their publications. John Dee's eldest son Arthur Dee became a friend of Browne's upon his return from Russia and retirement to what was at the time, England's second city in terms of prosperity and population, Norwich.<br />
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Peter French speculates- 'Little is known of this son of Dee's; one cannot help but wonder however, how much he may have influenced Browne, who was one of the seventeenth century's greatest literary exponents of the type of occult philosophy in which both the Dee's were immersed'.[14]<br />
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<i>On Dreams </i>is not Browne's only literary work in which the psychological is prominent. His two closely-related discourses of 1658 <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> are a portrait of the human condition and psyche, depicting humanity as simultaneously irrational and rational, fearful of death, yet forever with the future in mind, serious and merry, enduring pain and illness as well as enjoying health and pleasure. Imagery involving Light and Darkness permeates the diptych discourses, as does the dominant themes of Time (<i>Urn-Burial</i>) and Space (<i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>) the basic framework of the Mandala. Most often a circular visual image, but conceivable as a literary structure, in Jungian psychology the meditative image of the mandala symbolically represents the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity; its function is to assist with healing and to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones. Plexiformed in their polarity, themes and imagery, Browne's diptych discourses are capable of achieving such a transformation to the receptive mind. By focusing his reader's attention to the discourses primary symbols of Urn and Quincunx, Thomas Browne -<br />
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'by concentrating, almost like a hypnotist, on this pair of unfamiliar symbols, paradoxically releases the reader's mind into an infinite number of associative levels of awareness, without preconception to give shape and substance to quite literally cosmic generalizations...............Mystical symbolism is woven throughout the texture of Browne's work and adds, often subconsciously, to its associative power of impact. [15]<br />
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C.G.Jung, recognizing the enduring continuity of symbolism in the collective unconscious psyche throughout long stretches of time perceptively observes-<br />
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'The symbolic statements of the old alchemists issue from the same unconscious as modern dreams and are just as much the voice of nature'. [16] </div>
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Browne concludes his short tract <i>On Dreams </i>refuting that children don't dream under six months old, that men don't dream in some countries by supplying a footnote upon the difference between false and true dreams in the form of the Ivory gate and the polished horn gate as mentioned in Homer's <i>Odyssey</i>,<i> </i>in which Penelope the hero's wife says of dreams-<br />
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"Ah my friend," seasoned Penelope dissented<br />
"dreams are hard to unravel, wayward, drifting things-<br />
not all we glimpse in them will come to pass...<br />
Two gates there are for our evanescent dreams,<br />
one is made of ivory, the other made of horn.<br />
Those that pass through the ivory cleanly carved<br />
are will-o'-the-wisps, their message bears no fruit.<br />
The dreams that pass through the gates of polished horn<br />
are fraught with truth, for the dreamer who can see them. [17]<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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In addition to being a superb introduction to Browne's literary style, <i>On Dreams </i>includes a number of highly original speculations on the psyche's relationship to dreams, 'the Theatre of Ourselves', as the physician-philosopher memorably defines the psyche. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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Link to full text of <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Dreams" target="_blank">On Dreams</a><br />
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<u>Books consulted</u><br />
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* Patrides C. A. ed. and with an introduction The Major Works of Sir Thomas Browne pub. Penguin 1977 includes On Dreams<br />
* Finch J. S - A Catalogue of the Libraries of Sir Thomas Browne and Dr Edward Browne, his son. A Facsimile Reproduction with an Introduction, Notes and Index. E. J .Brill 1986<br />
* Jung C. G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections trans. R & C Winston London 1979<br />
* Jung C.G. Psychology and Religion Vol. 11 Collected works pub. RKP 1958<br />
* Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108).<br />
* The Odyssey Homer translated by Robert Fagles 1996 Viking Penguin<br />
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<u>Notes</u><br />
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[1] Religio Medici Part 2 Section 11<br />
[2] Ibid.<br />
[3] R.M. Part 1:12<br />
[4] Pseudodoxia Epidemica Bk 1:18 no.13<br />
[5] Sales Catalogue p.19 no 96 Opera Omnia 10 vol. Lyon 1663<br />
[6] I am indebted to Ms. A. Wyatt for information about Edward Browne's bachelor of medicine dissertation and indeed on all matters relating to Thomas Browne's eldest son, Edward Browne (1644-1708).<br />
[7] <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br />
[8] Glossary of Memories, Dreams, Reflections.<br />
[9] Carl Jung Complete Works Vol:11 paragraph 385<br />
[10] CW 14: paragraph 667<br />
[11] Paracelsus: Selected Writings edited by Jolande Jacobi pub. Princeton University Press 1951<br />
[12] CW 14: paragraph 737<br />
[13] Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108)<br />
[14] John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus, by Peter J. French Pub. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1972<br />
[15] Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108)<br />
[16] Collected Works vol. 11: paragraph 105<br />
[17] Book 19 lines 560-565 The Odyssey Homer by Robert Fagles pub. 1996 Viking Penguin<br />
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<u>Paintings</u><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvTcmX1dOaE27C7LX8-hZk84sVt7BMoVxyfEqdsbwcqnkD7pAagwD9LLN2goQ6BDWtFySScxo4Y_JxpOyZtyXk5t51dT7GYSOPo6W7c8izAAvotLiqB10Ki1R4QuUc-3Q2IGnjFCPTDm0/s1600/Before+waking+-++August+2015.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="479" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvTcmX1dOaE27C7LX8-hZk84sVt7BMoVxyfEqdsbwcqnkD7pAagwD9LLN2goQ6BDWtFySScxo4Y_JxpOyZtyXk5t51dT7GYSOPo6W7c8izAAvotLiqB10Ki1R4QuUc-3Q2IGnjFCPTDm0/s200/Before+waking+-++August+2015.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>
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'Before Waking' 40 x 50 cm. (2015) by Peter Rodulfo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNg-MIhQMk_UPohWaAjjPvWl8rT7CC6roJGcwPUUzDUbssVRF4KIEKEaSb4RWj5LopTJCzBmJg9qYemE4ztSLaVh0a49fwPXj9vyWKLs7trhjbBwa_mtsw48Md8k4pBur2gDGL9hl9Gw/s1600/Antonio_de_Pereda_-_El_sue%25C3%25B1o_del_caballero_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="800" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNg-MIhQMk_UPohWaAjjPvWl8rT7CC6roJGcwPUUzDUbssVRF4KIEKEaSb4RWj5LopTJCzBmJg9qYemE4ztSLaVh0a49fwPXj9vyWKLs7trhjbBwa_mtsw48Md8k4pBur2gDGL9hl9Gw/s200/Antonio_de_Pereda_-_El_sue%25C3%25B1o_del_caballero_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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The Knight's Dream by Antonio de Peruda. (1655)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5zCyyV-9nusYMWy7Y0wTg_EC3Rjrc5eevZ78R5MKjYKTlXhMB0lMR4Gclu8Y6QNt_BOXlmQLblBi0LgamuZDoDKpq6kEBNRQjgb-VoVPQAU8iBnyktmUrxVUvsJamRABeUJphdVY3Uk/s1600/Henri-Rousseau-Le-Re%25CC%2582ve-1910-MoMA-New-York-1280x640.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1280" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5zCyyV-9nusYMWy7Y0wTg_EC3Rjrc5eevZ78R5MKjYKTlXhMB0lMR4Gclu8Y6QNt_BOXlmQLblBi0LgamuZDoDKpq6kEBNRQjgb-VoVPQAU8iBnyktmUrxVUvsJamRABeUJphdVY3Uk/s200/Henri-Rousseau-Le-Re%25CC%2582ve-1910-MoMA-New-York-1280x640.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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Henri Rousseau Le Rêve (The Dream) 1909. Rousseau's last painting.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCG4zxPlThgV5nasWRRmKx5P9t8zwBCOO34xuk5U_tXlj-kHLOg9ydy497ozBUvUER0s9FajbxJymOQxJp3VTZj7Xrm7m3eKpqdGoIIWl244yNfZh0lNSEXDuyNjmdcIoQiylbSFq0ous/s1600/dreaming+fisherman.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="960" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCG4zxPlThgV5nasWRRmKx5P9t8zwBCOO34xuk5U_tXlj-kHLOg9ydy497ozBUvUER0s9FajbxJymOQxJp3VTZj7Xrm7m3eKpqdGoIIWl244yNfZh0lNSEXDuyNjmdcIoQiylbSFq0ous/s200/dreaming+fisherman.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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'Dreaming Fisherman' by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rodulfo" target="_blank">Peter Rodulfo</a></div>
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See also-<br />
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Link to <a href="https://www.rodulfo.org/" target="_blank">Peter Rodulfo's art </a><br />
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See also -<br />
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<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2015/11/rodulfos-mandala-of-loving-kindness.html" target="_blank">Rodulfo's quadriptych of Loving-Kindness</a><br />
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<a href="http://rodulfo%27s%20%27as%20the%20elephant%20laughed%27.%20a%20panorama%20of%20evolution/" target="_blank">Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed'. A panorama of evolution</a><br />
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<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2016/06/paracelsus-on-interpretation-of-dreams.html" target="_blank">Paracelsus on the interpretation of dreams</a><br />
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<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/paracelsus-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Paracelsus and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br />
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<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a></div>
Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-71592556700211729312020-05-17T18:23:00.003+01:002021-03-13T15:57:19.264+00:00 Helmont might dream himself a bubble extending unto the eighth sphere.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Its only in recent times that a clearer assessment of the Belgian chemist and scientist, physician and alchemystical philosopher Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579-1644) in science and medicine has been made. Likewise, its only recently that the influence of J.B.van Helmont on the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) has been recognised. <br />
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Just as historians only slowly acknowledged the seminal influence which the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) exerted upon the development of medicine during the Renaissance, so too, J. B. van Helmont has long occupied an ambiguous place in intellectual history.<br />
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J.B. van Helmont's writings are couched in the language of Renaissance mysticism and his belief in alchemy and magic is in tandem to his rational, scientific enquiries. This has resulted in an unsympathetic attitude towards him by historians of science and his writings labelled as an 'un-scientific' miscellany of medicine, philosophy and alchemy. One leading historian of medicine somewhat resignedly calling him an enigmatic figure.[1]<br />
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Quite simply the enigma of J.B. van Helmont rests in the paradox to modern sensibilities of his being defined in near equal measure as much a scientist and physician as a religious mystic and 'alchemystical' philosopher. All these compartmentalized definitions did not of course exist in J.B.Helmont's time; himself possessing an entirely holistic and unified view of science, religion, medicine and philosophy.<br />
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Throughout his life J.B. van Helmont endured much misfortune. In his youth he courteously picked up a glove a lady had dropped only to be infected by scabies from it. He consulted the writings of the famous physician Galen for a remedy but found it ineffective and a sulphur ointment prescription by Paracelsus successful. He subsequently vowed to reject Galenic medicine and follow Paracelsus instead. J.B.van Helmont toured Europe, including London and worked in Antwerp during a plague epidemic in 1605. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine of the University of Louvain in 1599 but he was later denounced by his <i>Alma Mater</i> in 1623 as a heretic through the Spanish authorities occupying Flanders. His unorthodox views resulted in his arrest, trial and imprisonment in 1634 followed by house-arrest for the rest of his life. He almost died from Carbon monoxide poisoning in 1643 and contracted pleurisy in 1644. His good fortune however was to marry an heiress whose wealth enabled him to abandon his onerous medical duties and engage in scientific research for several years.<br />
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In essence, J.B. van Helmont is a transitional figure in the history of science. Like many other early scientists he regarded all science and wisdom to be a gift from God. J.B. Helmont was also highly influenced by the so-called 'Luther of Medicine' in his scientific thought and experiments. It was the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus who proposed that the true purpose of alchemy was to investigate the properties of nature, advocating the 'art of fire' to distil 'quintessences' of mineral and vegetable-life in order to discover new medicines. J.B. Helmont has been defined as the foremost follower of Paracelsus, who, whilst highly critical of Paracelsian mysticism nevertheless subscribed to what the Swiss physician termed his 'Spagyric' medicine, the rudimentary beginnings of iatrochemistry or medical chemistry no less, and as such J.B. van Helmont is credited, alongside the English scientist Robert Boyle (1627-91) as a 'Father of modern chemistry'.<br />
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Upon J.B. van Helmont's death in 1644 his son Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont (1614-98/99) randomly collated and edited his father's writings for the publication of <i>Ortus Medicinae, </i>or the 'Dawn of Medicine' in Amsterdam in 1648. An English translation by John Chandler entitled <i>Oriatrike </i>was published in London in 1662. </div>
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In his brilliant and scholarly biographical study of Thomas Browne, the American academic Reid Barbour notes Browne is especially keen to include J.B.van Helmont's research on magnetism in the forthcoming second edition of his <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> in 1650<i>.</i> [2]<i> </i> Other recent publications on Browne singularly fail to even mention J.B. van Helmont yet alone elaborate on his influence on Browne. However, scattered throughout his writings are several references to J.B. van Helmont which strongly suggest that the Norwich-based scientist and physician Thomas Browne held the Belgian scientist and physician in high regard. It shouldn't be too surprising to discover that Browne took the medical ideas of J.B. van Helmont seriously. Circa 1629 he had completed his continental studies at Leiden University in Holland, an educational institute whose reputation for chemical medicine was centred upon J.B. van Helmont's Paracelsian science.<br />
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Although none of J.B. van Helmont's writings are listed in the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Browne's library (there's a lapse of almost 30 years from Browne's death until his library contents are auctioned. Not a single one of the books advertised on the Auction Catalogue title-page as 'Books of Sculpture and Painting' ever arrived at the auction-house) Thomas Browne surely had access to Van Helmont's writings. For example, when speculating on the formation of kidney-stones, a disease long prevalent in East Anglia due to its many chalky water-courses, Browne <i> </i>praises Van Helmont, albeit in parenthesis - '(as Helmont excellently declareth)'.[3] However, like J.B. van Helmont, Browne was also prone to read the 'Book of Nature' through the prism of esoteric schemata, the most elaborate being the microcosm-macrocosm correspondence, or from long-held folk-lore, as here-<br />
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'and Helmont affirmeth he could never find the spider and the fly upon the same trees, that is the signs of war and pestilence which often go together' [4]<br />
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Because early scientists such as Paracelsus, J.B. van Helmont and Thomas Browne encountered undefinable properties and phenomena in their scientific investigations they each had a propensity for coining and introducing new words, some of which remain in modern language. The word 'alcohol' is credited as originating from Paracelsus and that of 'electricity', amongst hundreds of others, to Browne. J.B.van Helmont's most famous neologism is undoubtedly the word 'gas' derived from the ancient Greek word for chaos. In fact, Van Helmont investigated and categorized a number of gases, including gas from belching, poisonous red gas (NO2) which is formed when <i>aqua fortis</i> (HNO3) acts on silver and sulfurous gas that “flies off” burning sulfur, amongst others. J.B. van Helmont proposed that gas is composed of invisible atoms which can come together by intense cold and condense to minute liquid drops; and that gases can be contained in bodies in fixed form, and set free again by heat, fermentation, or chemical reaction. In relation to combustion, he concluded there were two classes of gas which he named as <i>Gas sylvestre</i> – one that would not burn or support combustion (Carbon Monoxide) and <i>Gas pingue</i> – one that would burn (a combustible gas).<br />
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The most well-known of J.B. van Helmont's experiments involved his demonstration that water is the foremost element sustaining life. He wrote of his famous experiment with a willow tree circa 1620, thus-<br />
<br />
"That all plants immediately and substantially stem from the element water alone I have learned from the following experiment. I took an earthen vessel in which I placed two hundred pounds of earth dried in an oven, and watered with rain water. I planted in it a willow tree weighing five pounds. Five years later it had developed a tree weighing one hundred and sixty-nine pounds and about three ounces. Nothing but rain (or distilled water) had been added. The large vessel was placed in earth and covered by an iron lid with a tin-surface that was pierced with many holes. I have not weighed the leaves that came off in the four autumn seasons. Finally I dried the earth in the vessel again and found the same two hundred pounds of it diminished by about two ounces. Hence one hundred and sixty-four pounds of wood, bark and roots had come up from water alone".<br />
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<br />
Helmont's famous experiment was known to Thomas Browne. He alludes to it when speculating on water's ability to generate growth in <i>The Garden of Cyrus-</i><br />
<br />
'How water it self is able to maintain the growth of Vegetables, and without extinction of their generative or medical vertues; Beside the experiment of Helmont's tree, we have found in some which have lived six years in glasses'.<br />
<br />
J.B van Helmont is only one of three 'moderns' who make the cut as worthy of mention in <i>The Garden of Cyrus,</i> the other two 'moderns' who held in equal measure a rational and mystical view of science named in the discourse are the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) and the Italian esoteric scholar and polymath Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615).<br />
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It was from Paracelsus that J.B. van Helmont evolved his own idea of an 'Archeus' or 'Master Workman' responsible for giving life and form to the human body. In <i>Ortus Medicinae</i> he situated the “archeus” in the upper opening of the stomach. All diseases according to J.B. van Helmont have their seat in the Archeus and every disease, he believed, had a vital principle of it own (archeus) which could be treated by a specific medical-spiritual response. Disease, J.B. van Helmont believed, could be overcome by pacifying the disturbed Archeus. Medicines, in particular, minerals, targeted the disease and helped the host overcome its archeus. According to J.B. van Helmont-<br />
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'A Disease therefore is a certain Being, bred, after that a certain hurtful strange power hath violated the vital Beginning...and by piercing hath stirred up the Archeus unto Indignation, Fury and Fear'.[5]<br />
<br />
'Fever is the effort of the chief Archeus to get rid of some irritant, just as local inflammation is the reaction of the local Archeus to some injury'.[6]<br />
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J.B.Helmont's contemporary, the Paracelsian physician and alchemist Martin Ruland the Younger (1569-1611) attempts to define the nebulous term 'Archeus' in his <i>Lexicon alchemiae</i> (1612) thus-<br />
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ARCHEUS - is a most high, exalted, and invisible spirit, which is separated from bodies, is exalted, and ascends; it is the occult virtue of Nature, universal in all things, the artificer, the healer. Also Archiatros - supreme physician of Nature, who to every substance and member dispenses in an occult manner, by means of the air, its own individual Archeus. Also the primal Archeus in Nature is a most secret virtue producing all things out of Master, doubtless certainly supported by divine virtue. Or, Archeos is an errant, invisible species, the power and virtue of Nature's healing, the artist and healer of Nature, separating itself from bodies, and ascending from them. Archeus signifies, in addition, the power which reduces the One Substance from Iliaster, and is the dispenser and composer of all things. It individualizes in all things, including human nature.[7]<br />
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The medical ideas of J.B.van Helmont are linked to those of Thomas Browne in an astounding observation by the psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961). Writing on the Belgian alchemist Gerard Dorn, Jung unites the Paracelsian/ Helmontian concept of the Archeus with Thomas Browne's medical image of an 'invisible sun' which blazes at the apotheosis of <i>Urn-Burial </i>('Life is a pure flame and we live by an invisible sun within us'.) C.G.Jung links Gerard Dorn, the foremost promoter of Paracelsian/Helmontian medicine to Thomas Browne's 'invisible sun' (an image Browne 'borrowed from his reading of Dorn) when stating-<br />
<br />
In Dorn's view there is in man an 'invisible sun', which he identifies with the Archeus. This sun is identical with the 'sun in the earth'. The invisible sun enkindles an elemental fire which consumes man's substance and reduces his body to the prima materia. [8]<br />
<br />
As a child J.B. Helmont experienced apocalyptic visions in the cloisters of the Capuchins at Louvain. Devout and pious throughout his life, he was deeply inspired by Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) and his <i>Imitation of Christ </i>which urges the penitent to self-knowledge and a denial of the self for Christ.<br />
<br />
The psychological element is ever-present in spiritual affairs, and in conjunction with his physiological studies J.B. van Helmont took the workings of the human psyche seriously. Indeed, J.B. Helmont may be credited as an Ur-psychologist, that is, any one of a number of well-educated and isolated individuals, often from the professions of physician or priest, scattered throughout Europe circa 1500-1700 who recognised a correct understanding and interpretation of one's personal dreams to be no small contributing factor towards self-awareness and individuation. To the present-day this spiritual-psychological dimension remains of paramount importance, in particular, not only for individual understanding of the self but equally, for the very future of humanity's existence. 'Alchemystical' physician-philosophers such as Paracelsus, J.B. van Helmont and Thomas Browne each engaged in the arduous yet rewarding task of self-realization, J.B. van Helmont declaring-<br />
<b><br /></b>
'Our soul's understanding of itself, does after a sort, understand all other things, because all other things are in an intellectual manner in the Soul, as in the image of God. Wherefore indeed, the understanding of ourselves, is most exceedingly difficult, ultimate or remote, excellent, profitable, beyond all other things'.[9]<br />
<br />
J.B. Helmont was aware of the numinous nature of dreams. In the Judaic Pentateuch, the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, dreams are sanctioned as conduits of revelation from God. The story in the book of Genesis of Joseph and his ability to interpret Pharaoh's dreams was seen as endorsement of divine dreams and the art of interpretation. Using theological symbolism J.B. van Helmont seems to anticipate, along with other Renaissance-era alchemystical philosophers and Ur-psychologists, the existence of the unconscious psyche and its relationship to God when stating-<br />
<br />
'In sleep, the whole knowledge of the Apple (i.e. that which obscures the magical powers of pristine man ) doth sometimes sleep: Hence also it is, that our dreams are sometimes Prophetical, and God himself is therefore the nearer unto Man in Dreams, through that effect'. [10]<br />
<br />
In his writings J.B.van Helmont recollects a dream which determined his choice to become a physician. In this dream he saw himself as an empty bubble whose diameter reached from the earth to the heavens. Above the bubble hung a tomb, while below it was the dark abyss, a vision that horrified the young van Helmont. Upon waking he interpreted his dream and of being transformed into a giant bubble as representing his own boastful, vacuous self and a god-given sign that he must pursue the vocation of physician.<br />
<br />
Thomas Browne was fascinated by the dreams and was able to lucid dream, that is, able to orchestrate the events and action of a dream whilst in a state of dreaming, as he confesses in <i>Religio Medici</i>-<br />
<br />
Yet in one dream I can compose a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reason is fruitful I would chose never to study but in my dreams. [11]<br />
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Browne even wrote a short tract <i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Dreams" target="_blank">On Dreams</a></i> in which he speculates upon 'symbolical adaptation' in dream interpretation thus-<br />
<br />
'Many dreams are made out by sagacious exposition and from the signature of their subjects; carrying their interpretation in their fundamental sense and mystery of similitude, whereby he that understands upon what natural fundamental every notional dependeth, may by symbolical adaption hold a ready way to read the characters of Morpheus'.<br />
<br />
In his tract <i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Dreams" target="_blank">On Dreams</a></i> Browne supplies his reader with examples of how dimensions can be greatly exaggerated in dreams, humorously exclaiming-<br />
<br />
'Helmont might dream himself a bubble extending unto the eighth sphere'.<br />
<br />
A statement which indicates Browne was familiar with J.B. Helmont's accounts of his mystical experiences as well as his medical and scientific thoughts. Browne himself took an interest in bubbles as seen in his short writing <i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Bubbles" target="_blank">On Bubbles</a> </i> in which he proposes-<br />
<br />
'Even man is a bubble if we take his consideration in his rudiments, and consider the vesicular or <i>bulla pulsans</i> wherein begins the rudiment of life.<br />
<br />
Ever the subtle thinker, perhaps the strongest evidence of Thomas Browne's interest in J.B. Helmont's science occurs in correspondence to his travel-loving eldest son Edward Browne (1644-1708). Discreetly fishing for an answer Thomas Browne enquires-<br />
<br />
'What esteem they have of Van Helmont, in Brabant, his home country ? [12]<br />
<br />
In the same letter Thomas Browne also remarks-<br />
<br />
'When you were at Amsterdam, I wished you had enquired after Dr.Helvetius who writ <i>Vitulus aureus</i>, and saw projection made, and had pieces of gold to show of it.' [13]<br />
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J.B. van Helmont himself believed in the existence of Philosopher's Stone and claimed he was once given it by a stranger writing- 'It was of a colour such as is saffron in it powder yet weighty and shining like unto powdered glass. ....He who first gave the the gold-making powder had likewise also at least as much of it as might be sufficient to change two hundred thousand pounds of gold. For he gave me perhaps half a grain of that powder, and nine ounces and three quarters of quicksilver were thereby transchanged. [14]<br />
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Late in his life Browne articulated his critical opinion and estimate of J.B. van Helmont and Paracelsus in his advisory and moralistic <i>Christian Morals</i> -<br />
<br />
'many would be content that some would write like <i>Helmont</i> or <i>Paracelsus</i>; and be willing to endure the monstrosity of some opinions, for divers singular notions requiting such aberrations'. [15]<br />
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In other words, in Thomas Browne's view, the many original ideas which authors such as Helmont and Paracelsus express excuse them from 'monstrous opinions' which can be found elsewhere in their writings.<br />
<br />
There remains one last remarkable connection between J.B. van Helmont and Thomas Browne, seldom, if ever noted before now. It exists in the form of the German translator, scholar of Hebrew and the kabbalah, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-1689). At the request of the kabbalist and wandering hermit Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont (1614-98/99) who had, together with Henry More of the Cambridge Platonists annotated Knorr von Rosenroth's translations of kabbalistic texts, Knorr von Rosenroth, in return for Franciscus van Helmont's favour, helped him translate, edit and publish into Latin his father J.B. van Helmont's writings.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVH13CK7jl1Cmhj8UB4Qv4d07NJL8b2GtSmXY-3eqW87ronPhd6E-pf7lQlRa-9gsjmFhvvMjtKa09T58PIZlrcvIGB-MY7CN7Sxl5qN1dqmxM_VYxjN1b2H3afYybw3QUdP6OQ4vCAs/s1600/knorr_von_rosenroth.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="454" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVH13CK7jl1Cmhj8UB4Qv4d07NJL8b2GtSmXY-3eqW87ronPhd6E-pf7lQlRa-9gsjmFhvvMjtKa09T58PIZlrcvIGB-MY7CN7Sxl5qN1dqmxM_VYxjN1b2H3afYybw3QUdP6OQ4vCAs/s200/knorr_von_rosenroth.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-89)</td></tr>
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In his relatively short life Christian Knorr von Rosenroth somehow found time to also translate Thomas Browne's vast-ranging work of scientific journalism, <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i> totalling over 200,000 words into German, completing this task in 1680 for publication in Frankfurt and Leipzig. Its therefore quite possible that discussion of Thomas Browne's scientific writings could have occurred between Knorr von Rosenroth and J.B. Helmont's eldest son, Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont. A large field is yet to be explored in this matter.<br />
<br />
In any event Christian Knorr von Rosenroth surely recognised J.B. van Helmont and Thomas Browne as sharing values in Paracelsian medicine and scientific thought. Indeed, the Belgian scientist, physician and Christian mystic J.B. Helmont may even lay claim to being one of the foremost scientific influences upon the physician-philosopher Thomas Browne. <br />
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<u>Notes</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
[1] Roy Porter 'The Greatest benefit to Mankind': A medical history of humanity from antiquity to the present. pub. Harper Collins 1999 describes Helmont as enigmatic.<br />
[2] Reid Barbour - Sir Thomas Browne A Life<br />
pub. Oxford University Press 2013<br />
[3] Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 2 chapter 4<br />
[4] P.E. Bk. 2 chapter 7<br />
[5] Johannes Baptista van Helmont- Alchemist, physician and philosopher by H. Stanley Redgrove pub. William Rider and son London 1922<br />
[6] Ibid.<br />
[7] Martin Ruland's Dictionary of alchemy is listed in the 1711 sales auction catalogue as once in Browne's library page 22. no 119<br />
[8] Collected Works of C.G.Jung Volume 14:49<br />
[9] Redgrove 1922<br />
[10] Ibid.<br />
[11] Religio Medici Part 2 Section 11<br />
[12] Correspondence dated September 22nd 1668 to Edward Browne<br />
[13] Ibid.<br />
[14] The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science pub. Heinemann 2006 by Philip Ball<br />
[15] Christian Morals Part 2 Section 5<br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Not consulted</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
The standard, comprehensive of J.B.Helmont, prohibitively priced is-<br />
* Joan Baptista Van Helmont: Reformer of Science and Medicine (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) Walter Pagel pib.Cambridge University Press 1982<br />
<br />
But possibly the most modern interpretation of J.B. van Helmont yet is-<br />
* An Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge: The 'Christian Philosophy' of Jan Baptist Van Helmont (Studies in Intellectual History, 1550-1700) Routledge 2016 by Georgiana D. Hedesan<br />
See also -<br />
<br />
* <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/paracelsus-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Paracelsus and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br />
* <a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2016/06/paracelsus-on-interpretation-of-dreams.html" target="_blank">Paracelsus and the interpretation of dreams</a><br />
* <a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2015/10/sir-thomas-browne-and-kabbalah.html" target="_blank">Thomas Browne and the Kabbalah</a><br />
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-25918538836210260392020-02-23T18:09:00.002+00:002020-09-01T19:13:33.755+01:00Matthew Bourne's 'The Red Shoes'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Its always exciting when <i>New Adventures </i>Dance Company are booked to<i> </i>perform at the Theatre Royal, Norwich; the return of leading British choreographer Matthew Bourne's ballet <i>The Red Shoes </i>was no exception.<br />
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First performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London on December 6th, 2016 with a set and costume designs by Bourne's long-time collaborator, Lez Brotherston, Matthew Bourne's ballet <i>The Red Shoes</i> is based broadly on the 1948 film <i>The Red Shoes</i> directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, itself being loosely based upon Hans Christian Andersen's fairy-tale </div>
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The generous programme notes for the <i>New Adventures </i>production includes background information to the cult-status British ballet film <i>The Red Shoes</i> and the film-score music of Bernard Hermann (1911-75) composer of highly atmospheric music for Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic masterpieces <i>Vertigo </i>(1958)<i> North by Northwest </i>(1959) and<i> Psycho </i>(1960)<i>. </i>Bourne has carefully selected several pieces of<i> </i>Hermann's music notably from <i>Fahrenheit 451</i> which, accompanying innovative dance, gesture and mime, greatly enhance the 'story-telling without words' narrative of his ballet.<br />
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In interview Matthew Bourne stated, - "the image of the red shoes that, once put on, will not allow the wearer to stop dancing has long been a potent one for creative minds, from Powell and Pressburger to Kate Bush to Emma Rice. I have loved the film since I was a teenager with its depiction of a group of people all passionate abut creating something magical and beautiful. The film's genius was to take a highly theatrical world and turn it into a highly cinematic and at times, surreal piece of film-making. My challenge has been to capture some of that surreal, sensuous quality within the more natural theatre setting" [1].<br />
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According to Bourne - "The main message of <i>The Red Shoes </i>is that nothing matters but art. As Michael Powell said: "<i>The Red Shoes </i> told us to go and die for art." Whilst acknowledging the exaggeration here, I believe it was a piece that asked us to take art seriously as a life-changing force; something that gives intense joy but also asks for and requires sacrifices. It is the love story of two young artists: one a dancer, Victoria Page; and one, a composer, Julian Craster, and the fight between that love and the lure of the highest artistic achievement. [2]<br />
<br />
"I'm also exploring how the fairy-tale world of ballet and the stories it tells can actually blend into the real-life tale of love, ambition, artistic and personal fulfillment, until the two are barely distinguishable". [3]</div>
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Its as a tight-working ensemble more than featuring any particular star that the <i>New Adventures </i>dance company operate best, though on the evening principal dancer Ashley Shaw in the role of rising star Victoria Page was confident as a star in her own right. As ever the lighting and special effects were spectacular too, especially the sudden arrival of the locomotion train. </div>
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The extraordinary choreographic talents of Matthew Bourne (b. 1960) and his latest ballet <i>The Red Shoes </i>(2016) expands the <i>New Adventures </i>repertoire to no less than 12 full-length productions. In 2016 Bourne was awarded an OBE and in 2017 he won the award of Best Theatre Choreographer and the show itself won Best Entertainment at the 2017 Olivier Awards. The <i>New Adventures</i> dance company collectively have garnered over 50 International and National awards.<br />
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I've now had the pleasure of seeing several Matthew Bourne's ballets performed at Theatre Royal, Norwich, including- <i>Edward Scissorhands </i>(1995), <i>Highland Fling</i> (2005) and <i>Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance </i>(2012). I could not help but notice that according to the evening's programme notes there has been some kind of major reshuffle in the company; of the 24 dancers, almost half (11) are listed as joining the company as recently as 2017. However, judging by the ecstatic response and standing ovation on the night from the discerning Norwich audience that <i>The Red Shoes </i>seems guaranteed to be a popular, long-lasting addition to <i>New Adventures </i>already highly original repertoire.<br />
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<br />
<u>Notes</u><br />
[1-3] Programme notes Theatre Royal Norwich Tuesday 18 -Saturday 22 February 2020<br />
See also -<br />
<a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/sleeping-beauty-gothic-romance.html" target="_blank">Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance</a></div>
Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-64257071667646460182020-01-27T17:02:00.003+00:002020-06-14T08:40:59.769+01:00 The Pythagorical Music of the Spheres, the sevenfold Pipe of Pan, and the strange Cryptography of Gaffarell.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The influence of western esoteric concepts upon the science and creative imagination of Thomas Browne is evident throughout his 1658 discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>, not least in the preamble of its central, third chapter.</div>
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Its while adjusting the focus of his quincuncial quest from the artificial world of art and design to nature and botanical 'ocular observation' that the physician-philosopher names three sources of western esotericism of special interest to him, namely, Pythagoras, comparative religion and the kabbalah. It would however, be misleading to claim that this third chapter is preoccupied exclusively with esoteric topics. The 'Natural' chapter of the discourse predominately features Browne's sharp-eyed botanical observations, naming over 140 species of plant in total. Nevertheless its also in the opening paragraphs of this third and central chapter that Browne asserts his belief in esoteric concepts involving, 'the Pythagorical music of the spheres', 'the seven-fold Pipe of Pan', and 'the strange Cryptography of Gaffarell', declaring-</div>
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Could we satisfy ourselves in the position of the lights above, or discover the wisdom of that order so invariably maintained in the fixed Stars of heaven; Could we have any light, why the stellary part of the first mass, separated into this order, that the Girdle of <i>Orion</i> should ever maintain its line, and the two Stars in <i>Charles’s</i> Wain never leave pointing at the Pole-Star, we might abate the Pythagoricall Music of the Spheres, the sevenfold Pipe of <i>Pan</i>; and the strange Cryptography of <i>Gaffarell</i> in his Starrie Booke of Heaven.<br />
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Immediately following this light-hearted challenge, there is a fine example of the Hermetic doctrine of correspondences. Descending in subject-mater from astronomy to 'bodies in the earth', Browne draws his reader's attention to similarities between patterns formed by star-constellations to those seen in mineral stones.<br />
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The belief that all in the heavens above, the macrocosm is mirrored in life on earth below, including man as microcosm, is encapsulated in the maxim 'As above, so below' which is expounded in the so-called Emerald Tablet. Also known as the Smaragdine Tablet, or <i>Tabula Smaragdina,</i> the Emerald Tablet is a text which was held by Hermetic philosophers and alchemists alike as the corner-stone of their art. Attributed to the mythic sage Hermes Trismegistus, the Emerald Tablet was thought to originate from the antediluvian cradle of civilization, ancient Egypt and to predate the Christian era; but in fact was written in the 2/3rd CE. The opening verse of the Emerald Tablet announces -<br />
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<i>Tis true without lying, certain and most true.</i><br />
<i>That which is below is like that which is above</i><br />
<i>and that which is above is like that which is below......</i><br />
<i>It ascends from the earth to the heaven</i><br />
<i>and again it descends to the earth </i><br />
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As ever Browne couches a simple proposition, in this case the maxim 'As above so below' in ornate, processional and labyrinthine prose.<br />
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But not to look so high as Heaven or the single Quincunx of the Hyades upon the head of Taurus, the Triangle, and remarkable Crusero about the foot of the Centaur; observable rudiments there are hereof in subterraneous concretions, and bodies in the Earth; in the <i>Gypsum </i>or <i>Talcum Rhomboides</i>, in the Favaginites or honey-comb-stone, in the <i>Asteria</i> and <i>Astroites</i>, and in the crucigerous stone of S. <i>Iago</i> of <i>Gallicia</i>.</div>
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In what is a highly-compressed text, replete with proper-name symbolism and <i> </i>'astral imagery', various astronomical constellations are named, including the Southern Triangle and Cross, the Centaur, Orion the hunter, Ursa Major or the Great Bear and the star-cluster of the Hyades in Taurus. The discourse as a whole is framed by cosmic imagery, opening with the Creation and concluding with the Apocalypse.</div>
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The three esoteric concepts named in the opening of the third chapter of the Discourse, 'the <i>Pythagoricall</i> Music of the Spheres, the sevenfold Pipe of Pan and the strange Cryptography of <i>Gaffarell</i>' are each rewarding to elaborate upon, not least for identifying Browne's considerable understanding and appreciation of such esoteric concepts.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">The Music of the Spheres</span><br />
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Revered as a god for almost one thousand years until the suppression of his School and teachings, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras (<i>c</i>. 580 - <i>c.</i> 500 BCE) is credited with origin of the concept known as 'the Music of the Spheres'.<br />
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In his half-mystical, half mathematical and numerological concept of the proportional movement of the sun, moon and planets Pythagoras proposed the planetary spheres were related to each other by whole-number ratios of pure musical intervals, creating musical harmony. Legend records the ancient Greek guru could even hear 'the music of the spheres' whilst in a self-induced trance. An early commentator on Pythagoras, Iamblichus of Chalcis (<i>c. </i>250 CE - <i>c.</i>325 CE) informs in his <i>Life of Pythagoras </i>that-</div>
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'Pythagoras....extending his ears, fixed his intellect in the sublime symphonies of the world, he alone hearing and understanding, as it appears, the universal harmony and consonance of the spheres, and the stars that are moved through them, and which produce a fuller and more intense melody than anything effected by mortal sounds'. [1]<br />
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The Music of the Spheres is alluded to in Plato's <i>Myth of Er</i> and by the Roman author Cicero in <i>The</i> <i>Dream of Scipio </i>an account elaborated upon later in the highly influential cosmology of Macrobius who lived circa 400 CE. The grandson of Scipio whilst travelling through the cosmos with his military grandfather remarks-<br />
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And, as I gazed on these things with amazement, when I recovered myself: "What," I asked, "what is this sound that fills my ears, so loud and sweet?" "This," he replied, "is that sound, which divided in intervals, unequal, indeed, yet still exactly measured in their fixed proportion, is produced by the impetus and movement of the spheres themselves, and blending sharp tones with grave, therewith makes changing symphonies in unvarying harmony.....Now the revolutions of those eight spheres, of which two have the same power, produce seven sounds with well-marked intervals; and this number, generally speaking, is the mystic bond of all things in the universe. And learned men by imitating this with stringed instruments and melodies have opened for themselves the way back to this place, even as other men of noble nature, who have followed god-like aims in their life as men. [2]<br />
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A belief in the music of the spheres features in Browne's psychological self-portrait <i>Religio Medici</i> (1643) in which he poetically declares-<br />
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'For there is a music where-ever there is a harmony, order or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres; for those well ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. [3]<br />
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The music of the spheres is sometimes heard whilst the adept or alchemystical philosopher is engaged upon a 'soul-journey' and several ancient world soul-journeys are mentioned in <i>Urn-Burial,</i> the diptych companion to <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> including <i>The Dream of Scipio. </i>That Browne was familiar with the relationship between cosmic soul-journeying and harmonical music is evident from a passage from <i>Urn-Burial</i></div>
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They made use of Musick to excite or quiet the affections of their friends, according to different harmonies. But the secret and symbolical hint was the harmonical nature of the soul; which delivered from the body, went again to enjoy the primitive harmony of heaven, from whence it first descended; which according to its progresse traced by antiquity, came down by Cancer, and ascended by Capricornus. [4]</div>
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Thomas Browne did not need to rely exclusively on ancient world sources for accounts of a 'Soul-journey'. Edited by Kircher's devoted pupil and secretary, Gaspar Schott's <i>Iter Ecstaticum Kirceranium</i> (1660) is one of the strangest of books in Browne's library. Schott's <i>Iter Ecstaticum </i> describes how, Kircher, after listening to three lute-players is led by the spirit Cosmiel through a cosmic ascent and is transported in an ecstatic journey through the planetary spheres. [5]</div>
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Browne's diptych discourses are themselves thematically structured upon a soul-journey. Together they progress from the dark, earthbound Grave meditations of <i>Urn-Burial</i> to the heavenly delights and discernment of eternal design in <i>The Garden of Cyrus, </i>a discourse which is saturated with imagery of Light and Stars. <i> </i></div>
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Confident in his Christian belief in the Resurrection Browne hints of the Discourses relationship to each other in its Dedicatory Epistle thus<i>-</i></div>
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'Since the delightful World comes after death, and Paradise succeeds the Grave'.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The seven-fold pipe of Pan</span></b></div>
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It's quite possible when mentioning 'the seven-fold Pipe of Pan', that Browne had a specific illustration in mind. Throughout his life he kept abreast of the Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher's latest publications, including, as previously mentioned, an account of his 'Soul-journey' <i>Iter Ecstaticum Kirceranium</i> (1660). Kircher's greatest publication, the vast three volume work known as <i>Oedipus Egypticus </i>(Rome 1652-54)<i> </i>is also listed as once in Browne's library. Kircher's often erroneous, yet ground-breaking work of comparative religion, includes a copper-plate engraving of the Bembine Tablet of Isis. The Rosetta stone of its age, and believed to be a source of Egyptian wisdom, its mentioned twice in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>.<br />
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Kircher's <i>Oedipus Egypticus</i> also includes a folio-sized illustration of Pan which itemizes the attributes of the god of Universal Nature. The Pythagorean relationship between music and the cosmos is highlighted in Pan's 'seven-fold Pipe' which is equated with the seven planetary spheres (Above). [6]<br />
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In the artist Rinat Baibekov's painting <i>Pan</i> (top of post) the Nature god is seen about to play upon his Pipes in order to evoke Universal and Cosmic Harmony. A multitude of creatures playfully gnaw at the invulnerable god's protective armour. Baibekov supplies poetry penned by himself to accompany his painting -<br />
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<i>Shepherds, hunters, peasants,</i><br />
<i>who live far from vain cities</i><br />
<i>are the hidden talismans of magic</i><br />
<i>whose name is All, is PAN god of nature,</i><br />
<i>Inventor of spell-working Pipes</i><br />
<i>whose sound enchants nymphs.</i><br />
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<i>Nature's powers are infinite.</i><br />
<i>For millennia she dreams,</i><br />
<i>With Panpipe sounds awakens,</i><br />
<i>Ten times more powerful</i><br />
<i>returns the Spring.</i><br />
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In a painting of meticulous detail and rich tonality, Baibekov's <i>Pan </i>features a theme which is encountered in several of his paintings, that of polyoptics or many eyes. With a number of eyes peering through shadows in Baibekov's <i>Pan</i> the viewer becomes conscious of being viewed. According to the psychologist C.G. Jung multiple or 'all-seeing eyes' is associated with ‘multiple consciousness’ that is, the various quasi-conscious states which exist within the unconscious psyche. [7]</div>
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The mystery and awe often associated with an encounter with Pan is vividly expressed by the Greek panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir in his evocative soundtrack for film director Peter Weir's <i>Picnic at Hanging Rock </i>(1975). Weir's film is an atmospheric and fictitious narration of the unexplained disappearance of several schoolgirls whilst picnicking at Hanging Rock at Victoria, Australia. </div>
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The Danish composer Carl Nielsen's large-scale symphonic poem <i>Pan and Syrinx </i>(1917)<i> </i>has exciting rhythms and orchestral colourations which narrate the Greek myth of the nymph Syrinx and her tragic encounter with Pan. </div>
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Yet another example of the hermetic maxim 'As above, so below' occurs in the third chapter of <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> Browne had a great interest in books by the polymath Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615) including <i>Villa </i>(1592) in which Della Porta endows the quincunx pattern with archetypal potency. In a quite literal example of 'As above, so below' Browne mentions the fact that the Roman Emperor Augustus is recorded as having moles on this body which corresponded to those in the constellation <i>Ursa Major</i>, also known as The Plough or Charles' wayne. Citing this correspondence as an example of Della Porta's 'Celestial physiognomy' Browne informs his reader -<br />
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That Augustus had native notes on his body and belly, after the order and number in the Starre of Charles wayne, will not seem strange unto astral Physiognomy, which accordingly considereth moles in the body of man, or Physicall Observators, who from the position of moles in the face, reduce them to rule and correspondency in other parts. [8]<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The strange cryptography of Gaffarell in his Starrie booke of Heaven.</span></b></div>
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Given Browne's lifelong fascination with the symbolism of numbers, letters, hieroglyphs, along with anagrams, acrostics, riddles and all manner of unusual, hidden or 'occult' knowledge, its fairly unsurprising that a copy of Jacque Gafferell's <i>Unheard-of Curiosities </i>and its<i> </i> 'strange cryptography' is listed as once in his library. It was from his reading of Gaffarell's book that Browne is credited with introducing the word 'cryptography' into the English language.</div>
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In his phenomenally popular <i>Unheard-of Curiosities</i><i> </i>Jacques Gafferell (1601-1681) a French scholar of Hebrew, the kabbalah and astrology, proposed an alternative to the Babylonian-Greek Zodiac. Gaffarell proposed that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet can be traced in the night-sky stars.<br />
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First published in Paris in 1629, <i>Unheard-of Curiosities</i> when translated into English in 1650<i> </i>was in the vanguard of a flood of esoteric literature which poured forth from the printing-presses of England throughout the 1650's decade. The demand for esoteric literature during this decade, a demand which has never since been paralleled, was due to several factors including a relaxation of licensing of printing-presses and censorship regulations under the Protectorate of Cromwell. Many major esoteric works were either translated or first published during the 1650's decade including Agrippa's 3 books of Occult Philosophy, Elias Ashmole's vast compendium of British alchemical authors, <i>Theatrum Brittanicum (</i>1652) and Della Porta's <i>Natural Magic </i>(1658). These books catered for the general <i>Endzeitpsychosis </i>and mood of Millenarian expectation<i> </i>engendered by the execution of King Charles I and widespread social apprehension towards the Cromwellian Proto-Republic. The very conclusion of Browne's discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> however, reassures the English reader experiencing social and political instability that -<br />
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'All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again',<br />
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Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) is neither immune nor isolated from the enthusiastic trend of interest, printing and publication of esoteric literature which thrived during the 1650's in England. 'Though overlooked by all', that is, until modern-day understanding of the vital influence which Hermetic philosophy wielded upon science and art throughout the Renaissance, Browne's 1658 discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> is the supreme example of Hermetic philosophy in seventeenth century English literature.</div>
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Jacques Gaffarell's 'kabbalah of the stars' is one of a number of Renaissance era esoteric schemata which imaginatively blends ancient world wisdom with a personal, mystical vision. Not unlike Gafferell's 'strange cryptography' or Della Porta's celestial physiognomy or even John Dee's <i>Monas Hieroglyphica </i>Thomas Browne's Quincunx is also an amalgam of ancient world and home-grown esoteric schemata.<br />
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Originating from the teachings of Pythagoras (the Quincunx pattern can be seen at the heart of the Pythagorean symbol of the <i>Tetractys </i>a triangle of ten dots) and from Della Porta's advocation in <i>Villa</i>, the Quincunx becomes in Browne's mystical vision, an all-embracing, metaphysical <i>Weltanschauung </i>which unites the physician-philosopher's spiritual and scientific beliefs. Its repeatedly delineated throughout a literary work which has perplexing all but the most determined reader.<br />
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With words utterly applicable to the hermetic content of <i>The Garden of </i> psychologist C.G. Jung noted -<br />
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Intellectual responsibility seems always to have been the alchemists weak spot... The less respect they showed for the bowed shoulders of the sweating reader, the greater was their debt to the unconscious...The alchemists were so steeped in their inner experiences, that their whole concern was to devise fitting images and expressions regardless whether they were intelligible or not. They performed the inestimable service of having constructed a phenomenology of the unconscious long before the advent of psychology..The alchemists did not really know what they were writing about. Whether we know today seems to me not altogether sure. [9]<br />
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The American poet and literary critic John Irwin (b. 1940 - died December 20th 2019) noted - 'the idea that there is a necessary (because original) correspondence among numbers, letters and geometric shapes, is a belief found in esoteric alchemy and the cabala'. Irwin perceptively states of the symbolic importance of Browne's Quincunx that-<br />
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The quincunx represents God's infallible intelligence while it also embodies the main 'tools' man uses to decipher the universe: mathematics, geometry and language. The implication is that if the God-given design of man's original plantation was a quincuncial network, then this design must express the basic relationship between man and the world, known and unknown, which is to say that this formal pattern imposed on physical nature schematizes the interface of mind and world in that it contains within itself the various modes of intelligible representation of the world, i.e. mathematics, language, geometry joined together in the homogeneousness of their physical inscription as numbers, letters and geometric shapes. [10]<br />
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The word 'elegant' is encountered several times in <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> Its an apt definition of the discourse as a whole. In its third, central chapter the reader is informed that -<br />
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<i>Studious Observators may discover more analogies in the orderly book of nature, and cannot escape the Elegancy of her hand in other correspondencies</i>.<br />
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A similar encouragement occurs in the apotheosis of the 'highly hermetic' discourse [11] in its fifth and final chapter where Browne declares -<br />
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<i>A large field is yet left unto sharper discerners to enlarge upon this Order'.</i><br />
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<u>Notes</u><br />
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[1] from 'Music, Mysticism and Magic: A Sourcebook' edited by Joscelyn Godwin pub. Arkana 1987</div>
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[2] <i>Ibid.</i><br />
<u>[</u>3] R.M. Part 2 Section 9<br />
[4] <i>Urn-Burial </i>chapter 4 The polarized zodiac signs Cancer and Capricorn respectively as the exit and entrance to heaven occurs in Macrobius, ‘The Dream of Scipio, I:12 where its stated, ‘the soul came down by Cancer to enter the body at conception and ascended by Capricornus at death’.<br />
[5] Gaspar Schott <i>Iter Ecstaticum Kirceranium</i> is listed in 1711 Sales auction Catalogue of Browne's library page 30 no. 52<br />
[6] <i>Oedipus Egypticus </i>1711 Sales Catalogue page 8 no. 91</div>
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[7] Rinat Baibekhov's <i>Pan </i>Dimensions 62 cm. x 82 cm. Medium acrylic on paper, mounted on board and framed. 2010. Available for Sale.<br />
[8] <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>chapter 3. The historian Suetonius in his <i>Lives of the Caesars </i>wrote of the Roman Emperor Augustus (63 BCE- 13 CE) - <i> </i>'It is said that his body was covered with spots and that he had birthmarks scattered over his breast and belly, corresponding in form, order and number with the stars of the Bear in the heavens'. Paragraph 80.<br />
Della Porta's <i>Coelestis Physiogranonia </i>is listed in the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of Browne's library page 41 no. 41<br />
[9] Collected Works of C.G. Jung Volume 16 para 497<br />
[10] The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story. John T. Irwin pub. The Johns Hopkins University Press 1996<br />
[11] Writing in 2014 Prof. Peter Forshaw of the University of Amsterdam stated 'we find Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) commenting on the, 'strange Cryptography of Gaffarel in his Starry-Book of Heaven', in his highly Hermetic 'The Garden of Cyrus'. (1658)'<br />
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<u>Books consulted</u><br />
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* Thomas Browne: Selected Writings edited and with an introduction by Kevin Killeen pub.Oxford University Press 2014</div>
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* Music, Mysticism and Magic: A Sourcebook edited by Joscelyn Godwin pub. Arkana 1987</div>
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* Music, Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth-Century England Penelope Gouk pub. Yale University Press 1999<br />
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* The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story John T. Irwin pub. The Johns Hopkins University Press 1996</div>
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This post dedicated to the Brownean scholar Ms. Anna Wyatt.</div>
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-88977707678158258022019-09-24T16:11:00.008+01:002023-10-18T21:14:35.477+01:00Mathematical Beehives and the Peacock Fountain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsVbgntQ3J9wy4gtCxSv9T9N6x21iB7YAclqUrBDpjZb0nQ_iGwM1o0-MO-c8euy0NirHfylytOCdIx4nf4-rhGCE3MG5NsZ826O_8bqByPpUSoyjZTccHfPxjg18zYMsAvXoLCR6jSU/s1600/Bees+hexagon.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsVbgntQ3J9wy4gtCxSv9T9N6x21iB7YAclqUrBDpjZb0nQ_iGwM1o0-MO-c8euy0NirHfylytOCdIx4nf4-rhGCE3MG5NsZ826O_8bqByPpUSoyjZTccHfPxjg18zYMsAvXoLCR6jSU/s400/Bees+hexagon.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Listed as once in the library of Thomas Browne (1605-82) <i>Beehives of Universal Mathematical Philosophy </i></span>by the Italian mathematician and astronomer Mario Bettini (1582-1657) is <span style="font-family: inherit;">a compendium of mathematics, physics and optics</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Each chapter of </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Apiaria Universae Philosophiae Mathematicae </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(its Latin title) is a self-contained 'Beehive' in which a proposition or topic of early modern science is discussed including Euclidean geometry, optics, acoustics, the </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">camera obscura</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, mathematical discussion of the flight of projectiles, the art of navigation and the measurement of time. Some of the many studies and experiments in Bettini's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Aparia</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> are considered to be innovative contributions to the early scientific revolution. [1] </span>Bettini's <i>Aparia</i> went through a number of editions from its first publication in 1642.Thomas Browne's edition is dated 1656, just two years before the publication of his discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. If Browne acquired his edition of Bettini's 'Beehives' in 1656, then potentially it influenced either consciously or unconsciously, his penning <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. Either way, Bettini's <i>Aparia</i> and Browne's <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> are thematically united, in jointly supplying evidence to their reader of how the principles of geometry pervade the world. In Browne's case this involves countless examples of the 'mathematics of nature' via the geometry of the quincunx pattern. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the bulk of Browne's scientific writings are in his encyclopaedia <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica, </i>many of the topics covered by Bettini in <i>Aparia</i> also feature in Browne's discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>. For example, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the second proposition or 'Beehive' in Bettini's <i>'Beehives of Universal Mathematical Philosophy' </i>the Jesuit scientist examines the mathematics of the spider-web -</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4msJAIGXs2i0K3C8RA8GVKlDzxnkiMPQFivKqr0B2616j-SLz3bBlQeAQ8OMbJOmAKZClMkmMhxQyxE1az2VAMa6ZMXSenAT-2ZxI_XHUDUvV8aNIqhsbM43Zrq89jdUfiNZQx7o-XU/s1600/Apiaria-003.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4msJAIGXs2i0K3C8RA8GVKlDzxnkiMPQFivKqr0B2616j-SLz3bBlQeAQ8OMbJOmAKZClMkmMhxQyxE1az2VAMa6ZMXSenAT-2ZxI_XHUDUvV8aNIqhsbM43Zrq89jdUfiNZQx7o-XU/s320/Apiaria-003.png" width="217" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The spider and its web-making ability feature twice in Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus,</i> firstly in his observing - </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'that the woof of the neat Retiarie Spider, which seems to weave without transversion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued surface.' </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and secondly - 'And no mean Observations hereof there is in the Mathematics of the neatest Retiary Spider, which concluding in forty four Circles, from five Semi-diameters beginneth that elegant texture'. [2]</span></div>
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<b>Bees</b></div>
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Browne also shared with Bettini an interest in bees. From the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Pappus of Alexandria to the Renaissance-era various mathematicians and philosophers credited bees as Heaven-instructed mathematicians capable of 'geometrical forethought' and in possession of knowledge transcendent to humanity. </div>
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B<span style="font-family: inherit;">ee's important contributions to civilization consist of honey, a rare source of sweetness and wax, useful for many aspects of human life including candles for light. Honey and wax were both valuable contributions to the advancement of civilization until the advent of gas and electric lighting and the discovery of other sources of sugar. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Evidence of human beekeeping, known as apiculture, can be found in Hindu, Hittite, Greek and ancient Egyptian civilizations and as such b</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ees have fascinated poet, philosopher and scientist alike. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From the Roman poet Virgil's verse on apiculture in his fourth <i>Georgic</i> to Bernard Mandeville's inverted theory of the relationship between morality and economics in <i>The</i> <i>Fable of the Bees </i>(1719) to the mysticism of Maurice Maeterlinck's <i>Life of the Bee </i>(1900) bees are frequently associated with activity, diligence, and an industrious work-ethic order. T</span>he collective nature of the beehive has been used as evidence supporting both communal and monarchical forms of government.</div>
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Thomas Browne makes a beeline towards advocating the wisdom of the 'curious mathematics' of bees in his <i>Religio Medici </i>when proposing -<br />
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'Indeed what reason may not go to School to the wisdom of Bees, Ants, and Spiders ? What wise hand teacheth them to do what reason cannot teach us?..... in these narrow Engines there is more curious Mathematics, and the civility of these little Citizens, more neatly set forth the wisdom of their Maker; [3]<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Centuries before the Czech author Franz Kafka (1883-1924) described the horror of Gregor Samsa's transformation into a giant beetle in his short story <i>Die Verwandlung </i>(1915) Thomas Browne in <i>Religio Medici </i>(1643) imagined himself as a bee in flight -</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'when homeward I shall drive</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rich with the spoils of nature to my hive,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There will I sit, like that industrious fly,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Buzzing thy praises'.....[4]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7NhbktyYvgGH78zGeaIE72yiV9DNPIQZpB7SaMrDt-cHw9ef8vsgUq6y-FlsiiHJ4Prdw7UNMljboTpi64KxUdsfjx0Rsw3eTM5B5JAgagr_Y_6TqTuGsT_ns_7NZnbXqzOf-dP-ArY/s1600/best+bee.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1045" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7NhbktyYvgGH78zGeaIE72yiV9DNPIQZpB7SaMrDt-cHw9ef8vsgUq6y-FlsiiHJ4Prdw7UNMljboTpi64KxUdsfjx0Rsw3eTM5B5JAgagr_Y_6TqTuGsT_ns_7NZnbXqzOf-dP-ArY/s320/best+bee.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Browne's mystical awe in contemplation of the 'curious mathematics' of the bee in <i>Religio Medici</i> transforms into sharp-eyed 'ocular observation' of nature in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>in which the geometry of the beehive is closely examined-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The sexangular Cells in the Honeycombs of Bees, are disposeth after this order, much there is not of wonder in the confused Houses of Pismires, though much in their busy life and actions, more in the edificial Palaces of Bees and Monarchical spirits; who make their combs six-corner’d, declining a circle, whereof many stand not close together, and completely fill the area of the place; But rather affecting a six-sided figure, whereby every cell affords a common side unto six more, and also a fit receptacle for the Bee it self, which gathering into a Cylindrical Figure, aptly enters its sexangular house, more nearly approaching a circular Figure, then either doth the Square or Triangle. And the Combs themselves so regularly contrived, that their mutual intersections make three Lozenges at the bottom of every Cell; which severally regarded make three Rows of neat Rhomboidal Figures, connected at the angles, and so continue three several chains throughout the whole comb'. [5]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Its difficult to imagine the sheer profusion of natural life which existed in Browne's day. Bird and insect populations were considerably denser than today. Scientific evidence indicates there's been a 33% decline among the 130 plus species of pollinating insects in the past 13 years alone. This decline is closely related to world food security and even, potentially, to the extinction of present-day civilization. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In modern times the Russian mathematician and esotericist, P.D. Ouspensky (1878-1947) speculated of bees-</span><br />
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'Having begun to alter their being, their life and their form, bees and ants, taken as individuals, severed their connection with the laws of Nature, ceased to express these laws individually and began to express them only collectively. And then Nature raised her magic wand, and they became small insects, incapable of doing Nature any harm'.<br />
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'Ants and bees alike both call for our admiration by the wonderful completeness of their organisation, and at the same time repel and frighten us, and provoke a feeling of undefinable aversion by the invariably cold reasoning which dominates their life and by the absolute impossibility for an individual to escape from the wheel of life of the ant-hill or beehive. We are terrified at the thought we might resemble them'. [6]<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Optics</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Bettini's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Aparia </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">the optical illusion of replicating the image of one foot-soldier into a total of twelve foot-soldiers, an illusion highly advantageous as strategy in military affairs, is demonstrated below.</span></span><br />
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A superb example of Browne's sharp sighted 'ocular observation' occurs in the learned doctor's declaration -<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'He that would exactly discern the shape of a Bees mouth, need observing eyes, and good augmenting glasses; wherein is discoverable one of the neatest pieces in nature, and must have a more piercing eye then mine'. [7]</span></span></span><br />
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Thomas Browne's <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> interest in optics is celebrated in French artists Anne and Patrick Poirier's 'geometric garden' of twenty interconnecting sculptures in granite and two large-scale marble pieces, one of a brain, the other an eye were installed in 2007 close to the physician's 17th century home at Hay Hill, Norwich. The Italian marble block, approximately 1.5 metre square </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">has on its obverse an </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">eye and the word 'Memorabilia' on its reverse.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNVyjQu8QMz7ZH82lGpZWzImZhD8OETpjAX9xWiitCP-W1RQAT7r_urs3fvu5UnccPF5vmtgsQPzwkdsFABc46GhEoBBhsFe1VBrDj6UfslCINuwPCZsCxqeZNSyQrejz3HhOCIDxAMg/s1600/Marble+eye+-+Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="921" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNVyjQu8QMz7ZH82lGpZWzImZhD8OETpjAX9xWiitCP-W1RQAT7r_urs3fvu5UnccPF5vmtgsQPzwkdsFABc46GhEoBBhsFe1VBrDj6UfslCINuwPCZsCxqeZNSyQrejz3HhOCIDxAMg/s320/Marble+eye+-+Copy.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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Of the many facets of optics such as reflection, refraction, magnification and perspective, it seems as if the study and understanding of the workings of the camera obscura was the 'holy grail' of the 17th century European scientific revolution. Mario Bettini describes the workings of the <i>camera obscura</i> in his <i>Aparia</i>, and a rough description of its workings also occurs in <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'wherein the pictures from objects are represented, answerable to the paper, or wall in the dark chamber; after the decussation of the rays at the hole of the hornycoat, and their refraction upon the Christalline humour, answering the foramen of the window, and the convex or burning-glasses, which refract the rays that enter it'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The subject of acoustics is explored in the third volume of Bettini's <i>Aparia </i>; a topic also included in <i>The Garden of Cyrus -</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'A like rule is observed in the reflection of the vocal and sonorous line in Echoes, which cannot therefore be heard in all stations. But happening in woody plantations, by waters, and able to return some words; if reached by a pleasant and well-dividing voice, there may be heard the softest notes in nature'. [9]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">An authoritative Browne scholar perceptively notes of the geometric and mathematical content of </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Garden of Cyrus </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">-</span></div>
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'In long stretches of chapters 3 and 4 of Browne's discourse <i>The Garden of Cyrus,</i> the job of preserving the ubiquity of decussation (X) in nature is mathematical, the tapering cylindricality of trees, Archimedes on conic shapes, squaring the circle, and pyramids of light through the aperture of the eye. If <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> is an almost mathematical work, suffused in the Euclidean pleasures of number and form, Browne also dwells in the near tactility and texture of his geometrical vocabulary, 'helicall or spirall roundles, volutas, conicall sections, circular Pyramids, and fustrums of Archimedes'. [10]</div>
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It was during the early scientific revolution (generally considered to begin with Nicolaus Copernicus's theological-challenging heliocentric universe, 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in 1543 and culminating in the abstract mathematics and physics of Isaac Newton's <i>Principia</i> in 1687) that the study of optics, along with astronomy and botany among other subjects became accessible to educated and leisured enquirers, in particular from the ranks of priest and physician, Mario Bettini and Thomas Browne's respective professions. </div>
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Jesuits such as Bettini made many contributions to the development of science and have been described as "the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century." By the eighteenth century the Jesuits had "contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes and to scientific fields as varied as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, often before anyone else, the coloured bands of Jupiter, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood, the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light.</div>
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Above all other Jesuit scientists however it was books by the polymath Athanasius Kircher (1601-80) which were avidly collected by Browne. A near exact contemporary to Browne, Kircher has been described as 'the supreme representative of Hermeticism in post-Reformation Europe' and was a favourite read of the physician-philosopher, as the contents of his library reveals. Browne often wrote with his most recent reading in mind; its hardly coincidental therefore that the antiquarian artefact known as the Bembine Tablet of Isis is mentioned not once, but twice, in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>for Browne had recently acquired Kircher's vast work of comparative religion <i>Oedipus Aegypticus</i> (Rome 1650-1655) in which the Bembine Tablet, the Rosetta Stone of its age, is reproduced and 'interpreted' by Kircher. Although frequently misapprehending the true meaning of the antiquities, Egyptian hieroglyphs and world religion myth he encountered, nevertheless Kircher paved the way for future study in comparative religion. [11] </div>
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Although Browne often purchased books swiftly upon their publication there's no easy way of ascertaining whether or not he acquired an edition of Bettini’s <i>Aparia</i> in the year of 1656 and even though Browne's <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) shares subject-matter with Bettini's <i>Aparia,</i><i> </i>it also ranges into topics as diverse as - Architecture, Biblical scholarship, Egyptology, comparative religion, mythology, gardening and plantations in antiquity, geometry, the Archimedean solids, sculpture, numismatics, games and sports including backgammon, knuckle-stones, chess, archery and skittles as well as paving-stones, battle-formations, optics, the <i>camera obscura</i>, perspective, acoustics, music therapy, zoology, ornithology, the kabbalah, astrology, astronomy and not least, botany, including speculations upon the related topics of germination, generation, longevity and heredity. All these topics are used by Browne in order to supply his reader with evidence of the archetypal quincunx pattern's eternal existence.</div>
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In essence the subjects of mathematics and geometry were viewed in tandem during the seventeenth century, from both a practical, utilitarian perspective as well as from an esoteric view-point. Discoveries of mathematical laws and geometrical principles, 'the higher geometry of nature' were interpreted by early scientific enquirers, all of whom were religious-minded, as evidence of the wisdom of God, 'the supreme geometrician' in Browne's personal, mystical vision in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> whilst Bettini's <i>Aparia</i> is in essence a Counter-Reformation attempt to harness the rapid development of science to Church teaching and authority.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bettini's <i>Aparia</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is related</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> not only in its subject-matter but also in its frontispiece art-work to Browne's discourse. New</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> study of the frontispiece to Bettini's <i>Aparia</i> by the Bolognese artist </span>Francesco Curti entitled<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i></span><i>The Garden of Mathematical Sciences </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">reveals it to exhibit the self-same fusion of scientific enquiry and esoteric symbolism as encountered in Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus.</i> Curti's early colour engraving as such may be considered a worthy 'alternative' candidate to the frontispiece of Browne's <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>.<i> </i>This relationship </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">between Browne's textual discourse to Curti's visual artwork is rewarding to explore in depth.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Garden of Mathematical Sciences</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The colour engraving and frontispiece to Bettini's <i>Aparia</i> entitled <i>The Garden of Mathematical Sciences</i> (above) by the Bolognese artist Francesco Curti (1603-1670) conjures a garden in which mathematics is associated with nature. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In </span>what is a highly symmetrical and artificial composition combining art with nature, Curti's engraving depicts<span style="font-family: inherit;"> a Villa courtyard with an extensive background landscape. In its foreground stand ten antique vases, each of which </span>has optical phenomena etched upon it,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> a scientific instrument</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> growing from it as if a flower, and a stem with a geometric shape attached to it. Curti's ornate vases represent the vigorous growth of mathematical science during the early scientific revolution in which understanding of geometry and mathematics advanced understanding in subjects as diverse as architecture, navigation, art-perspective and optics. [12] </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Centre-stage in Curti's <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences</i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> there is a sculptured stone basin supported by two entwined water-nymphs or Naiads, </span>female spirits once believed to preside over fountains, wells, streams and freshwater<span style="font-family: inherit;">. A peacock alights upon the water basin's sculptured ornamentation w</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ith one foot upon a sphere</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> its other mysteriously grasping a staff with a single eye at its tip. Water streams from </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">its fanned feathers</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, creating a perpetual fountain. Two hedged gardens, rough pasture,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>bees in flight, <span style="font-family: inherit;">a geometrical spider-web, two mystical </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">statua</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the figure of Mercurius </span>holding an armillary sphere while <span style="font-family: inherit;">standing upon a pyramid of six beehives </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">can also be seen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A comparative study of Curti's engraving to Browne's discourse is assisted by the fact that <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> is itself a highly visual work in its abundance of visual imagery; b</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">oth 'Garden' art-works may loosely be defined as possessing characteristics associated with Mannerist art. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The art-historian John Shearman noted that characteristics of Mannerist art included</span></span></span> - Hidden classical references, refinements, interlacing of forms and unexpected and departures from common usage. The Hungarian art-historian Arnold Hauser noted that Mannerist art delighted in symbols and hidden meanings and that it catered for an essentially international cultured class, was a refined and exclusive style, with an intellectual and even surrealistic outlook. <span style="font-family: inherit;">He also noted that Mannerist art was inclined towards esoteric concepts in its symbolism. In words easily applicable to either 'Garden' art-work Hauser defined the qualities and excesses of Mannerist art thus -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'At one time it is the deepening and spiritualizing of religious experience and a vision of a new spiritual content in life; at another, an exaggerated intellectualism, consciously and deliberately deforming reality, with a tinge of the bizarre and the abstruse.' [13]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">lthough differing in medium, both 'Garden' art-works with their utilization of multiplicity and variety, juxtaposition of art and nature, along with their fusion of scientific enquiry to esoteric symbolism, easily conform to the artistic style and objectives of Mannerist art.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, such is the stylistic contrast between Browne's two philosophical discourses that while the stoicism of <i>Urn-Burial </i>with its survey of human grief, passion and bereavement, </span>couched in oratorical prose <span style="font-family: inherit;">is utterly Baroque in theme and style; its diptych companion, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Garden of Cyrus </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">with</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> its procession of examples from art and nature involving great variety and multiplicity and many esoteric allusions is exemplary of Mannerist artistic traits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Curti's <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences </i>the superimposed symbols of fountain and peacock are worthwhile looking at closely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Victorian-era, Gothic-style fountain, Plantation Gardens, Norwich.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Fountains</b> feature prominently in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> gardens from the Renaissance era onwards. The functional aspect of the fountain, to provide drinking-water, was superseded as a purely decorative and entertainment feature in gardens. In addition to creating health-inducing negative ions, fountains also camouflage conversation from prying ears in public, urban spaces. Many of Rome's famous fountains were constructed during the seventeenth century including Bernini's fountain of the Four Rivers, the Trevi Fountain and the so-called Bee Fountain. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Contemporary to the construction of such large-scale public fountains Jacob Dobrzenski (1623-97) a Professor of mathematics and medicine of Nigro Ponte, Ferrara, published a book in 1657 with the intriguing title of, 'New and More Pleasing Philosophy on the Wonderful Spirit of Fountains' (</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Nova et amenior de admirando fontium genio philosophia).</i></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">15th c. illustration from </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">De Sphera, </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Modeni, Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The alchemical symbolism of the fountain was developed through Bernard of Treviso's </span></span>story<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>of a King who is rejuvenated after bathing in a fountain. Trevsio's story was included in the 17th century anthology known as the <i>Theatrum Chemicum. </i>A Fountain of Love is also mentioned on several occasions by the philosophical alchemist Gerard Dorn in <i>Speculativa Philosophia</i> included in the first volume of the <i>Theatrum Chemicum,</i> a copy of which was once in Thomas Browne's library. [14]<br />
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'Approach the fountain here, Body, so that you may drink your fill with your Mind and not thirst any more for Vanities. O admirable efficacy of the fountain, which makes one from the two and brings peace between enemies ! The fountain of Love can make Mind from Spirit and Feeling Soul, but here it makes one man from Mind and Body. [15]<br />
<i><br /></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alchemical literature and iconography frequently alludes to </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> fountain of Youth in which the magical powers of its waters restore and rejuvenate; l</span>ike the philosophical bath the mercurial character of<span style="font-family: inherit;"> the</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">fons mercuralis </i>in which mercury is transformed means it is dualistic, being poisonous as well as healing, apt symbolism of the underlying unity of the trickster god of alchemy.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his late work </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Mysterium Coniunctionis -</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> An inquiry into the synthesis and separation of psychic opposites (1963) C.G.Jung likens the everlasting fountain to psychic processes, thus -</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">The ever-flowing fountain expresses a continual flow of interest towards the unconscious, a kind of constant attention or</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">"religio"</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">which might also be called devotion.....If attention is directed towards the unconscious, the unconscious will yield up its contents, and these in turn will fructify the conscious like a fountain of living water. [16] </span></div></div>
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The myth of how the <b>peacock</b> got its many 'eyes' and how it became a bird sacred to the goddess Juno is recounted in Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i>, a source-book of inspiration to Renaissance painter, poet and sculptor alike. The Roman poet relates how the hundred eyes in the head of Argus took their rest two at a time while the others kept watch on guard. Wherever Argus stood he was looking at Io, and had Io in front of him even when his back was turned. Zeus ordered Hermes to assassinate Argus. The goddess Juno had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, into a peacock's tail. [17]<br />
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The subject of Juno and the hundred eyes of Argus became a popular theme during the seventeenth century. European artists including Rubens, Velasquez and many others were inspired by the Greek myth. [18]<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Avian symbolism often features in alchemical iconography in which the raven, swan, pelican, dove, owl and peacock are frequently encountered. Several symbolic attributes are associated with the peacock, these include it being, like the phoenix, a solar bird from its wheel-like fanned display of feathers, as a symbol of rebirth and immortality from its supposed incorruptible flesh, as a symbol of multiplication from the many</span> 'eyes' upon its fanned feathers, while the<span style="font-family: inherit;"> optical effect of iridescence produced by its feathers is likened to the numinous experience of the alchemist engaged in experiment.</span><br />
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Symbols can endure paradox. Whilst the peacock, like the phoenix is a solar symbol from the way in which it spreads its tail in the shape of a wheel, the many 'eyes' upon its fanned feathers are analogous to the starry night sky.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C.G. Jung notes - 'The peacock is an old emblem of rebirth and resurrection, quite frequently found on Christian sarcophagi' [19] a fact which Thomas Browne noted </span></span> in <i>Urn-Burial </i>when writing of early Christian funeral iconography depicting, <span style="font-family: inherit;"> 'the mystical figures of peacocks, doves and cocks'. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jung also states-</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The <i>caudo pavonis </i>announces the end of the work, just as Iris, its synonym, is the messenger of God. The exquisite display of colour's in the peacock's fan heralds the imminent synthesis of all qualities and elements, which are united in the "rotundity" of the philosophical stone'. [20] </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jung likened the iridescence of peacock's feathers to alchemical experimentation stating - 'The chemical causes of the </span><i>cauda pavonis </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">are probably the iridescent skin on molten metals and the vivid colours of certain compounds of mercury'. [21] </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The optical effect of iridescence on silk may have been known to Thomas Browne</span> when very young for his father was a wealthy silk merchant. I<span style="font-family: inherit;">n <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> he notes<i>- </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>'</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And from such salary irradiations may those wondrous varieties arise, which are observable in Animals, as Mallards heads, and Peacocks feathers, receiving intention or alteration according as they are presented unto the light'.[22]</span></div>
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The 19th century mythologist De Gubernatis stated-<br />
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'The serene and starry sky and the sun are peacocks. The deep-blue firmament shining with a thousand brilliant eyes, and the sun rich with the colours of the rainbow, present the appearance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-spangled feathers. .....It is commonly said of the peacock that it has an angel's feathers, a devil's voice, and a thief's walk'. [23]<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On a mundane level the many eyes of the peacock's tail may be interpreted as symbolizing the watchfulness of the observer during the alchemical </span><i style="font-family: inherit;"> opus </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">while at a higher level poly optics symbolizes the alchemical stage of Multiplication. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Crucially, in Jung’s view the motif of the all-seeing 'eyes' of the peacock - polyophtalmia (many eyes) - is associated with ‘multiple consciousness’ that is, with the various quasi-conscious states which exist in the unconscious. Multiple eyes symbolize what Jung calls 'multiple luminosities' of the unconscious. Particularly, polyophthalmia ‘indicates the observing consciousness is the observing agent of the psyche. Polyopthalmia can also symbolically illuminate the concept of foreknowledge, that is, not about knowing something in advance (‘fore’) but rather instead about being able to observe what is already in existence through a simultaneous multiplicity of perspectives. Thus, the many eyes of the displayed tail feathers of the peacock can be said to symbolize a non-linear multiplicity of perspectives. [24 ] </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the </span>richly coloured and detailed engraving for Salomon Trismosin's <i>Splendor Solis </i>by <span style="font-family: inherit;">Jörg Breu the Elder (1480-1537)</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a peacock is depicted encased within an alchemical vessel (above).</span></div>
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The peacock's fanned feather display exhibits the short-lived nature of all manifestation, since its forms appear and vanish as swiftly as the peacock displays and furls its tail.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Indeed, to the present-day the sudden appearance of a rainbow (the peacock's close symbolic relation) caused by </span>the optical effect of light refracted through water, <span style="font-family: inherit;">retains a fragment of a once potent numinosity to those seeing it occur in nature. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Although the goddess Juno is named in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>, the bird sacred to her, the peacock is not; however, geese, ducks, cormorant, bittern, owls, swallows along with butterflies, bees,<i> </i>beavers, rattlesnakes, lambs and carp as well as elephants and whales are mentioned in the discourse.<br />
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Browne was<span style="font-family: inherit;"> in fact a keen bird-fancier, keeping at one time or another a cormorant, owl, bittern, golden eagle and even an ostrich so he may well have approved of a peacock on a frontispiece for his discourse, stating in the dedicatory epistle of <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘noble spirits contented not themselves with Trees, but by the attendance of Aviaries, Fish Ponds, and all variety of Animals’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In many ways the symbols of peacock and fountain in Curti's engraving are near-identical in their symbolic meaning, that of a numinous and revivifying phenomena accompanying the alchemist and/or early scientist in their quest. T</span>he appearance of the <i style="font-family: inherit;">cauda pavonis</i> of the<span style="font-family: inherit;"> peacock is considered to be a dramatic indicator of success in the opus </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">while the fountain is similarly associated with flourishing and growth in the alchemical opus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In essence Curti's <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences</i> captures the moment of revelation. As such it depicts a 'Light-bulb' moment as experienced by the alchemist/scientist whilst engaged in experiment in the laboratory. The light-bulb did not of course exist during the 17th century, and a more natural, if at first, seemingly paradoxical imagery is employed by Curti to express the short-lived psychic experience of revelation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In modern times the 'Light-bulb moment' can be traced in origin to a character in</span> Max Fleischer's early Betty Boop cartoons (1935-1937). Grampy is an eccentric inventor who entertains his guests by building self-playing musical instruments out of household gadgets. Whenever presented with an unexpected new problem, Grampy puts on his thinking cap, a mortarboard with a light-bulb on top. When the light-bulb lights up Grampy is able to solve his problem and build a new gadget to solve the problem.</div>
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The two mid-seventeenth century 'Garden' art-works text and image are related to each other not only in title, chronology and subject-matter, but also, crucially, in their self-same fusion of scientific enquiry with esoteric symbolism. J<span style="font-family: inherit;">uxtaposed to its depiction of scientific instruments in Curti's <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences</i> allusions to Pythagorean number symbolism can be seen; </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the self-same fusion of nascent scientific enquiry to esoteric symbolism permeates Browne's mystical vision of the inter-connection of art and nature in <i>The</i> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Garden of Cyrus. </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Renaissance was an era in which the 'Re-birth' or 'rediscovery' of various forms of knowledge occurred. Its useful to realise that this included the 'rediscovery' of esoteric writings such as the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i> by so-called Gnostic authors, as well as 're-discovered' texts, foremost of which was the discourse known as the <i>Timaeus</i> by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second only to the many myths included in the Judaeo-Christian Bible, </span>Plato's discourse the <i>Timaeus</i> was<span style="font-family: inherit;"> the most frequently consulted hand-book which influenced and inspired hermetic philosopher and alchemist alike during the Renaissance. In what is his most Pythagorean work, Plato's <i>Timaeus</i> recounts how the demiurge created the world in the geometric form of a globe. The round figure is proposed to be the most perfect one, because it comprehends all other figures and is therefore the most omnimorphic of all figures, each point on its surface being equidistant from its centre. The sphere is featured above all other shapes in the frontispiece engraving <i>The</i> <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences </i>with no less than ten spheres in total around each of the two enclosed gardens of Curti's Neoplatonic landscape view from a courtyard villa. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> In his highly influential<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Oration on the Dignity of Man </i>(</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">De hominis dignitate</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">) of 1486 t</span>he Renaissance humanist scholar Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)<span style="font-family: inherit;"> famously justified the importance of the human quest for knowledge within a Neoplatonic framework. Pico della Mirandola </span>is also credited with re-introducing the 'mystical mathematics' of Pythagoras to Renaissance Europe. <span style="font-family: inherit;">The Greek philosopher Pythagoras was worshipped and venerated as a god for almost one thousand years before institutions teaching his ideas were closed down at the Fall of the Roman empire. </span>Pythagoras taught that -<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'By number, a way is had, to the searching out and understanding of everything able to be known'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pythagoreans believed t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he number ten to be the number of totality and perfection containing within it all other numbers. It was depicted in Pythagorean teachings in the form of the </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">tetractys </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">a pyramid of dots (1+2+3+4) representing universal principles. </span><br />
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Pythagorean numerology and Platonic shapes abound in Curti's illustration <i>The</i> <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences.</i> The sphere is featured in repeated groupings of ten as well as ten bees in quincunx formation and in ten vases in a 2 x 5 arrangement in its foreground. The number of chapters in Browne's diptych discourses total ten and the figure X along with citations from Plato's <i>Timaeus </i>loom large throughout the pages of <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>from its very opening to its Platonic meditation upon the figure X as a symbol of the soul.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Radiating from the centre of the <i>tetkratys </i>pattern the hexagon can be seen, believed by Bettini, among others, to be 'proof' of the transcendent mathematical ability of bees in their construction of hexagonal honeycomb cells. The quincunx pattern (four corner dots of a square with one at the centre as upon dice) celebrated for its ubiquity in art and nature in Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus </i>can also be discerned at the centre of the <i>tetkratys.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the figure of quincunx is mentioned in classical antiquity it was during the Renaissance that the idea of it being a pattern which transcends the realm of the artificial originates. The idea can be found in book 4 of the Italian Renaissance scholar Giambattista Della Porta's agricultural encyclopedia </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Villa </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(1583-1592) in which Della Porta (1535-1615) asserts that the quincunx pattern in addition to featuring in gardens and plantations, 'is to be found in each and every single thing in nature'. An illustration of the quincunx pattern was </span>'lifted' from Della Porta's agricultural encyclopaedia <i>Villa </i>by Thomas Browne for the frontispiece of his 'Garden' discourse <span style="font-family: inherit;"> (below)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirOIkaYDLaqCloHGjcMoepwkmOgaw9kLMBCW8jiA1X8W3JEZk8DjYkalHdJdsZK1epCkuLqrIdelnU5XRgxgxBxWyZcRZKcYWlHvcPR0PvnvUGQvNbQUIOz19QVTC1T_8JN5oVzoCyRGs/s1600/3572098087_04db8370f5_o.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirOIkaYDLaqCloHGjcMoepwkmOgaw9kLMBCW8jiA1X8W3JEZk8DjYkalHdJdsZK1epCkuLqrIdelnU5XRgxgxBxWyZcRZKcYWlHvcPR0PvnvUGQvNbQUIOz19QVTC1T_8JN5oVzoCyRGs/s320/3572098087_04db8370f5_o.gif" width="217" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Magnification of Curti's frontispiece </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> reveals the very same</span> quincunx pattern occurs in the hedge panels surrounding the gardens of Curti's imaginary Villa, in the formation of bees in flight, as well as the double 2 + 1 + 2 arrangement of the ornates vases in its courtyard foreground.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In conclusion, Curti's <i>Garden of Mathematical Sciences </i></span>features two quite different approaches and interpretations of number which co-existed during the 17th century before going their separate ways.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> It alludes to Pythagorean numerology as well as promoting the new 'observational' sciences of optics and astronomy. Its therefore a strong candidate</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> as an alternative frontispiece to Browne’s 'Garden' discourse as these two quite different interpretations of number, that of Pythagorean number symbolism and a utilitarian</span>,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> early scientific approach to number occurs in Curti's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Garden of Mathematical Sciences </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(circa 1660) as well as in Browne's 1658 discourse </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Garden of Cyrus </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span><br />
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<u style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Notes</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[1] Mario Bettini's book is listed in the 1711 Sales Catalogue of Thomas Browne's library on </span>p. 28 no. 16<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>under Folio <span style="font-family: inherit;">by its half-title </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Fucaria & Auctaria ad Apiaria Philosophiae Mathematicae</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> 1656. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[2] <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i></span>chapter 2<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[3] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1:13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[4] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1:15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[5] <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i></span><br />
[6] A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the psychological method in its application to problems of Science, Religion an Art. by P.D. Ouspensky RKP 1931<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[7] <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[8] Optic books in Browne's library include - Alhazen - Opticae Thesaurus Libri X, Basle 1572 Francois d'Aguillon - Opticorum Libri 6, Antwerp 1613 Johannes Kepler - Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, Frankfurt 1604 Athanasius Kircher - Ars Magna Lucis & Umbrae, Rome 1646 Christoph Scheiner - Rosa Ursina sive Sol, Bracciano, 1630</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[9] <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[10] Thomas Browne Selected Writings ed. Kevin Killeen OUP 2014 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[11] <i>Oedipus Aegyptiacus </i>1711 Sales Catalogue page 8 no. 91</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[12] </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Francesco Curti colour image courtesy of Getty Images, with thanks for fair usage. This image has been available online since December 31st 2016. </span>The full size of Francesco's Curti's colour engraving is approximately 30 x 40 cm. <span style="font-family: inherit;">There are in fact two different versions of the frontispiece for </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Garden of Mathematical Sciences</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Early editions include a frontispiece by Matthiae Galasso/Matthias Galassus while later editions feature Francesco Curti's colour engraving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhum8Ro6BgGTR3D-m17dJzWwq1ilLINoEUQyrjcI5SQPp58USX2bO5szlf4TOkZJAU6IPQDhUK2mY-NBdVNLR0bHVVLrDykmUY68FTXmHd5h64-Ojn7w3_HsXpSZfcgrezXiHKdRzZlJ9A/s1600/Early+peacock.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhum8Ro6BgGTR3D-m17dJzWwq1ilLINoEUQyrjcI5SQPp58USX2bO5szlf4TOkZJAU6IPQDhUK2mY-NBdVNLR0bHVVLrDykmUY68FTXmHd5h64-Ojn7w3_HsXpSZfcgrezXiHKdRzZlJ9A/s320/Early+peacock.jpg" width="232" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The biggest difference between the two versions is the various ensigns, banners and disembodied armoury in Galassus's version being replaced in Curti's engraving by the figure of Mercurius holding a banner with Papal ensigns. Both versions depict an armillary sphere, symbolic in Mathias Gallius's version to the world-wide influence of the missionary Jesuit Order. In Curtius's version it is Mercurius, the messenger of revelation and guiding 'deity' of alchemy who is featured in the frontispiece's symbolism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[13] John Shearman Mannerism London, Penguin/Baltimore, MD, 1967 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and Arnold Hauser</span> Mannerism. The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[14] <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>Sales Catalogue page 24 no. 124</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[15] <i>Ibid.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[16] CW 14: 193</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[17] Ovid </span><i>Metamorphoses </i>Book 1 500-746 Penguin 1955<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[18] </span>Artists inspired by the Greek myth of Juno and the peacock include - Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640) Juno and Argus, c. 1610, oil on canvas, 249 x 296 cm. (Post illustration) Other seventeenth century paintings on the theme of Juno, Argus and the Peacock include- Claude Gellée ‘Mercury Lulling Argus to Sleep with the Sound of His Pipe’ (1662) - Cornelis Bisschop (1630-1674) Circle of Cornelius van Poelenburgh (circa 1650) - Govert Flinck (1615-60) circa 1635-45 - Jacob Jordaens circa 1620 - Carel Fabritius ( circa 1645 and circa 1647) Velázquez (1659) Hendrik Goltzius (1615) Antonio Balestra (1666-1740)<br />
[19] C.W. Vol. 9i: 686<br />
[20] C.W. 381 n. 2<br />
[20] C.W. vol. 14 396<br />
[21] CW 9i 581 n. 129<br />
[22] <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i><br />
[23] Angelo De Grubernatis Zoological Mythology II London 1872<br />
[24] - Time and Timelessness: Temporality in the theory of Carl Jung By Angeliki Yiassemides<br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Link</b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://science-andinfo.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-bee-is-declared-most-important.html?fbclid=IwAR02XsLES7zmsZqYG0Rz1siPo4Awd6NCKTXSm3YWB5HTgJQxDa9JXai75gg" target="_blank">The bee is considered to be the most important living creature on the planet</a></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Recommended listening</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alchemical literature of the sixteenth and seventh centuries frequently alludes to the transformative power of music, most notably in Michael Maier's </span><i>Atalanta Fugiens </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(1617). The twentieth century musical genre of Jazz - an art-form which thrives upon experiment and which has the meditative and melancholic music genre of the 'blues', almost equivalent to the </span><i>Nigredo </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">stage of the alchemical </span><i>opus</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - is a worthy contender for representing certain prerequisites and templates of alchemy, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the musician in the studio or in performance expressing inner experience as much as </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the alchemist in his laboratory engaged in the alchemical opus. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A highly-stylized cry of the peacock can be heard in the legendary tenor saxophonist Stan Getz's interpretation of pianist/composer Jimmy Rowles <i>The Peacocks</i> (1975) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">John Coltrane (1926-67) and Stan Getz (1927-1991) were the t</span></span>wo tenor saxophonists who dominated 20th century Jazz<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span>Like chalk and cheese to each other, <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">each possessed a unique technique and interpretative skill, as their respective performances and recordings demonstrate. If Stan Getz's <i>The Peacocks </i>may be considered as expressive of the <i>nigredo </i>stage of alchemy, John Coltrane's rendering of <i>The Night has a Thousand Eyes </i>is </span></span>an <i>albedo </i>fountain of musical notes.<br />
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The English composer William Alwyn (1905-1985) in his autobiography <i>Winged Chariot </i>states of his 5th symphony <i>Hydriotaphia </i>(1973) 'Browne's wonderful prose sets the mood of each section and is an expression of my personal indebtedness to a great man whose writings have been a life-long source of solace and inspiration'. Alwyn's <i>Naiades </i>(1971) a Fantasy Sonata for flute and Harp aurally depicts the water-nymphs of antiquity, as seen supporting a water-basin in Curti's colour engraving. </div>
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-70149537471841838322019-08-28T18:02:00.000+01:002020-03-08T15:19:23.704+00:00Elective Affinities : Johann Goethe and Thomas Browne<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Today on the 270th anniversary of the birth of Johann Goethe (August 28th 1749-1832) its exciting to reveal and elaborate upon the fascinating relationship between the brightest star of German literature to the English physician-philosopher Thomas Browne (1605-82). </div>
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Goethe and Browne were both polymaths who shared a lifelong interest in topics as diverse as botany, anatomy, optics and antiquity. They also held a shared interest in esoteric topics such as Neoplatonism, Pythagorean numerology and alchemy; subjects vital to their scientific thinking and which influenced their literary symbolism.<br />
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Goethe and Browne's affinity in anatomical and botanical studies is remarkably close; for example, whilst Browne acquired the skeletal leg-bone of an elephant for his anatomy studies, Goethe somehow acquired an elephant's skull for study; whilst Browne's botanical studies included sea-holly, a plant found on Norfolk’s coastal sand-dunes, Goethe made botanical observations on sea-holly found on the sand-dunes of the Venice lido.</div>
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In his botanical studies Goethe developed the theory that the characteristics from which all plants grow are variations which are modelled upon a prototype plant or <i>Urpflanze</i>. His theory that Nature follows a pre-ordained pattern, or 'inner form' is in accordance with the popular early nineteenth century German school of <i>Naturphilosophie.</i>Writing in terms comparable to Goethe's <i>Urpflanze</i> or 'Prototype plant' of German <i>Naturphilosophie</i> Browne in <i>Religio Medici </i>proposed that nature has an invisible, prototype 'inner form' thus-<br />
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'In the seed of a Plant to the eyes of God, and to the understanding of man, there exists, though in an invisible way, the perfect leaves, flowers, and fruit thereof'. [1]<br />
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German <i>Naturphilosophie </i>adhered to the Renaissance belief that Creation consists of a hierarchical ladder, as described by Browne thus -</div>
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<i><br /></i>'First we are a rude mass,........next we live the life of plants, the life of animals, the life of men, and at last the life of spirits, running on in one mysterious nature those five kinds of existences, which comprehend the creatures not only of the world, but of the Universe' [2].<br />
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German <i>Naturphilosophie</i> based itself upon the rigid numerical system of five 'evolutionary' forms of life, from there being five senses, five planets and from the many references to the number five in the Bible. A full century and half earlier Browne in <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> (1658) celebrated 'fiveness' in Art and Nature via the quincunx pattern. Browne's idea that Nature is permeated by the number of five may have originated either from his reading of Della Porta's <i>Villa </i>(1592) in which the quincunx is stated to be a universal archetype<i> </i>or simply from his noticing that many flowers consist of five petals. <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> includes numerous sharp-eyed observations, and names in total over 140 herbs, flowers, trees and plants. </div>
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German <i>Naturphilosophie </i>held the pre-Darwinian belief that Nature possesses an 'inner form' , a belief which is central to both Goethe's and Browne's botanical studies. Goethe's theory that Nature has a fixed, pre-ordained 'Inner Form' was asserted a full century and half earlier by Browne in <i>Religio Medici</i> (1643).</div>
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'I hold moreover that there is a phytognomy, or physiognomy, not only of men, but of plants and vegetables; and in every one of them some outward figures which hang as signs of their inward forms. [3]</div>
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The two early scientists also shared an interest in Optics; Goethe, as is well-known, stubbornly refuted Newton's theory of Colour, and his motivation for challenging Newton's discoveries remains much discussed. His <i>Fahrenlehre</i> (Theory of Colours) was not received as favourably by the scientific community as its author had hoped. Browne's own study of optics resulted in strikingly original optical imagery in his literary works.</div>
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For Goethe science was a source of imaginative insight which had developed from poetry; the hasty, breathless, fractured tone of an early draught and the published text of Browne's <i>Garden of Cyrus</i> strongly suggests the physician-philosopher's detection of an archetype in nature, the Quincunx pattern, may, like Goethe's scientific insights, have originated from a sudden, quasi-poetical, vision.<br />
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Browne's mystical insight that the Quincunx pattern embodies the mysteries of nature is not so dissimilar from Goethe's <i>Fahrenlehre</i> (Theory of Colours) in which the German scientist wanders into contemplation on symbols, in particular the triangle and the hexagon, thus-</div>
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'Colour may have a mystical allusion....The mathematician extols the value and applicability of the triangle; the triangle is revered by mystics; much admits of being expressed in it by diagrams, and amongst other things, the law of the phenomena of colours: indeed we presently arrive at the ancient mysterious hexagon'.<br />
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But as the American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002) stated -<br />
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'The human mind delights in finding pattern - so much so that we often mistake coincidence or forced analogy for profound meaning'.</div>
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In the preface to his <i>Origin of Species </i>(1859) Charles Darwin included Goethe as one who in some way or other anticipated his own ideas. But it was also Darwin who destroyed the 'rule of five' theory of German <i>Naturphilosophie</i>. Before Darwin Creation theories were represented by Classical deities, notably Neptunism and Vulcanism to represent life's origins. Goethe subscribed to the view that life evolved from the element of water, as symbolised by the sea-god Neptune. However, its the Roman god of fire Vulcan who held significance to Browne, utilizing highly-original proper-name symbolism he alludes to the Roman god in <i>The Garden of Cyrus, </i>in opening, second chapter and apotheosis closing chapter <i>.</i><br />
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Recent scientific evidence suggests life's origins may in fact be a combination of fire and water. Fossil remains of microbes which colonised deep sea hydrothermal volcanic vents more than three billion years ago have been discovered in a region of Western Australia which was once covered by ocean.</div>
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Science for Goethe was, equally for Browne, a source of revelation which permitted the enquirer, 'to see how and where God reveals himself that is heaven on earth'. Goethe's scientific outlook has been described as peculiar for being neither inductive or deductive. As an 'intuitive' scientist, one who was suspicious of systems and mathematics in science, his scientific views, like Browne's, have been questioned.</div>
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Goethe has been described as - 'one of the last of the universal scientific minds still able to encompass the whole of nature' and as 'a pantheistic poet wanting to create in science also'. His science has been defined as, 'Platonic ideas in the mind of a creative spirit', all of which is equally applicable to the pre-Newtonian, scientific enquiry of Thomas Browne. An accurate assessment of Goethe's science by John. R. Williams and also applicable to Browne's science, states -</div>
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'Goethe's science is an integral part of his life and work, its flaws are those both of the man and of the age, of his personality and of the current state of knowledge'. [4]<br />
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However much previously overlooked, misunderstood or denied, both Goethe and Browne were extremely well-versed in esoteric topics such as Hermetic philosophy, Neoplatonism, the kabbalah and alchemy. This deep interest in esotericism influenced their scientific and philosophical thinking as well as their literary creativity.</div>
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Goethe first came into contact with esoteric literature while recuperating from a mystery illness during his adolescence when his doctor introduced the budding poet to the occultist circle of Fraulein von Klettenberg. Klettenberg encouraged the young poet to read the esoteric writings of Paracelsus, Boehme and Bruno. However, Goethe's interest in the occult waned once recovered, but in a letter to Klettenberg dated August 26 1770 he wrote, -'Alchemy is still my veiled love' and of her recommendation to read Agrippa the budding poet confessed - 'it set my young brains on fire for a considerable time'.<br />
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In 1786 Goethe read Christian Rosenkreutz's allegorical tale <i>The Chymical Wedding </i>which may well have been the inspiration for him to write his <i>Marchen</i> fairy-tale of 1795. Goethe's <i>Tale of the Green Snake and the White Lily</i> is crowded with references to various esoteric beliefs and veiled allusions to the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris, the cults of Typhon and Horus, the Vision of Zosimus, and the Gnostic Naassenes. </div>
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Goethe found in alchemical terminology apt figures of speech which he utilized in his writings. He once stated, ‘If one deals with the poetic side of alchemy with an open mind it leads to very pleasant reflections’.<br />
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Elsewhere, in a statement allusive to the primary template of much esoteric thought, that of polarity or opposites, Goethe declared -</div>
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'To sever the conjoined, to unite the severed, that is the life of Nature; that is the eternal drawing together and relaxing, the eternal syncrisis and diacris'. </div>
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Goethe's allusion to Nature's forces drawing together and separating, strongly resembles the polarity of the alchemical maxim <i>'solve et coagula'</i> to dissolve and bind, a fact not unnoticed by a younger English contemporary, the poet and scholar Coleridge (1772-1834). An enthusiastic admirer of Thomas Browne, Coleridge in 1818 speculated-<br />
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Sometimes, it seems as if the alchemists wrote like the Pythagoreans on music, imagining a metaphysical and inaudible music as the basis of the audible. It is clear that by sulphur they meant the solar rays or light, and by mercury the principle of ponderability, so that their theory was the same with that of the Heraclitic physics, or the modern German <i>Naturphilosophie</i>, which deduces all things from light and gravitation, each being bipolar; gravitation = north and south, or attraction and repulsion: light = east and west, or contraction and dilation; [5]<br />
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German <i>'Naturphilosophie'</i> advocated the principle of polarity or opposition, one of the last attempts to reconcile the symbolism of the alchemists to modern chemistry. In Polarity, that is oppositions in nature, German <i>'Naturphilosophers'</i> perceived the rhythm of the Universe.<br />
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As long ago as 1895 the critic R.M.Meyer in the<i> Goethe Jahrbuch</i> proposed that German <i>Naturphilosophie</i> resembled Browne's 'inner form' and that the Swiss theologian Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) may have recommended Browne's <i>Religio Medici </i>to Goethe. [6] Browne spiritual testament was first translated into German in 1746. Lavater read it<i> </i>enthusiastically, primarily for its assertive physiognomic statements, such as-<br />
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'there are mystically in our faces certain characters which carry in them the motto of our souls, wherein he that cannot read A.B.C.may read our natures'. [7]<br />
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Physiognomy, the questionable belief that the human face can be interpreted is mentioned in each of Browne's major literary works; as an unreliable, yet theoretical diagnostic tool for physicians, Browne's interest in physiognomy was kindled from his reading the Italian polymath Giambattista Della Porta's (1535-1615) <i>Celestial Physiognomy</i>.<br />
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Lavater vigorously promoted physiognomy, became a famous author on the subject and was subsequently shunned by a skeptical Goethe. It remains unknown as to whether or not Goethe read Browne's <i>Religio Medici</i>.</div>
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Goethe's many esoteric interests included numerology which originated from his admittance, shortly before his residence in Weimar, to the Order of the Illuminati, whose teachings were based upon Pythagoras. In his novel <i>Der Wahlverwandtscaften </i>(Elective Affinities) of 1809. Goethe describes the number five as - 'a beautiful odd, sacred number'. Browne's own interest in numerology is admitted frankly in <i>Religio Medici </i>thus - ' I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret magic of numbers.' [8]</div>
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In essence, Goethe's personal philosophy was not unlike Browne's, home-spun, flexible and idiosyncratic. In his semi-autobiographical <i>Dichtung und Wahrheit</i> (Poetry and Truth) Goethe confessed -</div>
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'Neoplatonism lay at the foundation of my personal religion, the hermetical, the mystical, the cabalistic, also contributed their share; and thus I built for myself a world that looked strange enough'.</div>
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The restless scholar Faust in Goethe's tragic drama shares some psychological traits to those exhibited by the newly qualified Doctor Browne. After completing many years of study at Oxford and abroad at the Universities of Padua, Montpellier and Leiden, Browne utters as wearily as Faust -</div>
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'There is yet another conceit that hath sometimes made me shut my books; which tells me it is a vanity to waste our days in the blind pursuit of knowledge'. [9]<br />
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Not unlike Faust, Browne expresses occasional, intense spiritual angst in <i>Religio Medici</i>.<br />
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'I feel sometimes a hell within myself, Lucifer keeps his court in my breast'. [10]<br />
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Faust, not unlike the enquiring Browne, yearns in his study of Nature for, 'a glance into the earth! To see below its dark foundations / Life's embryo seeds before their birth / And Nature's silent operations'. [11] </div>
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In his quest for forbidden knowledge Faust 'ponders over spells and signs, symbolic letters, circles and signs'. Such hieroglyphs fascinated Browne who declared -</div>
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'surely the Heathens knew better how to join and read these mystical letters than we Christians, who cast a more careless eye on these common Hieroglyphics'. [12]<br />
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Although Browne's confessional shares traits exhibited by Goethe's Faust it departs abruptly from it once the pact is made between Faust and Mephistopheles. Browne located Mephistopheles as dwelling internally rather than externally, stating - 'The heart of man is the place the devil dwells in'. [13]</div>
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Browne's Christian faith lays at the heart of his medical practise, enquiries into nature and even his rare excursions into the literary world. Goethe however held an ambiguous and luke-warm opinion of Christianity, objecting to the clanging sound of church-bells in particular.</div>
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Whilst Browne's <i>Urn-Burial </i>shares Goethe's antiquarian interests, <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> shares a number of thematic and symbolic traits to Goethe's late masterpiece <i>Faust II</i>. As digressive and disjointed in its construction as Goethe's drama and in its associative thought and imagery, with little concern of intelligibility to its reader, it too employs proper-names from Greek mythology to represent scientific and psychological speculations.<br />
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During their long, settled, and relatively undisturbed lives, Goethe and Browne became extremely well-read, not only in the scientific advances of their era, but also in Classics of Greek and Roman literature, as the catalogues of their respective libraries reveal. The Classical world, especially Ancient Greece, with its scientific discoveries was for both scholars of great interest and both display a thorough knowledge of Classical literature. The same symbolic names can be found in their respective yet neglected works of fantasy, <i>Faust II</i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i>.<br />
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The Greek mythological god Proteus is a good example of a symbolic name shared by the two literary figures. In <i>Cyrus</i> Proteus is 'the symbol of the first mass' whilst in <i>Faust II </i> Proteus represents organic metamorphosis. The warrior Achilles, the wanderer Ulysses and the nature-god Pan are also mentioned in both works, as is Greek philosopher and botanist Theophrastus, the first to attempt to categorise plants. But perhaps above others it may be the Greek god Apollo ruler of beauty of form, order, prophecy, medicine and music who represents symbolic significance and artistic importance to both literary polymaths.<br />
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Browne's survey of the artistic, natural, botanical and mystical precedents of the Quincunx in <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>may be described in Goethe's words as a delight in-</div>
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'Formation, transformation, The eternal Mind's eternal delectation' [14] </div>
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The learned doctor in a drowsy soliloquy concluding <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>observes that, 'the phantasms of sleep which often continueth precogitations making cables of cobwebs', alerts one to Faust's meditation that -</div>
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'How logical and clear the daylight seems</div>
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Till the night weaves us in its web of dreams'.</div>
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This shared imagery of dreams and the illusory web is evidence that, like the alchemists before them, Goethe and Browne utilized highly-charged poetic symbolism in their attempt to portray the unconscious psyche.<br />
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Goethe's monumental drama <i>Faust</i> held great meaning to C.G.Jung. For the Swiss psychologist <i>Faust</i> is a work which from its beginning to end is full of alchemical themes and imagery. C.G.Jung even regarded his work on alchemy as a sign of his inner relationship to Goethe and never suppressed or denied the persistent rumour that his grandfather was an illegitimate offspring of Goethe's.<br />
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Jung often referred to Goethe's drama <i>Faust</i> in order to amplify a psychological observation. Of Part II of <i>Faust</i> <i> </i>he stated -</div>
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'The second part of Faust, was more than a literary exercise. It is a link in the <i>Aurea Catena</i> (The Golden or Homeric Chain in alchemy is the series of great wise men, beginning with Hermes Trismegistus, which links earth with heaven) which has existed from the beginnings of philosophical alchemy and Gnosticism down to Nietzsche’s <i>Zarathustra</i>. Unpopular, ambiguous, and dangerous, it is a voyage of discovery to the other pole of the world. [15] </div>
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Although Goethe's <i>Faust Part I</i> and Browne's <i>Urn-Burial</i> are firmly established works of world literature, their respective, other halves, <i>Faust II</i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>have baffled and perplexed most readers, resulting in neither work achieving the popularity of their counterparts.</div>
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However, 'though overlooked by all', Goethe's dramatic works, <i>Faust parts 1 </i>and <i>II </i>have a remarkable relationship to Browne's <i>Urn-Burial </i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus.</i> For just as <i>Urn-Burial</i> and <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> are structured upon the time-honoured schemata of Hermeticism, namely the polarity of Microcosm and Macrocosm, so too are Goethe's <i>Faust I and II </i></div>
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In conversation with Eckermann Goethe provided clues for employing the concept of polarity in the 'conjoining of Faust I with 'the second part of the tragedy' as he termed it.</div>
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'Not all our experiences can be expressed in the round and directly communicated. For this reason I have chosen the means of revealing the more secret meanings to attentive hearts by creative formations which face each other and mirror each other'.</div>
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Goethe's understanding of the alchemical quest for Unity necessitated that the 'small world' or Microcosm of Part 1 of <i>Faust</i>, with its subjective world of Faust's love for Gretchen, needed to be balanced with the larger objective world or Macrocosm of Part 2 which, as it wanders through time and space, concludes with Faust's redemption.</div>
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Browne's diptych discourses also adhere to the basic tenet of Hermeticism, that of the correspondence between Microcosm and Macrocosm. Just as <i>Urn-Burial's</i> concern is the earth-bound 'little world' of Man, his suffering, mortality, unknowingness and death, in essence the Microcosm, <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> in complete symmetry and polarity features many examples of the Eternal forms and astral imagery of the heavens, the Macrocosm no less. Equally, just as <i>Faust I </i>concerns itself with the small, little world of man so too the extraordinary settings ranging through time and space of <i>Faust II </i>represent the Macrocosm at large.<i> </i>As with Goethe’s literary diptych so too with Browne’s diptych Discourses. Only when 'conjoining' the two respective halves of each literary work can one fully understand and appreciate their total artistic vision.<br />
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Goethe's many duties and social life in the Weimar Court, his travels and love-affairs, mark him a much worldlier person than the devout physician. Ultimately Goethe was a humanist, his message being – He who strives on and lives to strive can earn redemption still. Thomas Browne was likewise affirmative of all that is good in man, asserting - </div>
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'Me thinkes there is no man bad, and the worst, best; that is, while they are kept within the circle of those qualities, wherein they are good:there is no mans mind of such discordant and jarring a temper to which a tuneable disposition may not strike a harmony. [16] </div>
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Julian Huxley in <i>Religion without Revelation</i> (1967) nominated Goethe, alongside Blake, Wordsworth, Thomas Browne and Dante as, 'one of the immortal spirits waiting to introduce the reader to his own unique and intense experience of reality'. Today Goethe and Thomas Browne are remembered not so much for their scientific endeavours but for the originality of their literary creativity. Through their respective literary creations both writers have bequeathed their own special vision of Humanity and reality which distinguishes them as 'Universal Citizens', or 'World Sages'. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, like Browne before him, belongs to the category of men to whom the improvement of Mankind was a deep concern. Goethe's science and literary creativity has a close, if little recognised elective affinity to Thomas Browne’s.<br />
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<u>Notes</u><br />
[1] R.M.Part I:50<br />
[2] R.M Part 1:34<br />
[3] R.M. Part 2:2<br />
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[4] The Life of Goethe: A Critical Biography by John R. Williams pub. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Blackwell 2001<br />
[5] Lecture notes of 1818 Lecture XII Miscellaneous criticism Collected works of Coleridge<br />
[6] Richard <span style="text-align: start;">Meyer 'Zur inner form?' Goethe Jahrbuch 1895 vol. 16 pp. 190 - 191</span><br />
[7] R.M.Part 2:2<br />
[8] R.M.Part I.12<br />
[9] R.M.Part 2:8<br />
[10] R.M.I:51<br />
[11] Faust Part I Night<br />
[12] R.M.Part 1:16<br />
[13] R.M. Ibid<br />
[14] Faust Part 2 ed. David Luke Oxford University Press 2008 lines 6287-8<br />
[15] Memories, Dreams, Reflections C.G.Jung chapter 6<br />
[16] R.M. 2 :11<br />
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-83833979287444230362019-06-06T12:32:00.001+01:002019-06-16T14:10:40.946+01:00Dame Ninette de Valois: Architect of British Ballet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9y-tqGGcTF4bdwlsaQ_0FBA_1DkBlRml75R3uts1a5CG9PmK6_hupXXwt-pKooA6m3l-6s34UCFg7zOgh_pORs4e1kiDtfH79K180dpsZFexHR9_gDmRVmhvFFmWz-blTq0vbNUCpyA/s1600/NdV-1949-Gordon-Anthony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9y-tqGGcTF4bdwlsaQ_0FBA_1DkBlRml75R3uts1a5CG9PmK6_hupXXwt-pKooA6m3l-6s34UCFg7zOgh_pORs4e1kiDtfH79K180dpsZFexHR9_gDmRVmhvFFmWz-blTq0vbNUCpyA/s320/NdV-1949-Gordon-Anthony.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
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The dancer, director, teacher and choreographer Dame Ninette De Valois (born June 6th 1898, died 2001 aged 102) had many honours bestowed upon her in her lifetime including a C.B.E. in 1947, Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (1950), D.B.E.(1951), C.H. (1981) and O.M. (1992). But perhaps it is her being awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for a contribution of particular importance to Europe in the cultural or social sphere which best reflects her greatest achievement. She effectively established a British National ballet company, (The Royal Ballet), as well as founding a national ballet company for Ireland and Turkey. The deep influence which de Valois exerted upon the ballet world continues to the present-day.<br />
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Ninette de Valois first danced professionally on the stage of the Palladium in 1915 and by 1919 she had achieved the status of <i>premiere danseuse </i>at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">De Valois in 1923</td></tr>
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In her memoirs de Valois states that she studied for 4 years with the Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1925). Born in 1850 in the dressing room of the Apollo Theatre in Tordino, Italy, by 1888 Cecchetti was widely acknowledged as the greatest male ballet virtuoso in the world. He created and performed the virtuoso role of the Blue Bird and the mime role of Carabosse in the premiere of Marius Petipa's <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> in 1890. Later in life he restaged many ballets, including Petipa's definitive version of <i>Coppélia</i> in 1894, from which nearly all modern versions of the work are based. Indeed, de Valois' own choreography for the Royal Ballet's revival of <i>Coppelia</i> in 1954 is based upon Cecchetti's choreography. [1]<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enrico Cecchetti 1890</td></tr>
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In addition to Cecchetti, de Valois was greatly influenced by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). De Valois considered Diaghilev's <i>Ballet Russe</i> company to be the most perfect ballet expression the theatre has ever known and Diaghilev himself to be an exemplary fusion of connoisseur, creative artist and scholar.<br />
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It was during de Valois' time with the <i>Ballet Russe</i> that Diaghilev assigned to Bronislava Nijinska the choreography of Stravinsky's <i>Les Noces</i>. The result combines elements of her brother's choreography for <i>The Rite of Spring</i> with traditional aspects of ballet, such as dancing en pointe. The following year Nijinska choreographed three new works for the company: <i>Les biches, Les Fâcheux </i>and<i> Le train bleu.</i> While attending rehearsals of <i>Les Noces</i> de Valois noted- 'From this detailed study was to emerge a clear picture of the geometrical beauty of the inner structure and relationship between the music and choreography'. [2]<br />
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De Valois had the unique opportunity to learn many aspects of staging a ballet production while with the <i>Ballet Russe</i>. Artists of the calibre such as Picasso, Stravinsky and Matisse frequently visited the Company in rehearsal. She describes one surprise visitor during rehearsals, none other than Vaslav Nijinsky who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919 and committed to a mental asylum. She describes him thus - 'Looking around that company where futures and pasts were stamped on features and actions, one felt the silent onlooker's present state spelt a peace that might be absent for ever from the understanding of his companions. It is important to stress the happiness that was in his face; it was as if the mind had departed in an effort to escape from the discord'. [3]<br />
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Vaslav Nijinsky with sister Bronislava 1912</div>
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In her <i>Invitation to the Ballet</i> (1937) Ninette de Valois informs her reader that, 'two English choreographers have served under Madame Nijinska, both in the classroom and on stage, i.e. Frederick Ashton and the present writer - the latter regarding Nijinska's tuition as the most vital influence and help in her career'. Elsewhere she states - 'I learnt far more from Nijinska than I ever did from Massine'. [4] She also states- 'The main effect of Diaghilev on my dormant creative mind was to arouse an intense interest in the ballet in relation to the theatre....I had come to one conclusion: the same should happen along the same lines, and with such an ultimate goal - in England'. [5]</div>
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Upon leaving Diaghilev's company in 1926, De Valois occasionally toured England, in particular performing at Cambridge Arts Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. In her <i>Rout </i>staged privately with her pupils at Cambridge in 1928, the influence of Bronislava Nijinska's <i>Les Noches </i>which de Valois had danced while a member of Diaghilev's <i>Ballet Russe </i> can be seen. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rout </i>Cambridge 1928 with de Valois in centre of group</td></tr>
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Ninette de Valois performed at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich on Monday 1st December 1930. The Maddermarket Theatre was the first permanent recreation of an Elizabethan Theatre in England. It opened under the directorship of its founder Nugent Monck in 1921 and continues to be active today. </div>
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In what appears to have been a full programme of dance, all of which was choreographed by de Valois, her small troupe of dancers performed the following - <i>Prelude Orientale </i>with music by Gliere, <i>Rhythm </i>a group dance with music by Beethoven, <i>Russe Fantasie </i>a group dance, <i>Serenade </i>a solo with music by Boccherini, <i>Etude </i>a <i>pas de trio </i>with music by Debussy, <i>Fugue</i>, <i> </i>a group dance to the music of J.S. Bach's Fugue no. 5 from <i>The Well-Tempered Klavier</i> and <i>The Tryst </i>with specially commissioned music by the budding composer William Alwyn (1905-85). It was probably de Valois' solo dance in <i>A Daughter of Eve</i> which was the star performance of the night with de Valois dancing in a costume consisting of a fluffy, white, calf-length skirt, a peasant apron, and a bonnet with coloured ribbons. </div>
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'This became an immensely popular item, a <i>demi-caractere </i>miniature of a flirtatious young woman in silent dialogue with an unseen young man. At the end she offers him an apple, is refused, and then sits on the forestage steps, and bites into the apple. With a provocative smile, she leaves it on stage and walks away' [6]</div>
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Its not improbable, given the fact that both Nugent Monck and de Valois were friends of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats, that somehow a commendation, request or invitation to perform at the Maddermarket theatre at Norwich was made between these artists. In the same year as her Norwich performance de Valois danced in a production of the opera <i>Carmen</i> at Covent Garden in 1930.</div>
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In 1931 De Valois, through the help of theatre manager Lilian Baylis (1874-1937) established a permanent ballet company at Sadler's Wells. At first the Vic-Wells ballet had only six female dancers, with Ninette de Valois herself as lead dancer and choreographer. The company performed its first full ballet production on 5 May 1931 at the Old Vic, with Anton Dolin as guest star. Its first performance at Sadler’s Wells was a few days later, on 15 May 1931.<br />
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De Valois shares this amusing anecdote about her benefactress Lilian Baylis- 'The body beautiful was her great topic; on this point she had no inhibitions. I once stood with her at the back of the Old Vic circle during a ballet performance when she informed me, in clear loud tones, that a certain male dancer had a most beautiful behind'. [7]</div>
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De Valois performed one last time as a dancer in 1935 in a production of <i>Coppelia. </i> One critic noted-<br />
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'Her performance was characterised by superlative neatness and elegance but it was in her miming that she particularly excelled. In the second act especially she reflected to perfection every idea and fancy passing through the heroine's brain. Not only her face but all the movements of her body seemed to be called into play'.</div>
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Another ballet-critic claimed she was- 'something of a sensation as Swanilda. Her grace and charm; her precision and sense of rhythm; and her gaiety and perfect miming, went to the creation of a very fine performance.'<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">De Valois as Swanilda in <i>Coppelia </i>1935</td></tr>
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Under the Directorship of Ninette de Valois the Vic-Wells ballet company flourished during the 1930s to became one of the first Western dance companies to stage the classical ballet repertoire of the Imperial Russian Ballet. De Valois began to establish a British repertory, engaging Frederick Ashton as Principal Choreographer and Constant Lambert as Musical Director in 1935 and choreographed several of her own ballets including <i>Job</i> (1931), <i>The Rake’s Progress</i> (1935) and <i>Checkmate</i> (1937). </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Black Queen in a modern production of <i>Checkmate</i></td></tr>
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Eventually the dance company which de Valois established included many of the most famous ballet dancers in the world, including Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Moira Shearer, Beryl Grey, and Michael Somes. In 1949 the Sadler Wells Ballet was a sensation when they toured the United States with Margot Fonteyn instantly becoming an international celebrity.</div>
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In many ways de Valois' visionary genius lay in her ability to recognise, encourage, train and retain talent. Self-sacrificing for the benefit of the Company, forever considering the future, she was also a strict disciplinarian who earned the nickname of 'the Games mistress' by pupils and dancers. Set designer and artist Leslie Hurry (1909-78) typifies her influence, stating-</div>
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'She imposed a stern discipline upon my turbulent imagination. An incredibly brilliant woman -sympathetic, understanding, marvellous to work with'. [8]<br />
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Although she officially stepped-down as Director of The Royal Ballet in 1963, de Valois continued to teach and exert her sometimes formidable influence upon the Company for a further decade. De Valois herself stated of choreography-<br />
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'Choreography is one of the most complex and exacting forms of creative work, demanding an abstraction and plasticity to be found in painting and sculpture. In this way its relation to space is coupled with its own function in time'.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">De Valois (left) teaching a dancer</td></tr>
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<u>Notes</u></div>
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[1] Delibes: Coppelia - Choreography Ninette de Valois </div>
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The Royal Ballet. Opus Arte/BBC (2010)</div>
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[2] Ninette de Valois -Idealist without Illusions </div>
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Katherine Sorley Walker pub. Hamish Hamilton 1987</div>
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[3] Valois, Ninette de - Invitation to the Ballet. </div>
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London pub. Bodley Head 1937</div>
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[4] Secret Muses: The life of Frederick Ashton </div>
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Julie Kavanagh pub. Faber and Faber 2006</div>
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[5] Invitation to the Ballet</div>
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[6] Ninette de Valois -Idealist without Illusions </div>
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[7] Ibid.</div>
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[8] Walker citing Evening News 6 September 1943</div>
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<u>Books </u></div>
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* Valois, Ninette de - Invitation to the Ballet. London: Bodley Head pub. 1937</div>
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* Valois, Ninette de - Come Dance with Me; A Memoir, 1898-1956. London: pub. Hamish Hamilton. 1957</div>
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* The Royal Ballet 75 Years Zoe Anderson pub. Faber and Faber 2006</div>
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* Ninette de Valois - Idealist without Illusions -Katherine Sorley Walker pub. Hamish Hamilton 1987</div>
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<u>DVD</u></div>
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* Delibes:Coppelia - Choreography Sergey Vikharev after Petipa and Cecchetti. Ballet of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. </div>
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Belair Classiques: BAC463 (2019)</div>
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* Delibes: Coppelia - Choreography Ninette de Valois. </div>
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The Royal Ballet. Opus Arte/BBC (2010)</div>
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* Checkmate and The Rake's Progress Choreography De Valois </div>
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Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet VAI (1982) </div>
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-35785429343042277632019-05-18T11:24:00.002+01:002022-03-12T11:38:42.843+00:00Margot Fonteyn Centenary <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCfT6EEkAn2GjSHqQOd3ndJl7Bwm0ToN2vojDvcGmBy2jU_rGKBIgzeRVKfAOz22bTcEPnURVaVzfp_d18YVbZVbZA7vghIQWY4lg3VnND79neh5wfkhc7RAgtqoRapvkX8f3pDAZyeo/s1600/5-18-12_margot_fonteyn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCfT6EEkAn2GjSHqQOd3ndJl7Bwm0ToN2vojDvcGmBy2jU_rGKBIgzeRVKfAOz22bTcEPnURVaVzfp_d18YVbZVbZA7vghIQWY4lg3VnND79neh5wfkhc7RAgtqoRapvkX8f3pDAZyeo/s1600/5-18-12_margot_fonteyn.jpg" /></a></div>
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Born on May 18th 1919, Margot Fonteyn was one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. In addition to her dedication and technical skills, Fonteyn had the good luck to be coached firstly by the Russian dancer and ballet teacher Serafina Astafieva (1876-1934) then through joining the Vic-Wells company directed by its visionary founder Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) at a time when British ballet itself developed and came of age. </div>
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Over the course of decades, Fonteyn, along with Irish-born Ninette de Valois, and choreographer Frederick Ashton (1904-88) established ballet as a popular and serious art-form for British audiences. It can even be said that the rapid development of ballet in Britain as an art-form from circa 1935-1960 was primarily through the talents of Fonteyn as <i>prima ballerina </i>, the high standards instilled in the <i>Corps de ballet</i> by company director de Valois and the 'in-house' choreographic skills of Frederick Ashton. These combined factors contributed towards making what was to become the Royal Ballet, a company equal in stature to long established Russian ballet companies such as the Bolshoi and Kirov.</div>
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Fonteyn joined Ninette de Valois's Vic-Wells company (later Sadler Wells, later still, the Royal Ballet) in 1935 when precociously young. She soon found herself selected by de Valois for the highly responsible role of <i>prima ballerina </i>of the Company.</div>
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In her detailed biography of Fonteyn, author Meredith Danemann notes that it was also at this time that the ballerina had an on-and-off affair with the stage-conductor and composer Constant Lambert (1905-51). According to friends of Fonteyn, Lambert was the great love of her life and she despaired when she finally realised he would never marry her. Aspects of this relationship were symbolised in Lambert's astrologically-themed ballet <i>Horoscope</i> which was first performed on January 27th 1938. Tragically, Lambert was to die of alcoholism in 1951, only six weeks after his ballet <i>Tiresias </i>with its violent, sexual storyline had received hostile, damning reviews.<i> </i>Lambert's friends claim it was these reviews which led to the composer drinking even harder, effectively destroying himself at the age of 45.</div>
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Margot Fonteyn endeared herself to the British public by performing throughout the Blitz of the war-years. Undaunted by bombs, she refused to evacuate to a safer location and instead catered for the growing demand for ballet during the war, performing sometimes four or five times in a single day. After the war Fonteyn and the Sadler Wells Ballet company enjoyed worldwide fame following a rapturous reception in New York in 1949. They subsequently toured Australia to equally rave reviews. In 1956 Sadlers Wells was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth II and became the Royal Ballet. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht13rB5S1GbHFcooJgmfLayEiwk14vgpcP4tFCUJfUJtWQ4mrDXIEanDTBxAN117GxtOhI4n8OGicSdAPQ0bmFTs3Z3PQ8aR2ST-mJDz4PC-v03qWNCpQjPfkD22UGS0dQK-ZKbv75lVk/s1600/12478368973_253e389c91_z.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht13rB5S1GbHFcooJgmfLayEiwk14vgpcP4tFCUJfUJtWQ4mrDXIEanDTBxAN117GxtOhI4n8OGicSdAPQ0bmFTs3Z3PQ8aR2ST-mJDz4PC-v03qWNCpQjPfkD22UGS0dQK-ZKbv75lVk/s400/12478368973_253e389c91_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann in 'Sleeping Beauty' (1946)</td></tr>
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In 1962 at an age when most ballerinas would be considering retirement, Fonteyn embarked upon a second career, partnering the charismatic dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-93) who had recently defected from the USSR. The ever-astute De Valois describes her first impressions of Nureyev during his curtain-calls after his first performance in London in 1961 thus-<br />
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'I saw an arm raised with a noble dignity, a hand expressively extended with that restrained discipline which is the product of great traditional schooling. Slowly the head turned from one side of the theatre to the other, and the Slav bone-structure of the face, so beautifully modelled, made me feel like an inspired sculptor rather than the director of the Royal Ballet. I could see him clearly and suddenly in one role - Albrecht in <i>Giselle. </i>Then and there I decided that when he first danced for us it must be with Fonteyn in that ballet', [1]<br />
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Others wrote more dramatically of Nureyev's performance, one dance critic stating it, 'produced the shock of seeing a wild animal let loose in a drawing-room'. [2]<br />
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In her book 'Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet' Judith Holman assesses Fonteyn and Nureyev's relationship and the reception of their first performance together in <i>Giselle </i> on 21 February 1962 thus-</div>
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'At first glance, they seemed unlikely match: he was twenty-four and had a sweeping Soviet style, while she was forty-three and the paragon of English restraint. Yet together they created a potent mix of sex and celebrity that made them icons of the 1960s and "swinging" London's permissive scene:... It was pure populism, ballet for the youth generation and a mass consumer age,.. Fonteyn and Nureyev fashioned themselves into balletic rock superstars.</div>
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'How did they do it? The onstage chemistry between them has often been explained by sex: that they had it, wanted it, or suppressed it (they never told). But their partnership also stood for something much larger. In their dancing, East meets West: his campy sexuality and eroticism (heavy makeup with teased and lacquered hair) highlighted and offset her impeccable bourgeois taste. Nureyev played his role to perfection: even in the most classical of steps, he flirted with the image of the Asian potentate, and his unrestrained sensuality and tiger-like movements recalled a cliched Russian orientalism (first exploited by Diaghilev's <i>Ballets Russe</i>), which also linked to the escapist fantasies of 1960s middle-class youth: Eastern mysticism, revolution, sex, and drugs.<br />
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'The East was one thing; age was another. Nureyev had a gorgeous, youthful physique; Fonteyn was old enough to be his mother. And although her technique was still impressive, she looked her age. Indeed, as Fonteyn's proper 1950s woman fell into the arms of Nureyev's mod man, the generation gap seemed momentarily to close. .. Not everyone was happy with the result: the prominent American critic John Martin lamented that Fonteyn had gone "to the grand ball with a gigolo". None of this meant , however that Nureyev was disrespectful. To the contrary, when he partnered Fonteyn he did so with supreme respect and perfect nineteenth century manners. To the British, this mattered: Fonteyn, after all, was still "like the Queen" and during the curtain-call of their first performance of <i>Giselle, </i>Nureyev accepted a rose from Fonteyn and then instinctively fell to his knee at her feet and covered her hand with kisses. The audience went wild'. [3]<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yvn2iiBrojw" width="480"></iframe>
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Fonteyn spoke of Nureyev's gesture after their first performance together thus-<br />
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'It was his way of expressing genuine feelings, untainted by conventional words. Thereafter, a strange attachment formed between us which we have never been able to explain satisfactorily, and which, in a way, one could describe as a deep affection, or love, especially if one believes that love has many forms and degrees. But the fact remains that Rudolf was desperately in love with someone else at the time, and, for me, Tito is always the one with black eyes'. [4]<i> </i><br />
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More objectively, one dance-critic succinctly noted of the relationship -<br />
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'One unforeseen result of Nureyev's advent was a new lease of life for Fonteyn. Since Ulanova's retirement, she and Maya Plisetskaya of the Bolshoi<i> </i>shone above all rivals, but now there were sall signs of a possible end to her supremacy through declining technique and confidence. Nureyev changed all that. Responding to his highly charged stage presence, Fonteyn found a dramatic power that had previously eluded her. In place of the formerly reserved, carefully balanced dancer emerged a woman who threw herself impetuously into her roles. Consequently, she went on to many more years of recognition as a unique artist. [5]<br />
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Much has been written and speculated upon Fonteyn and Nureyev's relationship on and off-stage, Rudolf Nureyev is recorded as saying of Fonteyn - 'At the end of <i>Lac des Cygnes </i>(Swan Lake) when she left the stage in her great white tutu I would have followed her to the end of the world'. Nureyev later embarked upon a successful career as the director of the Paris Opera Ballet where he continued to dance and to promote younger dancers. He held this appointment as chief choreographer until 1989. Nureyev tested positive for HIV in 1984 and died tragically young from an AIDs related illness in 1993 aged just 54. </div>
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Equally tragic, Fonteyn's husband Tito was shot during an assassination attempt in 1964 resulting in his becoming a quadriplegic, requiring nursing for the remainder of his life. In 1972, Fonteyn went into semi-retirement, although she continued to occasionally dance until late in her life, partly through a need to subsidise her paraplegic husband's medical bills. </div>
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In 1979, as a gift for her 60th birthday, Fonteyn was fêted by the Royal Ballet and officially pronounced the <i>prima ballerina assoluta</i> of the company. The title was sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth II as patron of the company. Dame Fonteyn retired to Panama, where she spent her time writing books, raising cattle, and caring for her husband. She died from ovarian cancer on February 21st 1991, exactly 29 years to the day after her premiere with Nureyev in <i>Giselle. </i></div>
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The first global super-star ballerina, Margot Fonteyn placed English ballet on the world-stage. She remains inspirational to dancers and loved by <i>balletomanes</i> throughout the world, still alive in spirit, one hundred years old today.</div>
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There is one role which Fonteyn identified with, the water-spirit <i>Ondine, </i>choreographed especially for her by Frederick Ashton. Princess Aurora in Tchaikovsky's <i>The Sleeping Beauty </i>is another role she made her own. The 'Rose Adagio' in <i>The Sleeping Beauty </i>in which the ballerina remains balanced <i>en pointe </i>whilst receiving a rose from four suitors is considered to be a formidable technical achievement for a ballerina<i>.</i> </div>
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Some of Fonteyn's greatest roles were filmed. Mostly inexpensive on DVD, they also reflect the technology of the era, filmed over half a century ago; nevertheless they remain valuable records of Fonteyn as a ballerina. </div>
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* Swan Lake - Fonteyn and Nureyev Philips 1966</div>
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* The Royal Ballet - Firebird (Fokine) and Ondine (Ashton) 1960 Network DVD</div>
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* Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet 1966 Network DVD. </div>
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Grainy colouration </div>
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* Sleeping Beauty 1955 VAI b/w</div>
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<u>Recommended Books</u></div>
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*Margot Fonteyn- Meredith Daneman<br />
pub. Viking 2004 654pp.<br />
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*Apollo's Angels- A History of Ballet- Jennifer Homans<br />
pub. Granta Books 2010 643pp.<br />
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* Invitation to the Ballet -Ninette de Valois<br />
pub. Bodley Head 1937<br />
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<u>Footnotes</u><br />
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[1] Ninette de Valois - Step by Step W. H. Allen 1977 cited by Daneman<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">[2] Alexander Bland </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Observer </i><span style="text-align: justify;">5th November 1961 cited by Daneman</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">[3] Apollo's Angels- A History of Ballet-Jennifer Homans. Granta Books 2010 </span><br />
[4] Fonteyn Autobiography cited by Daneman<br />
[5] Modern Ballet - John Percival pub. The Herbert Press 1970 rev. 1980<br />
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<u>Documentary/Biopic DVDs</u><br />
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* Fonteyn and Nureyev -The Perfect Partnership 1985<br />
* Margot Fonteyn - A Portrait Arthaus 1989<br />
* Margot - BBC 2009Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-76477757920268709932019-01-13T17:16:00.001+00:002019-10-16T12:00:21.217+01:00Sir Thomas Browne and Japan <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97rwOBfTTQE0a63hOl-qeurMjKjQTkOjrKPiIY4zRXYADdRHNH3q4yFEGbNuuswoRjlYn1HsboG1s_tv_jYEGxgWUFfMH3GQ1EA3WPTo6cA3KJHDBleSf7KDMW15ZHG40X0aa9I6l3YY/s1600/Crowded_Tokyo_Street_1905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97rwOBfTTQE0a63hOl-qeurMjKjQTkOjrKPiIY4zRXYADdRHNH3q4yFEGbNuuswoRjlYn1HsboG1s_tv_jYEGxgWUFfMH3GQ1EA3WPTo6cA3KJHDBleSf7KDMW15ZHG40X0aa9I6l3YY/s320/Crowded_Tokyo_Street_1905.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The physician-philosopher Thomas Browne (1605-82) can truly be said to have achieved worldwide fame with his inclusion in the Japanese author Natsume </span>Sōseki<span style="text-align: justify;">’s novel </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Sanshirō</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">(1908-09).</span></div>
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Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石, 1867 – 1916) is considered to be one of Japan's greatest writers. He studied at what was the Tokyo Imperial University and became Japan's first official English Literature scholar, spending two unhappy years resident in England circa 1900-2. Eventually Sōseki became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. It would appear however, that no earlier English translation of <i>Sanshirō</i> was made before Jay Rubin's 2009 translation, perhaps due to negative historical/cultural reasons.<br />
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In Sōseki's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel, Sanshirō is a naive and dreaming student who discovers his rural upbringing to be a disadvantage in the metropolitan city of Tokyo. The early twentieth century witnessed a period of rapid industrialisation and adoption of Western ways in Japan. A photo dated circa 1905 (top) gives some indication of how rapid the industrialisation of Japan was, resulting in a certain amount of psychic dissonance, as indicated in the above photo, with both traditional costume and modern electrification visible.<br />
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Sanshirō's class-mate Yojirō expresses the excitement of modern Tokyo when he exclaims to him - 'Get on the streetcar and ride around Tokyo ten or fifteen times. After a while it'll just happen -you'll become satisfied'. <br />
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In what is a narrative of gentle awakening in matters of romance, sex and learning, Sir Thomas Browne's <i>Hydriotaphia </i>plays a small part in Sōseki's novel. It is the enigmatic scholar Professor Hiroto who makes psychological observations such as - 'Look at England. Egotism and altruism have been in perfect balance there for centuries. That's why she doesn't move. That's why she doesn't progress. The English are a pitiful lot - they have no Ibsen, no Nietzsche. They're all puffed up like that, but look at them from the outside and you can see them hardening, turning into fossils'.<br />
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Professor Hiroto lends Sanshirō an edition of <i>Hydriotaphia </i>(Urn-Burial).<i> </i>Browne's philosophical discourse assists the youthful’s protagonist’s intellectual development, for during his meditation upon it, he witnesses a child’s funeral. The combination of Browne's stoical prose and child's funeral awakens in the dreaming student an acute awareness of his own mortality. Here's the full, relevant text, including a passage in which Browne's literary voice is likened to the lingering reverberation of a giant temple bell sounding faintly throughout the centuries, a particularly original homage.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Buddhist Bell Temple, Nara, Japan</td></tr>
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'He read the concluding paragraph of <i>Hydriotaphia</i> as he ambled down the street toward Hakusan. According to Professor Hirota, this writer was a famous stylist, and this essay the best example of his style. ‘That’s not my opinion, of course,’ he had laughingly confided. And in fact Sanshirō could not see what was so remarkable about this style, The phrasing was bad, the diction outlandish, the flow of words sluggish. It gave him the feeling of looking at some old temple. In terms of walking distance, it had taken him three or four blocks to read, and still he was not very clear about what it said'.</div>
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'What he had gained from the paragraph wore a patina of age, as if someone had rung the bell of the Great Buddha in Nara and the lingering reverberation had faintly reached his ears in Tokyo. Rather than the meaning of the passage itself, Sanshirō took pleasure in the shadow of sentiment that crept over the meaning. He had never thought keenly about death; his youthful blood was still too warm for that. A fire leapt before his eyes so gigantic that it could singe his brows, and this feeling was his true self.........'</div>
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'As he glanced in through the gate, Sanshirō twice muttered the word <i>hydriotaphia</i>. Of all the foreign words he had learned thus far,<i> hydriotaphia</i> was one of the longest and hardest. He still did not know what it meant...... Just to learn<i> hydriotaphia </i>was a time-consuming effort, and saying it twice caused one’s pace to slacken. It sounded like a word the ancients had devised for Professor Hirota’s personal use'.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tokyo 1905</td></tr>
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Although Browne wrote on almost every topic under the sun, little on the Land of the Rising Sun (Nippon) can be found in his writings, other than mention of the Northeast passage to China and Japan, via the Arctic circle (Miscellaneous Tract 12). Browne's relative silence on Japan is reflective of Japanese insularity from Western missionaries, traders and explorers during his era. </div>
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In May 2011, the University of East Anglia (UEA) which is located in Sir Thomas Browne's home-city of Norwich, established a new Centre for Japanese Studies. The University of East Anglia is also where the Nobel-laureate Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (b. Nagasaki, 1954) studied for his Master's degree in creative writing. </div>
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A final connection between Japan and Sir Thomas Browne remains. One of the very first installations by the site specific installation artist Tatzu Nishi (西野達) (born 1960 Nagoya, Japan) was at the Art East International at Norwich in 1998. Using scaffolding, cladding, wood, and furniture, Nishi constructed a 'living-room' around Henry Pegram's 1905 statue of Thomas Browne, effectively allowing the Norwich philosopher-physician a brief respite from the season's weather to rest and philosophize indoors for a short while.</div>
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<u>See also </u><br />
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<u><a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2017/11/kazou-ishiguro.html" target="_blank">Kazuo Ishiguro</a></u><br />
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<a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2014/05/sir-thomas-browne-and-china.html" target="_blank">Sir Thomas Browne and China</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatzu_Nishi" target="_blank">Tatzu Nishi</a><br />
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-47045234023751350852018-12-06T10:17:00.005+00:002024-03-16T19:31:51.772+00:00North Sea Magic Realism: The art of Guy Richardson <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>'In seventy or eighty years a Man may have a deep Gust of the World, Know what it is, what it can afford, and what ’tis to have been a Man'. </i>[1]</div>
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Guy Richardson (1933 - 2021) was a British artist and sculptor who exhibited his art for over six decades. He was also the senior member of the North Sea Magic Realism art-movement.</div>
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Early in his long and varied life, Guy attended Dartmouth Naval College and later studied at Chelsea School of Art for his National Diploma in Design, along with fellow-artist Prunella Clough and the sculptor Elizabeth Frink. He attended UEA as a mature student reading European Art History. For many years Guy combined art with puppetry including a one-man show of Orpheus in the Underworld which was performed at the National Theatre in London. Richardson's influence upon his contemporaries is reflected in the British puppeteer and environmental artist Meg Amsden's (b. 1948) reminiscence -</div>
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'There were so many artists around that I knew and worked with that it was possible to learn things. With a little touring dance and education company we went into schools and did shows and through that I met someone called Guy Richardson, who did Punch and Judy shows on Yarmouth beach.' </div>
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Guy showed Meg how to make masks for dance productions and, almost immediately, she started making puppets too. Amsden recollects on her apprenticeship with Richardson-</div>
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'Guy had a way of working that was experimental. All the time we were trying things out,” she says. “I think you learn by doing that. I have the sort of mind that likes problem solving so that worked well. I worked with him for four of five years altogether but gradually started setting up my own ideas too.' [2]</div>
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Richardson has held exhibitions of his art at Covent Garden and Hampstead in London, at Norwich, and Halesworth and Southwold in Suffolk. Three examples of his medallic work are currently held at the British Museum. </div>
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Its beyond the confines of this post to recollect in detail Guy's long and extensive biography, besides, as C.G. Jung reminds us- </div>
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'The personal life of the artist is at most a help or a hindrance, but is never essential to his creative task. He may go the way of the Philistine, a good citizen, a fool, or a criminal. His personal career may be interesting and inevitable, but it does not explain his art'. [3] </div>
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Working mostly in ceramics, primarily in grogged clay, Richardson's pieces are painted or sponged with underglaze paints before biscuit firing, creating sculptures which are at turns humorous and erotic, often featuring people in unusual situations. His amusing and intriguing sculptures echo the humour and salaciousness of 'What the Butler Saw' peep-shows with a Jack-in-the-box inventiveness. With an extensive knowledge of world art, Richardson's 'Back-stage' (top of post) depicts the behind-the-scenes operations of stage-hands whilst an opera singer performs to an audience. His 'Shark-wrestler' (above) is influenced by the artist Rene Magritte, whilst his 'Bluebeard's Larder' (below) is inspired by Charles Perrault's sinister fairy-tale.</div>
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Richardson's art possesses all the sophistication of Czech animator Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay with their imaginative automatons, while retaining his own quite unique vision.</div>
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The psychologist C.G. Jung reminds us that- 'Every creative person is a duality or a synthesis of contradictory qualities. On the one side he is a human being with a personal life, while on the other he is an impersonal creative process. As a human being he may be sound or morbid, and his personal psychology can and should be explained in personal terms. But he can be understood as an artist only in terms of his creative achievement'. [4]</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje4qei8TpNtHZ0VBVosPSIruVDWlUA52p2mIpwcARDUZhnlU437ncUsaFkeE7Mexr-dScaAxJH-r1kYrW3Q2Bo6uxKkzlynZ10aUjwZrX-jV5qRh74qGAaGNvy8sNTXUo7FEldw0K2y3u_0P5TzlcpOJ_45ANgvXY3ZMH3SPF-Ye2KHdt57S7g0k3oYVg/s1440/FB_IMG_1710617299320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje4qei8TpNtHZ0VBVosPSIruVDWlUA52p2mIpwcARDUZhnlU437ncUsaFkeE7Mexr-dScaAxJH-r1kYrW3Q2Bo6uxKkzlynZ10aUjwZrX-jV5qRh74qGAaGNvy8sNTXUo7FEldw0K2y3u_0P5TzlcpOJ_45ANgvXY3ZMH3SPF-Ye2KHdt57S7g0k3oYVg/s320/FB_IMG_1710617299320.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell both acknowledge Richardson's influence upon their own personal artistic development. Rodulfo recollects - </div>
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'I first met Guy in 1980. At the time I was exhibiting at Norwich Castle Museum. Guy had seen my work there and got in touch with me so as to see more of my art. In due course Guy showed me his work which greatly impressed me. For some time I had been making ever more encrusted collages, and seeing Guy's work gave me the courage and inspiration to take my collages a big step forwards, in the form of three-dimensional constructions and assemblages,which in turn led on to free standing sculptures'. </div>
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Mark Burrell, a Lowestoft neighbour of Richardson, states-<br />
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'I first saw Guy's work over 30 years ago when I was lucky enough to see a one man show by him. I was utterly spell bound by the sheer imagination of his 3D pieces, many were ornate boxes with spy-holes to peer into; within these he created great depth and all kind of imaginings. His themes over the years are many and varied, but his frank, honest and quirky depiction of human sexuality, playful and uncensored make me smile and think. 30 years later I still get a feeling of excitement when I pop round to see him and his unique work.'<br />
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Guy Richardson exhibited with Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell at the Tripp Gallery, London, in November 2017, attending the opening preview of the first collective North Sea Magical Realism exhibition. </div>
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<u>Notes</u></div>
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[1] Sir Thomas Browne <i>Christian Morals </i>Part 3:22</div>
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[2] The Puppet Master: Interview with Meg Amsden East Anglian Daily Times 8th July 2013</div>
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[3] CW 15:157</div>
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[4] CW 15:162</div>
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<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XJE6wIr_Uc0lUOLiBw4ifaQtrVUeDq8GCOw7jkejCZ2dLLxTxLfHWHrVXNxkWGie06YLSQVGs2LSfL6PQb1tJTMLbIQQ0hcL1X3FwV5pnh0Kgehl2GN0BOiYSbMEVIl7cGW8BBTFxos/s300/76642453_2639353699484916_1161579102113628160_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="300" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XJE6wIr_Uc0lUOLiBw4ifaQtrVUeDq8GCOw7jkejCZ2dLLxTxLfHWHrVXNxkWGie06YLSQVGs2LSfL6PQb1tJTMLbIQQ0hcL1X3FwV5pnh0Kgehl2GN0BOiYSbMEVIl7cGW8BBTFxos/w200-h187/76642453_2639353699484916_1161579102113628160_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div> Photo of Guy Richardson circa 1980</div>Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-17169884214148881972018-10-19T09:19:00.001+01:002021-12-16T09:47:07.535+00:00Dr. Browne's Ethereal Salt<div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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Once considered to be the 'ultimate oddity’ of Thomas Browne's collected writings, the miscellaneous tract <i>Musaeum Clausum</i> (Sealed Museum) is now seen as clear evidence of the physician-philosopher possessing a versatile imagination along with a sly sense of humour in his last years.<br />
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Ever the consummate literary showman, Browne announces to an unknown correspondent that his <i>Musaeum Clausum</i> consists of, <i>‘some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living'. </i>[1]<br />
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The first section of <i>Musaeum Clausum</i> is a scholastic wish-list of books rumoured to exist which Browne would like to read, such as the writings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius translated into Spanish. Browne's one-line inventory of book-titles anticipates the Argentinian magic realism author Jorge Luis Borges who declared that, 'to write vast books is a laborious nonsense. Much better is to offer a summary, as if those books actually existed.'<br />
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<i>Musaeum Clausum's</i> <i>‘Rarities of Pictures’</i> features exotic locations such as the Arctic and Desert, historical events, including sieges and sea-battles, physiognomic coincidences, random reproductions and optical art.<br />
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In 2016 the North Sea magic realism artists Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell each produced a highly-polished and original artwork from the skeletal sketches of '<i>Rarities of Pictures'</i>. <a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2017/10/four-rarities-in-pictures-from-dr.html" target="_blank">[2]</a><br />
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In the final section, <i>'Antiquities and Rarities of several sorts' </i>Browne lampoons some of the improbable artefacts of doubtful provenance collected by the undiscerning of his era. He also subtly mocks the outlandish claims of those engaged in alchemical experiments, with his own bizarre curio in the curtain-falling ‘rarity’ of-<br />
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'A Glass of Spirits made of Æthereal Salt, Hermetically sealed up, kept continually in quick-silver; of so volatile a nature that it will scarce endure the Light, and therefore only to be shown in Winter, or by the light of a Carbuncle, or Bononian Stone'.<br />
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Before revealing the medical nature of Dr. Browne’s ‘ethereal salt’ and exploring the labyrinthine symbolism of salt in alchemy, it's worthwhile looking a little closer at Browne's curio, as it names the 'deity' synonymous with alchemy, the Egypto-Greek god Hermes and his Roman counterpart, Mercurius.<br />
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The term <b>'hermetically sealed up'</b> is a great example of how the opaque language of the alchemystical philosophers metamorphosed into early chemistry terminology. The term originates from the Egypto-Greek god Hermes and his magic ability to seal treasure chests so that no-one could access their contents. In the early days of the chemical process of distillation, the ability to make an airtight seal was highly valued and the secret of the seal was a closely guarded one.<br />
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Hermetic philosophers such as Browne believed in the mythic Hermes Trismegistus, even after it was proved that writings attributed to him originated from the early Christian era, and were not, as believed penned in ancient Egyptian times. Browne states his subscription to the tenets of Hermetic philosophy in <i>Religio Medici </i>boldly declaring - ‘The severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of <i>Hermes'</i>.[3]<br />
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The very title <i>Musaeum Clausum</i> may itself allude to a Hermetic publication. As a keen bibliophile Browne kept up-to-date with forthcoming publications and may well have known that the alchemical anthology <i>Musaeum Hermeticum</i>, which first saw light in 1625 was reprinted in Latin in 1678.<br />
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<b>'Glass'</b> in Browne's curio is synonymous with the alchemical apparatus of the Vessel, <i>Vas</i>, or philosopher's egg. Its modern chemistry equivalent would be the distillation retort. [4]<br />
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The word <i>clausum</i> is closely associated with alchemy, C.G. Jung reminding us that - ‘The <i>vas bene clausum</i> (well-sealed vessel) is a precautionary measure very frequently mentioned in alchemy’. Jung also reminds us in words applicable to both the inner, psychic process within the alchemist (i.e. the mind/ vessel) as much as the outer, experimental process in the laboratory, stating - ‘The adept must always take care to keep the Hermetic vessel well sealed, in order to prevent what is in it from flying away'. [5]<br />
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Hermes lends his name not only to the solitary figure of the spiritual searcher, the hermit, but also to winged Mercury, the 'trickster-god' of communication, thieves and traders, who either assisted the adept with revelation or thwarted him in his search for gold. Known today as mercury, <b>Quicksilver </b>was so named from its seemingly living properties, ('quick' being an early English word for alive or living). Because of its peculiar properties, being a liquid metal which contracted and expanded when exposed to cold and heat, as capable of division as easily as reunifying itself, the chemical substance of mercury acted as play-dough upon the alchemical imagination. The alchemist's encounter with the numinous through unconscious psychological projection upon substances and processes when engaged in experiment are well-illustrated in Browne’s declaring in <i>Religio Medici </i>-<br />
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‘I have often beheld as a miracle, that artificial resurrection and revivification of Mercury, how being mortified into thousand shapes, it assumes again its own, and returns into its numerical self’. [6]<br />
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<b><br /></b>From the ancient Greek Pythagoreans who called the sea the 'tear of Kronos', because of its 'bitter saltness' to the late Renaissance chemist and alchemist Johannes Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644) who believed that volatile salts composed the vital spirit or the breath of animals and plants, <b>Salt</b> has featured in the speculations of philosophers, alchemists and early modern chemists alike. Indeed, it has been said that 'salt chymistry' is pivotal to the study of the inter-relationship between chemistry, natural history, physiology and medical sciences in the early modern period. [7]<br />
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Salt is the only mineral rock which is eaten by man. Its a substance which man valued enough to risk his life and labour in dangerous mining conditions in order to acquire. One of the oldest and most ubiquitous of all food seasonings; salt has a dual nature—preserving and corrupting, its also a disinfectant, a component of ceremonial offerings, and was once a unit of value exchange. During the Roman era, salt was used as a currency with the custom of paying soldiers in pieces of compressed salt (the word ‘salary’ originates from <i>salārium</i>, ‘salt money’) hence the phrase - ‘to be worth one’s salt’. Man’s relationship to salt has generated enormous poetic and mythic meanings, not least when promoted in importance by the alchemist-physician Paracelsus.<br />
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Above all others, it was Paracelsus (1493-1541) with his advocating chemical-based alchemy who influenced the development of medicine during the Renaissance and beyond. Paracelsus urged physicians to investigate nature in order to discover new properties in the mineral, botanical and animal kingdoms whose extracted ‘essences’ could be potentially useful for healing. In Paracelsus’s voluminous writings there can also be found a moralist and theologian as profound and radical as the Reformation figure of Martin Luther (1483-1546). Taking his cue from the Persian alchemist, Rhazes (854–925 CE) who suggested that metals contained a third, salty component, Paracelsus added to the alchemical duality of sulphur and mercury a third element, salt, perhaps in imitation of the Christian Trinity. Paracelsus maintained that everything is made of philosophical mercury, sulphur and salt, though without abandoning the ancient Greek schemata of the four elements, effectively giving alchemists two differing schemata to play, speculate and base their experiments upon.<br />
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Paracelsus stressed the importance of salt in the alchemical triad, which greatly influenced his followers for over a century after his death. Thomas Browne's edition of Paracelsus, entitled <i>Opera Medico-Chimica</i>, is dated Frankfurt 1603. The Paracelsian physician Martin Ruland's Dictionary of Alchemy (<i>Lexicon Alchemiae </i>1612) also in his library, lists a bewildering number of salts, including <i>Sal Sapientia, </i>the salt of the wise. Ruland’s promotion of Salt states-<br />
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'Therefore, he that understands the Salt and its solution possesses the wisdom of the ancients. Therefore, place your whole reliance on the Salt. Count nothing else of importance. For Salt by itself is the most important secret which all the Wise have thought proper to conceal'. [8]<br />
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Astoundingly Ruland even asserts - 'The Salt of the Philosophers is the Stone of the Philosophers', as well as mentioning a 'Salt of Universal Harmony'. [9]<br />
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Paracelsus’s promotion of salt, along with its multifaceted qualities and many symbolic associations, attracted various 'alchemystical' philosophers and early chemists to philosophize upon and experiment with salt, sometimes mixing philosophy, religious insight, medicine and laboratory work indeterminately, as in Johann Glauber's <i>De Salium Natura</i> (On the Nature of Salt, 1658).<br />
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In the alchemical anthology 'The Rose-Garden of the Philosophers' (<i>Rosarium Philosophorum, c.</i>1550) one reads-<br />
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'Who therefore knows the salt and its solution knows the hidden secret of the wise men of old. Therefore turn your mind upon the salt and think not of other things; for in it alone (i.e. the mind) is the science concealed and the most excellent and hidden secret of all the most excellent and most hidden secret of all the ancient philosophers’. [10]<br />
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C.G. Jung reminds us - 'Whenever an alchemist speaks of “salt”, he does not mean sodium chloride or any other salt, or only in a very limited sense. He could not get away from its symbolic substance, and therefore included the <i>sal sapiente</i> in the chemical substance. [11]<br />
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'Salt was considered to be an arcane substance by the sixteenth and seventeenth-century alchemists, in ecclesiastical as well as alchemical usage, salt is the symbol for <i>Sapientia</i> and also for the distinguished or elect personality, as in 'Ye are the Salt of the earth'. [12]<br />
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'Salt was associated with Christ through the <i>sal sapientiae</i> association. In antiquity salt denoted wit, good sense, good taste, etc., as well as spirit. Cicero for example remarks: “In wit [<i>sale</i>] and humour Caesar.....surpassed them all." [13]<br />
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This philosophical aspect of Salt features in what is one of C.G. Jung’s most memorable sayings. Juxtaposing two of salt's primary attributes, namely, its bitterness with <i>sal sapiente, </i>the salt of the wise, to make the profound spiritual observation-<br />
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'Tears, sorrow, and disappointment are bitter, but wisdom is the comforter in all psychic suffering. Indeed, bitterness and wisdom form a pair of alternatives: where there is bitterness wisdom is lacking, and where wisdom is there can be no bitterness'. [14]<br />
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In one of the six door-step sized volumes of the alchemical anthology <i>Theatrum Chemicum </i>(The Chemical Theatre 1612) (one of Jung's favourite reads and in Browne's library) the physician-philosopher would have had his curiosity aroused when reading-<br />
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'But if Thales of Miletus chose to call that stone of Hercules, the magnet, an animate thing, because we see it attract and move iron, why shall we not likewise call salt, which in wonderous wise penetrates, purges, contracts, expands, hinders, and reduces a living thing?’ [15]<br />
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In <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica</i> (1646-72) Browne notes the place of salt in folklore, in religious ceremonies and throughout the Bible. Salt is featured in <i>Pseudodoxia</i> in the chapter entitled <i>Of Crystal </i>as well as in several of Browne's 'chymical operations', including an experiment as to whether magnetism increases or decreases in fresh or saline water.<br />
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Its when speculating upon the origins of colour that Browne displays his familiarity with the Paracelsian triad of alchemy, stating - ‘The Chymists have laudably reduced their causes unto Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury'. [16]<br />
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As a medical doctor Browne knew, as he states in <i>Pseudodoxia </i>- 'there being in everything we eat, a natural and concealed salt, which is separated by digestions, and doth appear in our tears, sweat and urines, although we refrain all salt, or what doth seem to contain it’. [17]<br />
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Well-informed of events in the medical world, Browne certainly also knew of the success his contemporary Johann Glauber (1604-1670) had with salt. The German-Dutch alchemist and chemist Johann Glauber was the first to produce salt extracted from Hungarian spring water. This naturally occurring salt is water soluble, has a bitter taste, and is sometimes used in medicine as a mild laxative; it's also used in dyeing. Glauber's salt, the common name for sodium sulfate, occurs as white or colorless crystals which upon exposure to fairly dry air effloresces, forming a powdery sodium sulfate. Glauber’s production of sodium sulfate, which he called <i>sal mirabilis</i> or "wonderful salt", was an effective but relatively safe laxative and a popular alternative to purging (emptying the digestive tract being a treatment for many diseases) which brought him fame and the honour of it being named "Glauber's salt".<br />
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Browne was aware of Glauber's Salts not only from his owning an edition of Glauber's <i>De Salium Natura </i>but also from his eldest son Edward Browne (1644-1708) who visited 'old Glauber in Amsterdam in 1668, and dutifully informed his father of the fact in his travel correspondence. [18]<br />
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Alchemist-physicians such as Paracelsus and Glauber paved the way for future advances in medicine in their experimentation with the properties of salt. The medical world first began using saline around 1831. Today saline solution, a mixture of sodium chloride in water, has several uses. Applied to an affected area its used to clean wounds and to treat dehydration from illnesses such as gastroenteritis and diabetic ketoacidosis, as well as to dilute medications given by injection. In alternative medicine the light which is emitted by crystal rock lamps is believed to have therapeutic benefits. Its also known today that an excessive consumption of salt in one's diet can be the cause of many serious medical conditions, including high blood pressure.<br />
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Its in <i>Pseudodoxia Epidemica </i>that clues to the true nature of Dr. Browne's 'ethereal salt' can be found. Adhering to the Paracelsian principle of the three primary substances of nature, namely sulphur, mercury and salt, Browne writes-<br />
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'For beside the fixed and terrestrious Salt, there is in natural bodies a <i>Sal niter</i> referring unto Sulphur; there is also a volatile or Armoniack Salt, retaining unto Mercury; by which Salts the colours of bodies are sensibly qualified, and receive degrees of lustre or obscurity, superficiality or profundity, fixation or volatility. [19]<br />
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Dr. Browne's 'ethereal Salt' may well allude to none other than medicinal smelling salts for <i>Sal volitalis,</i> the alchemist's name for ammonium chloride named here by Browne as 'Armoniack Salt', is the main component of smelling salts. Chaucer knew of <i>sal ammoniac</i>, and mentions it along with sublimed mercury, vitriol, saltpetre, arsenic and brimstone in his Canon Yeoman's Tale.<br />
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An early form of smelling salts or <i>sal ammoniac</i> was known as Salt of hartshorn (ammonium carbonate). Hartshorn salt, or simply hartshorn, also known as baker's ammonia was used in the seventeenth century as a forerunner of baking powder, but there can be little doubt that Browne’s interest in a <i>Sal Volitalis,</i> would be of a medical nature and not for baking. One can be confident that Dr. Browne's 'ethereal salt' is smelling salt, for in his commonplace notebooks there can be found a number of notes on how to prepare harthorn, the active ingredient for the manufacture of <i>Sal Volitalis.</i><br />
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'As is observable in gums, hartshorn...... Wherein it is presumable the water may also imbibe some part of the volatile salt.... in half a pint of jelly of hartshorn there is not above two drachms......Much hartshorn is therefore lost in the usual decoction of hartshorn in shavings and raspings, where the greater part is cast away.......The calcination of hartshorn by vapour of water is a neat invention, but whether much of the virtue be not impaired, while the vapour insinuating into the horn hath carried away the tenacious parts and made it butter' [20]<br />
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Smelling salts release ammonia gas, which triggers an inhalation reflex, irritating the mucous membranes of the nose and lungs, effectively rousing someone who has fainted or suffered a shock, back into consciousness. In an age of violent social change and Civil War, when news of fortunes and lives lost was frequent, there'd have been call for Dr. Browne to revive those who had fainted from bad news, during pregnancy or even from excessive blood-letting.<br />
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In alchemy <i>Volatilis, </i>the Latin word for flying, was how the alchemists described the vaporous fumes rising from their distillation vessel. In alchemical symbolism the fixed and the volatile are depicted as a pair of birds, one wingless, the other with wings, that is, one bird able to fly, the other grounded and 'fixed'. Keeping the contents of the Vessel (i.e. the mind) 'fixed' was one of the alchemist's great challenges, and often disaster struck during their 'chymical operations' and their endeavours came to nothing.<br />
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C.G. Jung recognised that the inner, psychic process within the alchemist and the outer, ongoing experimental process in the laboratory often cross-referenced and transformed each other; the 'volatile essence' being preserved in the vessel, i.e. the psyche and its precious content of individuation was vulnerable to 'flying away' -<br />
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‘The volatile essence so carefully shut up and preserved in the Hermetic vessel of the <i>unio mentalis</i> could not be left to itself for a moment, because this elusive Mercurius would then escape and return to its former nature, as, according to the testimony of the alchemists, not infrequently happened’. [21]<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'An Alchemist being tempted by Luxury' c. 1580</td></tr>
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It's possible that Thomas Browne had someone specific in mind when conjuring his image of a volatile and 'ethereal salt'. The alchemist Sir Robert Paston, resident at Oxnead Hall, some dozen miles north of Norwich (not quite Browne’s neighbour geographically) wrote to him about his laboratory experiments in April 1669 -<br />
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Honoured Sir,<br />
On Saturday night last, going into my laboratory, I found some of the <i>adrop </i>(that had been run four or five times in the open air, and every time its aetherial attracted spirits drawn from it) congealed to a hard candied substance......Upon about half a pound of this I cohabated some of its aetherial spirit, which it notwithstanding tinged red, and I am now drawing it again, for I think I had better have exposed it in its consistence to the open air again.....and by grinding, exposing, and distilling, it may at last go a white and spiss water, such an one as philosophers look after, or at least be fit to receive, and to be actuated with (....) and saline parts of the aetherial spirit, when that operation comes in hand if it affords us any that way. [22]<br />
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And again in September 1674-<br />
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'I have little leisure and less convenience to try anything here, yet my own salt will set me on work, having now arrived to this that I can with four drachmes of it dissolve a drachme of leaf gold... I am going to seal up two glasses, one of the menstruum with gold dissolved in it, and another of the menstruum <i>per se, </i>and to put them in an athanor, to see if they will putrefy, or what alteration will happen. I have at Oxnead seen this salt change black as ink, I must, at the lowest, have an excellent <i>aurum potable</i>, and if the signs we are to judge in Sendivogius’ description be true, I have the key which answers to what he says, that if a man has that which will dissolve gold as warm water doth ice, you have that which gold was first made in the earth'. [23]<br />
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In his brilliant study on the 17th century painting known as <i>The Paston Treasure</i> Spike Bucklow notes-<br />
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'Paston was assisted in his laboratory by Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700) (who used the pen-name "Halophilus" meaning ‘salt-lover’). Together they attempted to discover a formula for the fabled "red elixir", another name for the philosopher's stone, which alchemists believed could transmute base metals into gold'. [24]<br />
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‘So, Sir Robert's recipe for 'Manna' was playing with extraordinary potent cosmic forces. It all hinged upon a mysterious salt that mediated between the 'fixed' and the 'volatile'. Clues to the exact identity of that salt lay hidden in the maze and opinions varied. Brickenden gave Sir Robert details of 'a salt for infinite health and riches' that could be gathered from drops of dew gathered in May. But many, including Charles II's alchemist, thought the 'universal salt' was gunpowder's key ingredient - saltpetre. Sir Robert's recipe for making salt, <i>Spiritus salis</i>, was evidently important because he wrote it in Latin. [25]<br />
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Like Robert Paston who suffered a 'whirlpool of misfortunes’, Browne in his old age may, for want of a better description be described as a ‘disappointed alchemist’ that is, one who devoted less time on alchemical experiment and more time in prayer and meditation. As Spike Bucklow perceptively puts it-<br />
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'Alchemy was not suddenly found to be ‘wrong’, but the Norwich science of Arthur Dee, Thomas Browne and Robert Paston was quietly sidelined by the London science of the Royal Society. The differences were mainly social and political. The Norwich practitioners read signs, like Polynesian canoeists, Yarmouth fishermen and Navy tars, the London practitioners started to use instruments and charts, like naval officers'. [26]<br />
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The Paracelsian neologism '<i>Spagyrici</i>' inscribed on Browne’s coffin-plate supplies the true nature of Browne’s alchemy. As ever, Martin Ruland, a physician who served the esoteric-loving Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, assists our enquiry. Ruland's <i>Lexicon Alchemiae </i>(1612) includes definitions of -<br />
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SPAGIRIA - 'The Spagyric Art, is that which treats of the separation of the pure from the impure, so that after the refuse matter has been rejected, the virtue which remains can operate. It is the Art of Distilling and Separating'.<br />
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and of the moral character of the spagyrist -<br />
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SPAGIRUS– 'Any man who can separate the true from the false, set the good apart from the bad, and the pure from the impure, rejecting duality and cleaving to unity'. [27]<br />
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Technically speaking, Browne was a spagyricist, that is, one who believed that the calcined essences of plants could be useful in medicine. Historically speaking, the spagyrics were active just before the iatrochemists, the true beginning of purely chemical medicine, as opposed to those searching for hidden 'quintessences' extracted from the natural world.<br />
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Browne’s continental medical education acclimatised him towards Paracelsian medicine to a far greater degree than many of his British contemporaries. Some have suggested he was unsympathetic to Paracelsian medicine, but the long list of books by continental Paracelsian physicians, an edition of the complete works of the Swiss physician listed in Browne’s library, the Paracelsian neologism <i>'Spagyrici’</i> inscribed upon his coffin-plate, and the many references to the Swiss physician in Browne’s writings, all suggest otherwise. Although often critical of mystical aspects of Paracelsian thought, Browne was a follower of Paracelsus, a highly-critical follower, but follower nonetheless.<br />
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An even closer analogy to Browne's science than Paracelsus, can be found in the ideas of the Belgian chemist, alchemist and physician Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580-1644). Van Helmont, like Browne, is a transitional figure in the history of science. Though Van Helmont was skeptical of specific mystical theories, dismissing much of Paracelsian mysticism, nevertheless he refused to discount magical forces as a valid explanation for some natural phenomena. Van Helmont, like Browne regarded all science and wisdom to be a gift from God. Browne's estimate of Van Helmont along with Paracelsus, can be seen in his stating in his late work <i>Christian Morals</i> -<br />
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'many would be content that some would write like <i>Helmont</i> or <i>Paracelsus</i>; and be willing to endure the monstrosity of some opinions, for divers singular notions requiting such aberrations'. [28]<br />
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Evidence of Browne's joining the ranks of 'disappointed alchemists' can be gleaned from his late writings. Because of its alleged Egyptian origins alchemy was sometimes known as ‘Cleopatra’s Art’ amongst many other names. Browne concludes <i>The Garden of Cyrus</i> in disappointment at ever being unable to achieve the alchemical feat of palingenesis, that is, the revivification of a plant from it ashes.<br />
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'And though in the bed of <i>Cleopatra</i> can hardly with any delight, raise up the ghost of a Rose'.<br />
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Its interesting to note that the funeral ashes of <i>Urn-Burial </i>are 'answered' by an abundance of flowers in bloom in <i>The Garden of Cyrus. </i><br />
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Committed throughout his life to the Christian faith, Browne endorsed Christianity above alchemy as a philosophy for developing one’s inner self, when, making allusion to alchemy as 'Vulcan’s Art' he states in his late work <i>Christian Morals</i>-<br />
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<i>Vulcan’s</i> Art doth nothing in this internal Militia: wherein not the Armour of <i>Achilles</i>, but the Armature of St. <i>Paul</i>, gives the Glorious day. [29]<br />
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Browne's real alchemy is in the word, in particular the sonority, rhythm and symbolism of his 1658 discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>with their plexiform relationship in polarity, truth and imagery. Together they are Browne's literary philosopher's stone, of which one critic perceptively notes -<br />
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'Mystical symbolism (of this kind) is woven throughout the texture of Browne's work and adds, often subconsciously, to its associative power of impact....there is nothing vague or wooly about Browne's mysticism,...Every symbol is interrelated with the overall pattern'. [30]<br />
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Although the diptych discourses <i>Urn-Burial </i>and <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>(1658) appear as if two identical, white, crystalline substances, when empirically sampled they differ sharply; <i>Urn-Burial </i>is discovered to be the bitter salt of Christian Stoicism, a sprinkling of which is essential for spiritual well-being in the face of disease, suffering, death and the grave. (Indeed, Salt is mentioned in <i>Urn-Burial </i>in Browne's description of adipocere, or grave wax, his solitary credited scientific discovery). In complete contrast, the 'light' half of the diptych <i>The Garden of Cyrus </i>is fructose sugar, with its excited rush of ideas, playfulness and sweet delight in nature.<i> </i><br />
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Today we may be skeptical of the scientific credentials and achievements of alchemists such as Paracelsus, Sir Thomas Browne or Sir Robert Paston and take their science <i>cum granis salis, </i>with a pinch of salt; nevertheless, their collective spirit of enquiry paved the way for future generations of scientists; we may therefore agree with Virginia Woolf -<br />
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'Few people love the writings of Sir Thomas Browne, but those who do are the salt of the earth’.<br />
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<u><br /></u> Part 2 to follow - Of the Carbuncle and the Bononian Stone.<br />
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<u>Notes</u><br />
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[1] 'Ultimate oddity' from C.A. Patrides 'Approaches to Sir Thomas Browne': The Ann Arbor Tercentenary Lectures and Essays edited by C.A. Patrides pub. University of Missouri 1982.<br />
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A manuscript of <i>Musaeum Clausum </i>was found amongst the papers of the Collector and Natural philosopher Walter Charleton (1619-1707). It may have been written for him for his delivering the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in the late 1670's.<br />
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[2] See <a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2017/10/four-rarities-in-pictures-from-dr.html" target="_blank">Four 'Rarities in pictures' from Dr. Browne's Musaeum Clausum</a><br />
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[3] <i>Religio Medici </i>Part 1:12<br />
[4] Haeffner : Dictionary of Alchemy Aquarian Press 1999<br />
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[5] C. G. Jung Collected Works vol. 12:219 and vol 14: paragraph 200</div>
[6] <i>Religio Medici </i>1:46<br />
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[7] ‘The Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650-1750 (History of Science and Medicine Library) Anna Marie Roos Brill 2007<br />
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[8] Ruland <i>Lexicon Alchemiae.</i> Listed in Browne's library p.22 no. 119<br />
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[9] <i>Ibid. </i>Other books by Paracelsian physicians in Browne's library include Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (S.C. page 25 no. 98, page 51 no. 103,104) Joseph Duchesne (S.C. page 33 no. 8 page 34 no. 63) Alexander Suchten (S.C. page 51 no. 128) Petrus Severinus (S.C. page 18 no. 50 page 20 no. 23, 24, 25, 26) John French (S.C. page 51 no. 118) Johann Glauber (S.C. page 43 no. 10) and Gerard Dorn (S.C. page 25 no. 118)<br />
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[10] C.W 12: 359<br />
[11] C.W 9 ii : 247<br />
[12] C.W 9 i : 575<br />
[13] C.W 14 : 324<br />
[14] C.W 14: 330 C.G. Jung's <i>Mysterium Coniunctionis </i>: An Inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy (1955-56) includes his most detailed writings on salt., in particular Chapter 5 p.183 - 239<br />
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[15] C.W 9 ii: 143 Jung quoting Chrysippus <i>Theatrum Chemicum</i> vol. 1 listed in Sales Auction Catalogue page 25 no.124</div>
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[16] Kevin Killeen's highly recommended paperback edition, the Selected writings of Thomas Browne (21st-Century Oxford Authors OUP paperback edition 2018) has a great introduction. Its index lists over 30 references to salt in Browne's writings.<br />
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Browne's experiments with salt and snow Bk. 2 chapter 1 <i>Of Crystall</i>. Experiment with magnetism and salt water Bk. 2 ch.2 <i>Concerning the Loadstone.</i><br />
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[17] P.E. Book 4 chapter 10<br />
[18] Johann Glauber <i>De Salium Natura</i> S.C. page 43 no. 8 Amsterdam 1658 Keynes Selected correspondence letter no. 22 dated 22nd September 1668<br />
[19]<i> </i> P.E. Book 4 chapter 10<br />
[20] Wilkins 1835 edition Commonplace notebook<br />
[21] C.W14:742<br />
[22] Wilkins 1835 edition<br />
[23] <i>Ibid</i><br />
[24] The Anatomy of Riches:Sir Robert Paston's Treasure Spike Bucklow Reaktion Books 2018. Highly recommended.<br />
[25] <i>Ibid.</i><br />
[26] <i>Ibid.</i><br />
[27] Martin Ruland's <i>Lexicon Alchemiae </i>(1612) Sales Catalogue p. 22 no 119<br />
[28] Christian Morals Part 2:5<br />
[29] Christian Morals Part 1:24<br />
[30] Peter Green Sir Thomas Browne Writers and their work no. 108 Longmans, Green and Co. 1959<br />
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<u>See also</u><br />
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<a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2012/11/paracelsus-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Paracelsus and Browne</a><br />
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<a href="https://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2011/06/carl-jung-and-sir-thomas-browne.html" target="_blank">Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne</a><br />
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<u>Notes on Pictures</u><br />
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* Photo: A Salt Crystal magnified</div>
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* Alchemical symbols for Sulphur, Salt and Mercury.</div>
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* Painting: - 'The unconscious Patient'.<br />
Rembrandt's early oil painting, is one of a set of five depicting the senses completed c. 1624 or 1625. They are among his earliest surviving works, and are identical in size. <i>The Sense of Smell</i> shows a physician reviving a swooning woman by placing a handkerchief soaked in a volatile salt under her nose, in order to rouse her into consciousness. It was reidentified in 2015. The whereabouts of the painting representing the sense of taste remains unknown.<br />
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* Painting: 'An Alchemist being tempted by <i>Luxuria</i>' anon. circa 1580<br />
* Photo - Alchemical flower Stand with four tubes and glowing flower of fern. Dina Belenko Photography<br />
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Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205961612182676788.post-22209004978234552272018-09-17T18:02:00.003+01:002018-10-13T17:06:27.194+01:00Portraiture and North Sea magical realism at Skippings gallery <div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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The unique combination of portraiture and North Sea magic realism art by the established artists Mark Burrell and David Gooch is currently on show at Skippings Gallery, King Street, Great Yarmouth, until the end of September.<br />
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This is the very first time the two friends have exhibited together since first meeting twenty years ago, although they've given each other constructive criticism of each other's art throughout the decades. Indeed, Mark Burrell says of David Gooch - ‘He has one of the sharpest pair of eyes I know and can always spot a weak point in a painting even if its only half a centimetre wide’.<br />
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In a harmonious synchronization of perspective and geometry, imagination and intimate feeling, Burrell’s relatively large-scale work<i> Girl at the Window </i>(90 x 80 cm) depicts a young girl with her back to the viewer, caught in a moment of quiet reflection, gazing upon an extensive landscape. She looks towards the setting sun and a small tidal island; a craggy rock with a house, gothic in architectural style, is perched upon its grassy knoll. Surrounded by an extensive estuary, a viaduct connects island to mainland. A crescent moon appears in the twilight.<br />
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As often in his art, a spectacular cloudscape is depicted. Though highly-stylized, Burrell's cloudscape is based upon close observation by the artist, in particular, the refractive light upon clouds at sunset. The setting sun, located with pinpoint precision on the horizon, greatly enhances the carefully calculated perspective of the canvas. A cat and flowers placed in a vase upon the window-sill emphasise the feminine domesticity of the scene. A slightly darker element, linking the gothic architecture of the mysterious island house occurs in the form of a pair of shadowy, twin portraits which frame each side of window. </div>
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Explaining the long evolution of his <i>Girl at the Window</i>, Burrell states-</div>
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‘It was reworked from a canvas 40 years ago. The Salvador Dali influence has now gone, the Dali bread became a girl, and the Vermeer jug turned into a cat. The figure just grew, it wasn’t there before in the old painting; it was isolated, full of decay. There are paintings by Caspar David Friedrich and Salvador Dali entitled ‘A Girl at Window’, but neither of these has the shape or colour or feeling I was after, which was all about light, and the landscape being inside and outside being connected, not solitary.</div>
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‘While Friedrich’s <i>Girl at the Window </i>deals with the body in relationship to a cold interior, I, however, was thinking more about the psychology of landscape connecting inner and outer space, and of course a landscape without a figure can create such silence in a work. This is nature abundant and happy meaning, no longer afraid and depressed but thankful to be alive in the world, so it’s a landscape about mental states, then and now, and is autobiographical.’<br />
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Symbolically speaking a view from a window is a change or alteration in perspective (from a closed wall indoors to being presented with a framed view) and hence its suggestive of an alteration or change of awareness or consciousness, a necessary adjutant to all mental and spiritual growth.<br />
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A tentative Jungian interpretation would suggest the canvas alludes to a psychological achievement, that of recognition and integration of the <i>anima </i>(inner feminine within male psyche) to the self. This is expressed in the painting's imagery in the relationship between the unknown girl gazing upon the house perched upon a rock, its central focal point being mandala-like in the fantastic landscape.<br />
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The island, in particular, one composed half of rock and half of architectural design is a good symbol of the Self, which also consists of the known and unknown, of raw nature and refined culture.<br />
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Not only is Burrell familiar with Jungian psychology but also with a 20th century English author who wrote extensively on spiritual matters, stating-</div>
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"I've read a couple or three of Aldous Huxley's novels, every page rich and involved. His last novel <i>'Island'</i> (1962) I read whilst actually on an island, not realising at the time how related it was to Buddhism, and the invasion of Tibet. A brilliant book. I think he described meditation once as the poor man's snooze, but later came to realise its benefits."</div>
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The unusual topographical features of St.Michael's mount in Cornwall and St. Michel's mount in Normandy, France are landscapes which are suggestive of spiritual sanctuary, as does the fantastic landscape and intimate vision of Mark Burrell's <i>Girl at the Window.</i> </div>
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Mark Burrell’s distinctive tonal palette, skilful draughtsmanship and meticulous attention to detail is clearly visible in each and every one of the paintings in this Skippings exhibition. Equally adept in realism, as his portraits demonstrate, as in his realisation of magical landscapes inhabited by strange, yet somehow familiar characters, the wide spectrum of Burrell’s subject-matter now ranges from his native Lowestoft, to the caricaturing of international politics, to the highest flights of imagination, creating a personalised microcosm in which emotion and feeling are heightened through a highly original colour palette; a flourishing field of vision no less. </div>
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As the Spanish cultural historian Ortega Y Gasset states - 'Art has no right to exist if, content to reproduce reality, it uselessly duplicates it. Its mission is to conjure up imaginary worlds. That can only be done if the artist repudiates reality and by this act places himself above it. Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist'. [1]</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6h5vNUdYdki1H8HSFgfMZNOelPGpGH14Uh5wlEJUrzwpFdCJoezqqGWuoGtyP53LjIC7wRPXZ_wVb5ZrIDZ2YOIfSKos6DfNbaE61tvLMRAO-F2so3i1_s3qZrj-6lfI8b9iQ7CE6gU/s1600/Peter+Rodulfo+by+Mark+Burrell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6h5vNUdYdki1H8HSFgfMZNOelPGpGH14Uh5wlEJUrzwpFdCJoezqqGWuoGtyP53LjIC7wRPXZ_wVb5ZrIDZ2YOIfSKos6DfNbaE61tvLMRAO-F2so3i1_s3qZrj-6lfI8b9iQ7CE6gU/s400/Peter+Rodulfo+by+Mark+Burrell.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait of Peter Rodulfo by Mark Burrell</td></tr>
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Burrell's portrait of fellow leading artist of the North Sea magical realism, Peter Rodulfo, captures not only the external features of the artist's ageing eyes, resultant from decades at the easel, along with his high-cheekbones, hinting of Rodulfo's remote Slavic ancestry, but also the artist's well-known inner qualities of warmth, humanity and sense of humour. </div>
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Others portraits by Burrell in the Skippings exhibition include a portrait of David Gooch, a self-portrait and a portrait of his partner, Donna. His understanding of the art of portraiture is exemplified in his stating -</div>
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‘Portraits for me are all about the character of the sitter, the inner life, without that element a portrait is just a technical ability. I love the flesh, soft parts, bone gristle, reflections in eyes, texture, and how much a face can change in just a day, changing and shifting form with different emotions’.</div>
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At the private viewing on Saturday 22nd September I finally meet <b>David Gooch. </b>Genial and informative, like Burrell, Gooch is also Lowestoft born and bred. I'm instantly surprised at the wide diversity of Gooch's exhibited art. Easily equal and gifted to Burrell in technique and style, Gooch's<b> </b>most recent paintings are also in the genre of portraiture. More than simply factual accounts of the face, they show something of the inner workings of the individual. His portrait of his friend Mark Burrell depicts the artist at the easel wearing his studio hat, worn whilst working to protect his eyes from intrusive glare. </div>
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As the art-historian Ortega Y Gasset once more, states-</div>
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A traditional painter painting a portrait claims to have got hold of the real person when, in truth and at best, he has set down on a canvas a schematic selection, arbitrarily decided on by his mind, from the innumerable traits that make a living person. What if the painter changed his mind and decided to paint not the real person but his own idea, his pattern, of the person ? Indeed, in that case the portrait would be the truth and nothing but the truth, and failure would no longer be inevitable. In foregoing to emulate reality the painting becomes what it authentically is: an image, an unreality' [2] </div>
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In David Gooch's and Mark Burrell's respective portraits of the two leading artists of North Sea Magical realism, a valuable record of two mature artists, now approaching the peak of their artistic development is documented. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait of Mark Burrell by David Gooch</td></tr>
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In addition to his portraits, a number of landscapes by David Gooch are included in the exhibition. Gooch's sharp eye for landscape scenery has been inspired and developed through his travels to Cornwall, Yorkshire, Spain and France. His tonal palette, predominantly of cool colours, contrasts well with Burrell’s heightened colour in this exhibition, but whether cool or illuminated, what unites Gooch's art with his friend Mark Burrell's, is a shared love of portraiture and of landscape, real and fantastic.</div>
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As ever, its worth stressing, digital photos simply don't give anywhere near the full flavour of a genuine art-work in either colour, dimension or ambience even. Far better to visit Skippings gallery in Great Yarmouth before September ends, to acquire a true appreciation of these two artist's works.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Tuscan view by David Gooch</i></td></tr>
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<u>Notes</u></div>
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[1] The Dehumanizing of Art and other essays on Art, Culture, and Literature. Jose Ortega Y Gasset Princeton University Press 1968</div>
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[2] <i>Ibid.</i></div>
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<a href="http://markburrellart.com/imaginative-gallery/" target="_blank">Link to Mark Burrell's Imaginative Gallery</a></div>
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See also -.<a href="http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2018/04/walk-through-walls-rodulfos-yarmouth.html" target="_blank">Rodulfo's 'Walk through Walls' Skippings Exhibition</a></div>
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<br />Kevin Faulknerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com0