The phantastical Quincunx in Plato

'The shaping influence of Platonism on Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) has long been recognized by those attracted to the intangible atmosphere of his mind.'[1] 

Allusion to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (circa 427 BCE- 347 BCE) occurs throughout Browne’s writings. Plato’s proposal that the world is a living creature which possesses a soul (anima mundi), his allegories of the Cave of human illusion and the ‘wild horses’ of the passions, his political allegory of the lost civilization of Atlantis, along with ‘the fantastical Quincunx of Plato' can all be found in Browne’s literary works.

Above all else the discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658) reveals the full depth of the learned doctor’s immersion in Platonic thought. In a kaleidoscopic procession of art-objects, botanical specimens, optical theories and mystical symbols, Browne showcases his very own home-grown Platonic Form of the Quincunx. With virtuoso skill he improvises upon it in geometrical, numerical and mystical variations in order to highlight a foundational hermetic belief: the interconnectedness of life across the Universe. Browne also supplies his reader throughout the  discourse with proper-name symbolism of historical philosopher-Kings and ‘wise rulers’ as advocated by Plato. A timely reminder today with the world-wide rise of authoritarian and demagogue politicians. 

It was the Oxford academic Thomas Lushington (1590-1661) who introduced Thomas Browne to Plato’s philosophy. He also recommended Norwich to his former pupil as an ideal city to establish a medical career. Browne followed his advice, and after qualifying as a physician in 1637 relocated to Norwich where he practiced medicine until his death in 1682. 

Lushington most likely took pride when his former pupil’s Religio Medici (1643) became a best-seller in England and gained recognition across Europe after translation. Plato is encountered several times in Browne’s spiritual testament and psychological self-portrait. For example, the so-called Great Platonic Year, a period of approximately 24,000 years, the length of time which the Greek philosopher believed was required for the celestial bodies to return to their original positions, is defined by Browne as-

'A revolution of certain thousand years when all things should return unto their former estate and he (Plato) be teaching again in his school as when he delivered this opinion'.[2]

Browne expresses his belief in the anima mundi or World-Soul in Religio Medici, a concept originating from Plato and later embraced by hermetic philosophers.

'Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be (for ought I know) an universal and common Spirit to the whole world. It was the opinion of Plato, and it is yet of the Hermetical Philosophers; [3]

Alchemystical philosophers such as Browne related Plato’s concept of the anima mundi or World-Soul from their own spiritual intuition as much as from reading Plato. 

A central tenet of Browne’s spirituality is a belief in an angelic hierarchy, one which he held in common with many in the seventeenth century. It was a belief supported not only from Biblical Scripture, but from Plato also, as Browne informs-

‘Therefore for Spirits I am so far from denying their existence and from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole Countries, but particular persons have their Tutelary, and Guardian Angels: It is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato’. [4] 

Religio Medici (The Religion of a doctor) concludes in decisive favour of Plato and dismissive of his pupil Aristotle,  Browne wittily declaring-

‘Aristotle whilst he labours to refute the Idea's of Plato, falls upon one himself: for his summum bonum, is a Chimæra, and there is no such thing as his Felicity’.[5]

In Plato's theological, moral and mystical philosophy allegory, symbolism and concepts such as Eternal Ideas or Forms are used to illustrate spiritual truths. As the ‘Father of Western mysticism’ he's the source of much esoteric thought. Plato’s philosophy was fundamentally supplemented with the revival and development of Platonic thought in the early centuries of the Common Era. Neoplatonism flourished through philosophers such as Plotinus (204/5 – 271 CE) Porphyry of Tyre (ca. 233-305 CE) and Iamblichus (245-325 CE) all of whom elaborated and expanded Platonic concepts, often with little connection to the ancient Greek’s original thought. Books by Neoplatonic authors are well-represented in Browne’s library. [6] 

The authoritative scholar Reid Barbour in his meticulously researched biography advances our understanding of Browne’s interest in Plato, explaining-

‘The appeal of Plato underscores Browne’s syncretic conviction that behind all transcendentally inclined philosophies – Hermetic, Zoroastrian, Pythagorean, Platonic, Neoplatonic, Chaldaic, Cabbalistic, and Christian – one finds the same supra-rational and even counter-rational truths, which neither dry logic nor blind partisanship can appreciate. [7]

Platonic and Neoplatonic thought influenced numerous artists, poets and thinkers throughout the Renaissance until the late seventeenth century, the low-ebb tide of its influence. The enduring appeal of Platonic thought is succinctly explained thus-

'In the Renaissance, no ancient revival had more impact on the history of philosophy than the recovery of Platonism.....No other renewal of an ancient school had a textual base large enough to support the growth  of a coherent, wide-reaching and independent philosophical system ..For at least three reasons, the new Platonism of Ficino and his successors must be seen as central to any discussion of European intellectual history during the Renaissance. First, the rich doctrinal content and formal elegance of Neoplatonic Platonism made it at least a plausible competitor of Peripateticism. What the Neoplatonists lacked in systematic logic and natural philosophy, they made up for with a stronger appeal to creativity .. They gave more latitude to all kinds of speculation, from aesthetics and mythology to cosmology and theology. After Ficino, anyone who disliked Aristotle could turn to Plato... The second strength of Platonism was its extra-philosophical influence. Despite his harsh words for poetry, Plato initiated a tradition that poets admired.... The same is true of his treatment of music...Finally, certain attitudes and methods of the new science were more Platonic than Aristotelian. The habit of idealizing physics, which was fundamental to the new science of the seventeenth century, came more easily to the Platonic mentality than to the Peripatetic. Even more important was Platonic praise of mathematics. For Aristotle, physics and mathematics did not really mix, while Plato gave good grounds for a mathematical analysis of nature. Platonism never vanquished Aristotelianism in the Renaissance, but it acquired great cultural strength'. [8]

In our own times it is Aristotelean reasoning and materialism which has triumphed over Platonic idealism, as the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung succinctly noted, ‘Greek natural philosophy with its interest in matter, together with Aristotelean reasoning, has achieved a belated but overwhelming victory over Plato’. [9]

Thematically, Browne’s literary diptych Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus (1658) concern themselves with themes of great importance to Plato, namely, the destiny of the eternal soul and number as a key to unlock cosmic mysteries. Browne’s diptych discourses closely reflect these two themes, Urn-Burial speculating upon the destiny of the soul and The Garden of Cyrus advocating number as a key to unlock the mysteries of the Cosmos.

Above-  Wall fresco of an ancient Greek drinking party symposium.

Urn-Burial

Browne’s sharp intellect and fertile imagination was sparked from the initial discovery of several Anglo-Saxon funerary urns ‘in a field near Old Walsingham’. In Urn-Burial he forensically surveys the burial rites, customs and beliefs of various world religions. It’s as a pioneering scholar of comparative religion that Browne alludes to Plato’s myth or tale of Er,  informing his reader that-

‘Plato’s historian of the other world, lies twelve days incorrupted, while his soul was viewing the large stations of the dead’.

Plato’s mythic story begins when a man named Er dies in battle. When the bodies of those who died in the battle are collected, some ten days after his death, Er remains undecomposed. Two days later he miraculously revives on his funeral-pyre and tells others of his soul’s journey in the afterlife, including his account of hearing the music of the celestial spheres. With its account of the cosmos and the afterlife Plato’s myth of Er influenced religious, philosophical, and scientific thought for centuries, not least for its teaching that after death moral people are rewarded and immoral people are punished.

Another ‘soul-journey’ cited in Urn-Burial is by the Roman philosopher Macrobius (395-423CE) whose commentary on ‘Scipio’s Dream’  was well-known throughout the Middle Ages. In Scipio’s ‘soul-journey’ the Roman military General Scipio narrates how he voyaged through the zodiac signs of Cancer and Capricorn, believed to be the exit and entrance to heaven and hears the celestial harmony of the spheres. Browne alludes to Macrobius' Commentary, recognises the importance of music in the grieving process as well as ‘the harmonical nature of the soul’ in  relationship to ‘the primitive harmony of heaven’, poetically stating- 

'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 progress traced by antiquity, came down by Cancer, and ascended by Capricornus'.

A vivid allusion to the ancient Greek philosopher’s allegory of the Cave of human unknowingness can also be found in Urn-Burial. Plato’s famous allegory describes people who have spent their entire lives chained by their neck and ankles in front of an inner wall in order to view the wall of a cave. They can only observe the shadows projected onto the outer wall of this cave by objects which are carried behind the inner wall by people who are invisible to the chained prisoners. Walking along the outer wall with a fire behind them, they create shadows on the inner wall in front of the prisoners who can only ever see the world indirectly, their reality iso only ever fire-lit shadows projected onto a wall.

In Plato’s powerful allegory the senses are proven to be highly unreliable narrators, the soul remains dormant and empirical reality has a transcendent background to it. Browne shared with Plato the same view of the human condition. Using highly original medical imagery he declares-

'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 Platoes denne, and are but Embryon Philosophers'.

Plato’s allegory of the Cave, idiosyncratically translated as ‘denne’ by Browne retains relevance today in our screen dominated lives, as one author states- 

'We can easily imagine Plato believing that we have returned to the world of the Cave, the situation in which our sensibility, values, tastes and desires are decisively shaped by what we absorb from the images presented to us…..Do the media that pervade our culture really contribute to human well-being and happiness, both of which, for Plato, depend on freedom from the control and manipulation that the use of the media can inflict on us ?.... The image of the Cave represented an imprisonment or enslavement by ignorance, illusion, ephemeral interests and harmful desires.... surely Plato’s verdict on our screen-dominated culture would have been severely critical'. [10]

The apotheosis of Browne’s speculations upon the body’s dissolution and the soul’s release includes an inventory of spiritual states of consciousness -

'And if any have been so happy as truly to understand Christian annihilation, extasis, exolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kisse 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………..  ‘Tis all one to lye in St. Innocent’s Churchyard as the sands of Egypt’.

Above : SCIOLTA (Freed) Symbolic image of the soul released from the cage of the body.  Detail of dove flying from a cage. Suckling Monument (circa 1616) St. Andrew's church Norwich.

The eminent American psychologist James Hillman (1926-2011) stated in words resonate with the prominent moralist found in Urn-Burial -

'religion begins, as we have said, as a reflection upon death. Psychology does too, for it is in the face of death that we ponder and go deep and sense soul, and then build our fantasies for housing it, whether these be the ancient pyramids and sepulchres of religion or the rituals and systems of modern psychology'. [11]

Browne's solitary hint of his Discourses relationship occurs in his Dedicatory Epistle in The Garden of Cyrus where he states-

'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.'

Browne’s solitary hint is tantalizing. Together, his discourses have a complex, plexiform relationship to each other. The primary imagery they share is optical. Imagery involving Darkness and Light is replete throughout each Discourse. James Hillman notes - 'The linking of light and darkness sets the stage for a fundamental and recurring theme in both alchemy and Jungian psychology, namely, the coniunctio oppositorum, the unity of opposites, a bringing together of light and darkness into an illuminated vision'. [12]

James Hillman also notes that Light and Darkness are inextricably related to each other as symbolic of Consciousness and unconsciousness. The repeated imagery of Light and Darkness throughout the diptych suggests they function as a product of Browne’s proto-psychology, as such they may be viewed as an early portrait of the psyche in its totality of unconsciousness and consciousness. 

Ingeniously constructed with a myriad of polarities (Browne is credited with introducing the very word ‘polarity’ into English language) the literary diptych includes several uniting symbols. For example, in Urn-Burial the Pyramid is condemned as a vain-glorious monument, while in Cyrus the Pyramid is contemplated a geometric form. The two-faced Roman god Janus is also encountered in each Discourse, as are hand gestures signalling subtraction and multiplication. Above all however it’s the philosophical thought of Plato which decisively unites the Discourses.

The Garden of Cyrus

Like the letters in the proverbial stick of rock The Garden of Cyrus has the five letters of the word PLATO embedded at its core. Each of its five chapters names the ancient Greek philosopher. Its opening page references Plato no less than three times, firstly alluding to the Demiurge figure of Plato's Timaeus via the mythological figure of Vulcan, secondly acknowledging Plato’s theological import, describing him  as ‘the divine philosopher’ and thirdly in his footnote, 'Plato in Timaeo'. Browne was not alone in his interest in Plato's discourse. Ever since 1484 when Marsilio Ficino made a full Latin translation of Plato's  discourse available the Timaeus wielded a near Bible-like authority upon poet, scholar, artist and Hermetic philosopher alike throughout the Renaissance. 

The Garden of Cyrus opens with an account of the Creation, evoking the demiurge figure of Vulcan as the Master Workman. ‘Philosophers of Fire’ such as Browne took their cue from the radical Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) who named the Roman blacksmith of the gods as representative of their alchemical art. To Paracelsian physicians such as Browne Vulcan was synonymous with the demiurge figure who created the Universe as described by Plato in his Timaeus.

Plato's Timaeus is his most Pythagorean, influential and mystical discourse. In it he describes how the Demiurge is a divine craftsman who shapes the chaotic material world into an ordered cosmos by imitating eternal, unchanging Platonic Forms. Acting as a father and artificer, the Demiurge imposes mathematical order on pre-existing chaos, creating a universe that is a living god with its own soul, and creates lesser gods responsible for humanity. Plato’s discourse is assessed thus -

'The most important account of the Creation in the classical world was that given in Plato’s Timaeus (a substantial part of which survived into the Christian Middle Ages) and here we find that it is the Demiurge himself (and not the lesser gods) who puts the divine ‘guiding principle’ into humankind'. [13]

Just as Plato in his Timaeus engages in mystical mathematics in which number is a key to unlock the mysteries of the Cosmos, so too Browne indulges in mystical mathematics throughout The Garden of Cyrus. In what is his most Pythagorean and Platonic influenced work, Browne explores eternal patterns, symbolism, mystical numerology and geometry, showcasing the Quincunx pattern in art and nature as reflecting the eternal forms and archetypes discussed in Plato's Timaeus.

Plato's eternal Forms are perfect, timeless, and unchanging abstract archetypes of concepts, objects, and qualities that exist in a separate "Realm of Forms" beyond our physical world. The material world, known only through the senses, is merely an imperfect, shadowy imitation of these perfect Forms. True knowledge, for Plato, is the intellectual grasp of these eternal Forms, rather than flawed perceptions of the physical world. Browne’s demonstration of the Platonic form of the Quincunx in Art, Nature and mystically is modelled upon Plato's notion of Eternal Forms which pre-existed the Creation. The master workman or demiurge figure who consults the blueprints for the Creation, introduces the Eternal or Archetypal Forms to the World.

Number

The Garden of Cyrus sees Browne give full expression to his 'mystical mathematicks' and numerological inclinations. He first expressed his interest in numerological symbolism in Religio Medici frankly declaring -

'I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras and the secret magicke of number'. [14]

In his encyclopaedic endeavour Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) there's a chapter titled Of the great Climatericall year, that is, Sixty three in which he speculates upon whether the number 63 is fatal in human affairs, noting it was reputedly the age which Plato died. He also informs his reader in this chapter that -‘ The Philosophy of Plato, and most of the Platonists abounds in numerall considerations’. [15]

No writings by Pythagoras survive, however Plato, in what is his most Pythagorean influenced work, the Timaeus, integrated and developed the numerological symbolism central to Pythagorean philosophy, and in some ways its equally accurate to describe Browne’s Discourse as Neo-Pythagorean as much as Platonic in concept.

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570 – 490 BCE) who taught, ‘All is Number’ based his teachings upon numerological symbolism. Worshipped as a god for almost 1000 years, Pythagoras expressed his mystery religion through symbols such as the celestial 'harmony of the spheres', geometry and a pyramid of dots structured upon the sum of 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 known as the tetractys. Browne’s Quincunx can be detected at the very heart of the Pythagorean tetractys.

Received wisdom, often from those unacquainted with Browne’s Garden discourse, will declare that The Garden of Cyrus is ‘all about’ the number five, but in fact the number five is only one of several inter-related symbols used by Browne. The acute angle of V as the Roman numeral for 5, along with its doubling as the letter and symbol X, which in turn is a variant upon the Quincunx pattern, all feature in the Discourse. 

In what is one of the most perceptive explanations on the function of Browne's home-grown Eternal Form of the Quincunx. John Irwin states-

'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'. [16]

Incidentally, in addition to his botanical studies, naming and describing over 100 plants in the discourse, the learned doctor also displays his zoological inclinations throughout the Garden of Cyrus mentioning insects, reptiles, crustaceans, birds, water-fowl, fish and mammals in order to illustrate the interconnection of life.

Plato’s mythic excursion to Egypt in quest of wisdom is also touched on in The Garden of Cyrus-

‘whereas it is not improbable, he (Plato) learned these and other mystical expressions in his Learned Observations of Egypt, where he might obviously behold the Mercurial characters, the handed crosses, and other mysteries not thoroughly understood in the sacred Letter X, which being derivative from the Stork, one of the ten sacred animals, might be originally Egyptian…’

Hermetic philosophers such as Browne saw great significance in the fact that the letter X, which they believed to have been invented by Hermes Trismegistus, prophetically became the first letter of the name of Christ in the Greek alphabet. To hermetic sensibilities Plato, among others, the letter X seemed to anticipate and  prophesize that Christ would one day come into the world in order to redeem humanity. The symbolism of the letter X to represent Christ survives to the present day in the short-hand of Xmas for Christmas. The soul itself is declared to be X shaped as Browne, in a near verbatim repetition from Plato’s Timaeus informs-

'Of this Figure Plato made choice to illustrate the motion of the soul, both of the world and man; while he delivereth that God divided the whole conjunction length-wise, according to the figure of a Greek X, and then turning it about reflected it into a circle'.

The Garden of Cyrus was written in great haste, as scrutiny of manuscript evidence by J.S. Finch proved. Browne’s haste is exemplified in shoe-horning into his essay the after-thought - 

‘To omit the phantastical Quincunx in Plato of the first Hermaphrodite or double man, united at the Loynes, which Jupiter after divided’.

In Plato’s Symposium, Eros is an erotic lover who is capable of inspiring bravery and courage along with great deeds as well as vanquishing man's fear of death. Sexuality in the form of Androgyny and homosexuality also feature in the discourse in a myth which narrates how humanity was originally three sexes: male-male people that descended from the sun, female-female people who descended from Earth, and male-female people who came from the Moon. The androgynous humans were spherical and had four legs, four hands and two heads. These androgynous humans dared to challenge the gods of Olympus, who, angered at their divided the primordial humans in two and scattered them across the Earth. The divided searched for their other halves. The women who sought another woman and the men who sought another men were homosexuals.

Above - Ancient Greek vase depicting Plato's hermaphrodite double man.

Archetype

C.G. Jung notes – ‘The term “archetype” occurs as early as Philo Judaeus (circa 20 BCE - 50 CE) and in the Corpus Hermeticum, where God is called an archetypal light'. The term also occurs several times in the writings of the early Christian Neoplatonist author Dionysus the Aeropagite, all of whom are represented in Browne’s library. [17]

Although the Elizabethan natural philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is credited as the first to use the word ‘archetype’ in early modern English, its Browne in his The Garden of Cyrus who endeavours through highly original proper-name symbolism to depict archetypal exemplars of Plato’s ‘philosopher-King’. Historical figures such as Abraham, Solomon and Moses, Alexander the Great, Augustus and Marcus Aurelius as well as the titular King Cyrus effectively underscore the Platonic ideal that just governance requires ‘wise rulers’. Women aren't overlooked in Browne’s comparative religion symbolism. The ‘Great Mother’ figures of Sarah, Isis, Cleopatra and Juno are also encountered in the Discourse. 

For Plato, as for Browne, the figure of the philosopher-King represents a universal pattern or blueprint of human potential, in which wisdom and justice are perfectly balanced. Browne's discourses were published during the Interregnum era of Cromwell's Puritan Rule. His repeated citing of the philosopher-King archetype can be seen as subtle criticism of Crowell’s Protectorate. The Garden of Cyrus retains relevance today, not only for its hermetic message of the interconnectivity of life, but also as a timely reminder of wise governance with the world-wide rise of authoritarian and demagogue political leaders today.

Late in his life Browne acquired a copy of the Athanasius Kircher’s (1602-1680) Mundus Subterraneous (1664) in which the Jesuit priest and scholar printed a map of  where he speculated the location of Atlantis. [18]. It was Plato who fabricated the existence of the lost civilization Atlantis in his political allegory the Timaeus. Browne notes in his Christian Morals (pub. post. 1716) of Plato’s account of the lost civilization that-

'Others more Ingeniously doubt whether there hath not been a vast tract of Land in the Atalantick  Ocean, which Earthquakes and violent causes have long ago devoured'. [19] 

In Kircher's 1665 map (below) North and South are reversed with Africa to the East and America to the West of the vast, fictitious continent of Atlantis.

Plato’s political allegory of Atlantis projected a philosophical ideal of  ancient Athens. To teach his point, his fictional Atlantean Empire waged war against the known world, resulting in his idealized Athens leading resistance against it, and eventually winning. Atlantis is thus revealed to be an enemy for a Platonic version of Athens to defeat. Plato's usage of political allegory, narrating the decline and fall of the great imaginary civilization of Atlantis, reminds one that - ‘For all his impatience with myth Plato allowed it an important role in the exploration of ideas that lie beyond  the scope of philosophical language’. [20]

Above all else, it was Plato’s moral teachings which appealed to Browne in his pious old age. He shared with the early Church Father St. Augustine (354 - 430 CE) the conviction that Plato was the greatest of all pagan thinkers, primarily for his exhortation of living the morally good and just life.  In Christian Morals Browne alludes to Plato's ‘wild horses’ of the irrational passions, as described in Plato's discourse Phaedrus.

In Phaedrus each individual is likened to the driver of a two-horse chariot, whose reason tries to control the force of two horses, one white named spirit which is cooperative and one black named desire which tries to rebel and drag the chariot in the wrong direction. Although spirit and desire are depicted as battling forces, they communicate in language as talking horses to each other.  Plato’s equestrian allegory is mentioned in Christian Morals in what is one of Browne's profoundest psychological observations on the human condition -

'To well manage our Affections, and wild Horses of Plato, are the highest Circenses; and the noblest Digladiation is in the Theater of our selves'. [21]

In conclusion, Plato’s influence upon Thomas Browne is multi-faceted. Integral to his hermetic philosophy, the learned doctor found inspiration in Plato’s mystical numerology, Eternal Forms and archetypes. As a moralist he valued the ancient Greek philosopher’s exhortations on how to live the good and just life. The abundance of allusion to Plato throughout Browne’s literary oeuvre confirms the observation that – ‘There is probably no English writer of the seventeenth century who more habitually avows and exhibits attachment to the Platonic tradition than Browne'. [22]

Notes 

[1] The Strategy for Truth by Leonard Nathanson pub. Chicago University Press 1967
[2] Religio Medici Part 1: 6
[3]  R.M. 1:32
[4] R.M. 1:33
[5]  R.M. 2:15
[6] Iamblicus  de Mysterriis Aegyptirorum , Chaldaorum Catalogue 16A no.25
Porpyrius Commentary on Epicteus Sales Catalogue p. 15 no. 61
[7]  Sir Thomas Browne -A Life by Reid Barbour pub. OUP 2013
[8]  Renaissance Philosophy - Brian P. Copenhaver & Charles B. Schmitt
[9]  Carl Jung Collected Works Vol. 9 i:149
[10] Plato : All that Matters  Ieuan Williams pub.  Hodder and Stoughton 2013
[11] James Hillman
[12]The Soul's Code - James Hillman pub. Bantam 1997 
[13] Meister Eckhart -Mystical theologian Oliver Davies pub. SPCK 1991 
[14] Religio Medici Part 1:12
[15]  Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 4 chapter 12
[16] The Mystery to a Solution by John T. Irwin pub. John Hopkins University Press 1993
[17] Philo Judaeus Opera  1711 Sales Catalogue p. 1 no. 12
Dionysus the Areopagite Sales Catalogue  p. 1 no. 16
[18]  Mundus Subterraneus pub. Amsterdam 1665 1711 Sales Catalogue page 8 
[19] Christian Morals Part 1:17 citing Timaeus 24e
[20] A Short History of myth Karen Armstrong pub. Cannongate 2005
[21] Christian Morals  Part 1:24 
[22]The Strategy for Truth Leonard Nathanson pub. Chicago University Press 1967

Bibliography

*Sir Thomas Browne -A Life by Reid Barbour pub. OUP 2013

* The Strategy for Truth Leonard Nathanson pub. Chicago University Press 1967

 * Sir Thomas Browne - The Major Works ed. with an introduction by C.A. Patrides pub. Penguin 1977

* Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans - A brief History  by Charles H. Khan  pub. Hackett 2001

*Plato - A Very Short Introduction Julia Annas pub. OUP 2003

* Plato -Timaeus translated with an introduction by H.D.P. Lee pub. Penguin 1965

*The Soul's Code - James Hillman pub. Bantam 1997

*Renaissance Philosophy - Brian P. Copenhaver & Charles B. Schmitt 

*The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - C.G. Jung C.W. vol 9 Part 1 pub. RKP 1959

*Plato : Ideas that Matters  Ieuan Williams pub. Hodder and Stoughton 2013 

*Atlantis- Lost Lands, Ancient Wisdom Geoffrey Ashe  pub. 1992

*Meister Eckhart -Mystical theologian Oliver Davies pub. SPCK 1991

*The Mystery to a Solution by John T. Irwin pub. John Hopkins University Press 1993 

*A Short History of myth Karen Armstrong pub. Cannongate 2005 

See Also

On the symbolism of X

Magic square of Numbers

Dr. Browne's alchemical mandala

Books in Browne's Library cited

* Chalcides Timaeus de Plato Trans. Notes J. Meurius 1617  Sales Catalogue p.11 no. 106

* Kircher - Mundus Subterraneus, cum. fig. 2 vol. Amsterdam 1665 S. C. p. 8 no. 92

* Philo Judaeus -De Opfico Mundi  1711 Sales Catalogue p. 1 no. 12

* Dionysus the Areopagite Opera Sales Catalogue  p. 1 no. 16

* Iamblicus - de Mysterriis Aegyptirorum , Chaldaorum Catalogue 16A no.25

* Porphyry - Commentary on Epictetus Sales Catalogue p. 15 no. 61

Browne on Aristotle

Not so long ago Jean de Launoy, a theologian of Paris, published a book on the changing popularity of Aristotle; whence he establishes that that most famous philosopher has been sometimes publicy burned, sometimes restored, now condemned by solemn decrees, then restored again, and in fact undergone eight changes in the same university.

Certainly the early Christians, Justin, Clement, Tertullian, Augustine and many others held opinions contrary to the great man's writings. And today he is bitterly cut to the quick by the moderns and almost at the point of death; so that it seems to me that the peripatetic philosophy is now brought to a standstill and can hardly be rescued, or not even hardly.

But while much is lacking in Aristotle, much wrong, much self-contradictory, yet not a little is valuable. Do not then bid farewell to his entire work; but while you hardly touch the Physics and read the Metaphysics superficially, make much of all the rest and study them unwearingly.

Petrus of Abano and Alexander of Aphrodisias have annotated the Problems of Aristotle industriously; better still Petrus Septalius, a physician of great fame.But while, in a less liberal spirit and not tainted with the new philosophy, he expounds almost everything to the philosopher's mind, often and often he hardly gets to the point and does not satisfy a spirit eager for truth.

So it will be worth the effort to weigh them again, so that the truth and reason of the questions may be better determined and where the old rules fail we may pass to new propositions....

British Museum Sloane Mss 1827

 

Jupiter’s brain in a piece of Cytheridian cheese

The English philosopher-physician Thomas Browne (1605-82) possessed refined senses. Along with his sharp eyesight and acute olfactory sense he also had a keen sense of taste. His notes on cookery in the ancient world, emphasis upon moderation in diet and experiments in cheese-making are all indicative of his interest in food. His notes on coagulation also reveal that he experimented with what is now considered to be a taboo ingredient in cheese-making.

Browne's gastronomical inclinations are evident in 'Notes on the cooking of the ancients' in which he declares his desire to know more about ancient world cuisine while also believing the food of his day to be superior -

'I wish we knew more clearly the aids of the ancients, their sauces, flavours, digestives, tasties, slices, cold meats, and all kinds of pickles. Yet I do not know whether they would have surpassed salted sturgeons’ eggs, anchovy sauce, or our royal pickles'. [1]

By 'aids of the ancients,' Browne is referring to the condiments, seasonings, and preserves used by ancient cultures to enhance the flavour and preservation of their food. These aids would have included garum, a fermented fish sauce used by the Romans, as well as various herbs and spices. Browne's taste-buds however object to herbs and spices infested by insects, and his 'stomach turned' from reading  in Apicius-

'I certainly, who think it torture to endure fat gnats and put far from my table cumin seed that is musty with bugs, would have had my stomach turned by the sausages, tripe, morsels and coarse greens of Apicius'.  

Apicius was the author of a collection of Roman-era cookery recipes De re culinaria (On Cooking). Compiled in the fifth century CE  it consists of ten books which discuss the role of the butcher and gardener in cuisine, pulse and legumes, four-legged animals and seafood. Its recipes catered for wealthy Romans and included exotic ingredients such as flamingo. 

Favouring once more modern cuisine to that of antiquity Browne also states in his cookery essay-

'Who would not prefer Bologna sausages to a paste of cuttle-fish and squid, or Spanish olla podrida to Apicius’ mince-meat?

Once more consulting his edition of Apicius he noted- 'We are impatient today of the boned chicken Apicius praises and think it food for the toothless'. 

Browne's cookery notes also includes one of the earliest mentions in Western literature of the Persian prophet Zoroaster (circa 7th/6th centuries BCE) the founder of the Persian religious movement of Zoroastrianism, when stating-

'Zoroaster’s dinner in the desert was known to the ancients as starvation, for it consisted of honey and cheese. Yet honey and cheese fill the sausages of Parthia and Numidia'.

Its with typical wit that Browne concludes thus -

'But when Ibycus in Athenaeus says that ambrosia was nine times sweeter than honey, let the palates of heaven keep their sweet, I prefer a fig from Chios'.

An edition of De re culinaria by Apicius printed in 1541 is listed as once in Browne's library. [2] (frontispiece below) 

The ancient Greek Athenaeus (late 2nd/early 3rd CE) is another important source of Browne's understanding of ancient world cuisine. In antiquity Naucratis was a bustling Egyptian harbour and a dynamic melting-pot of Greek and Egyptian art and culture. Its also the setting of his Deipnosophistae or 'The Banquet of the Philosophers' in which physicians, gourmets, philosophers, grammarians and parasites discuss topics such 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, as well as ships, entertainment, luxury and perfumes. Book seven of Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae focuses on an essential part of the healthy Mediterranean diet, sea food, along with methods of cooking various kinds of fish.  In all probability its from his reading of Athenaeus that Browne knew -

'The ancients took great care to keep octopus-head from their tables, while no one in our day would touch it'.

In total the 15 books of  'Banquet  of the  philosophers' mention almost 800 authors. Over 2,500 separate works in total are cited in it, making it a valuable source of numerous works of Greek literature which otherwise would have been lost. Athenaeus must have been one of Browne's favourite reads for he wrote a short essay in which he displays an uncommon familiarity with the ancient Greek author. A 1612 edition of Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae, or 'The Banquet of the Philosophers' edited by the Swiss philologist Isaac Casaubon is listed as once in Browne's library. [3]

Floris van Dyck, Still Life with Fruit, Nuts and Cheese, 1613, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands.

Browne viewed the cultivation of a sophisticated palate along with gluttony as morally reprehensible.  In a combination of morality and medical advice he warns of the danger of developing an over-refined palate in his late advisory Christian Morals-

'The luxurious emperors of old inconsiderately satiated themselves with the dainties of sea and land, till, wearied through all varieties, their reflections became a study unto them, and they were fain to feed by invention: novices in true Epicurism ! which, by mediocrity, paucity, quick and healthful appetite, makes delights smartly acceptable; whereby Epicurus himself found Jupiter’s brain in a piece of Cytheridian cheese, and the tongues of nightingales in a dish of onions'. [4] 

The obscure imagery of 'Jupiter's brain in a piece of Cytheridian cheese' is made clearer in Browne's note- 'They abstained from all heads in which the senses flourish, while yet they called any delicacy ‘Jove’s brain'. His addition of an explanatory footnote - 'Cerebrum Jovis a delicious bit', suggests he may well have had cheese in mind ! 

The Greek philosopher Epicurus who lived from 341-270 BCE in Athens, Greece reputedly once asked a friend to send him some Cythnian cheese, so that when he wishes he may give himself an expensive treat. Browne alludes approvingly to this modestly of diet in the form of low-fat feta cheese in his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica thus-

'Who can but pity the virtuous Epicurus, who is commonly conceived to have placed his chief felicity in pleasure and sensual delights, and hath therefore left an infamous name behind him?........That he was contented with bread and water, and when he would dine with Jove, and pretend unto epulation, he desired no other addition then a piece of Cytheridian cheese'. [5] 

Browne's allusion to 'Cytheridian' cheese (an idiosyncratic spelling of Cytherian) alludes to the  Greek Ionian island of Cytherea, long renowned for its light, sheep's milk cheese known as Feta cheese (top header photo). His interest in Epicurean philosophy, in particular the idea of finding delight in simple pleasures such as a piece of Cytheridian (Cytherian) cheese serves to illustrate the true meaning of Epicureanism. Early Christians however saw the philosophy of Epicurus as threatening to their newly-formed religion, primarily because it rejected divine intervention in human affairs. They viewed Epicurus' teachings as hedonistic and atheistic and conflicting to their own beliefs about original sin, divine providence, and the importance of suffering. Browne is one several 17th century European authors  who strived to rehabilitate Epicurus, recognising his emphasis upon moderation as compatible to Christian values. 

Cheese in Literature

The importance of Cheese in human culture is evident in its being mentioned in the World's oldest literature. According to Greek mythology, the art of making cheese was given as a gift to men by the Olympian Gods. In Homer's Odyssey (circa 700 BCE) the utensils required and the process in making cheese are described thus-

And all his vessels, pails and hammered buckets he used for milking,were brimming full of whey...... Then down he squatted to milk his sheep and bleating goats. And half of the fresh white milk he curdled quickly, set aside in wicker racks to press for cheese. [6] 

In the Biblical book of Job (circa 500 BCE) the righteous man who experiences severe trials and afflictions laments to God -

'Remember that you moulded me like clay/Will you now turn me to dust again?/Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese'. [7]  

Coagulation

In his notebook observations on coagulation Browne speculates how to make cheese more nutritional - 'Whereby whey & cheese might be made more medical'. In his notes on coagulation, an essential process in cheese-making, he experiments with an ingredient considered taboo today. Its no vulgar titillation to take a closer look at his experiments with breast milk. He expresses clearly his intent to formulate a 'more medical' cheese', and he endeavoured to do so by experimenting with breast-milk. Although knowing that breast milk possesses medical benefits Browne didn't know as we do today, of the health hazards associated with sharing body fluids. He noted -

'Many coagulums there are in nature & though we content our selves in one in the running of milk, yet many will perform the same.... The runnett of cows is strong, for it coagulates the milk, but the runnett of cows as we have tried in several woman's milk will not coagulate the same'. [8]

'Womens milk will not coagulate with common runnet. Trie whether the milk of nurses that are conceived may be runne'.

'September. Tried in Mrs. Livist suspected to bee with child & it coagulated indifferently, butt much better than any other cleere woman & this was tried with disadvantage when the conception must be new....' 

His experiment with Mrs. Livist's milk suggests that hormonal changes during pregnancy might have affected its coagulation properties, and he noted that it worked better than milk from other women who weren't pregnant, despite the potential disadvantage of the conception being recent.

'Mrs Kings milk , October 23 (1650) would not runne, but only curdled in small roundles like pin heads, as vinegar will curdle milk'. [9]

He encountered varying degrees of success with different women's milk in his experiments. Mrs. King's milk didn't react as expected, producing small curds instead of coagulating properly. His comparison to vinegar's effect on milk suggests he was trying to understand why this happened.

Breakfast Piece with Cheese and Goblet  Jacob Foppens van Es (Flemish, c. 1596 – 1666)

Coagulation in alchemy

Browne's notebooks includes a query in which coagulation is viewed as an alchemical stage in the formation of planet Earth, 'the first masse' at the Creation, stating- 

'Whether the first masse were butt a coagulation wherby the water & earth lay awhile together, & the watery or serous part was separated from the sole and continuating substance'.

In alchemy, coagulation represents the process of materializing the subtle, spiritual essence into a tangible form. This stage is often associated with the formation of the Philosophers' Stone, where the alchemist's inner transformation manifests outwardly. Coagulation is also linked to the concept of manifestation, where thoughts and intentions take on physical form, illustrating the alchemical idea that the inner world shapes the outer reality. The alchemical maxim Solve et coagula represents the dual process of breaking down (solve) and reassembling the material and spiritual essence (coagula). This fundamental alchemical maxim may be equated to the symbolism and polarity of Cancer-Capricorn. It's a crucial maxim in understanding the transformative nature of alchemy equal to the commonplace lead to gold quest of both spiritual and proto-chemistry.

Little-known Browne

Remarkably, in chapter z of Pseudodoxia Epidemica  Browne writes of cooking cheese -

'If we provide ourselves with about a Selibra or half pound of the Cheese, entitulated Duplex Glocestrius, or Double Gloucester; and then go on to cut the intrinsic caseous Matter into tenuous Segments or Laminæ; and, positing such Segments within the coquinary commodity distinguished by Culinarians as the Furnus Bataviæ or Dutch Oven, submit the same to the Fire, until by the action of the Caloric they become mollified unto Semiliquidity: whereupon, if we diffuse the caseous fluid on an Offula of Bread, the Superfices whereof hath been previously torrefied, and then Season the same with a slight aspersion of the Sinapine, Piperine, and Saline Condiments, or with Mustard, Pepper, and Salt, we shall find that the Sapor and Fragor thereof differ in no wise from the Gust and Odour of the Edible we had præ-attained from the Covent Garden Coenatorium; and consequentially that the Welsh Rabbit is not, as the Vulgar Pseudodox conceiteth, a species of Cuniculus vernacular to Wales, but as was before predicated, simply a Savoury and Redolent Scitamentum or Rarebit, which is much existimated by the Cymri or Welsh people, who, from time prætermemorial, have been cognized as a Philocaseous or Cheese-loving Nation. [10]

Today,  the most famous promoter of cheese is the the Northern-accented inventor Wallace and his pet beagle Gromit. Wallace's favourite cheese is Wensleydale which was originally produced from a monastery of French Cistercian monks once resident in northern England in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. However, this style of cheese fell to low production during the early 1990s, but its popularity was revitalized by frequent references to Wensleydale cheese in the Wallace & Gromit series.

Images

Top header: Feta cheese

Next : Frontispiece to De re Culinaria

Next : Floris van Dyck, Still Life with Fruit, Nuts and Cheese, 1613, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands.

Next: Breakfast Piece with Cheese and Goblet  Jacob Foppens van Es (Flemish, c. 1596 – 1666)

Links

Notes on cookery of the ancients

From a reading of Athenaeus

On Epicurus

Notes

[1] British Museum Sloane MS no.1827 Latin original Collected Works of Sir Thomas Browne ed. Simon Wilkin pub. Fletcher and Son Norwich 1835-36

[2] 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue page 22 no. 105

[3] 1711 Catalogue page 7 no.67

[4] Christian Morals Part 2 Section 1

[5] Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 7 chapter 16 divers other relations 8. 

[6]  Homer The Odyssey trans. Robert Fagles Penguin 1996 Book 9 lines 150-51 and 275-8

[7] Job 10:10

[8] The Miscellaneous Writings of Sir Thomas Browne ed. Geoffrey Keynes pub.Faber and Faber 1931 reissued 1946

[9] Ibid.

[10] In fact a parody of Browne and not by him whatsoever !  See  On Welsh Rabbit

Sub rosa amore Liddy Mercurius ❤️ et Saturnus 

Why the goddesses sit commonly cross-legged in ancient draughts ?

In the concluding chapter of Thomas Browne's hermetic discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658) the physician-philosopher fires a rapid volley of tricky questions, including -'Why the goddesses sit commonly cross-legged in ancient draughts, Since Juno is described in the same as a veneficial posture to hinder the birth of Hercules ?'

Its rewarding to explore Browne's obscure question in depth. It originates from his reading of the ancient Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Ovid's long poem the myths of ancient Greece are linked by a common theme of transformation. A chaotic universe is subdued into harmonious order, animals turn into stone, men and women are rewarded and punished by gods and goddesses for their deeds to become trees, birds and stars. One of the most influential works in Western culture, Ovid’s Metamorphoses was a valuable source of information and inspiration to poet, painter and scholar throughout the Renaissance. [1]

The Roman goddess Juno's symbolic body language occurs during the birth of the hero Hercules in which she attempts to prevent the birth of her unfaithful husband Jupiter's child.

'When the time for Hercules difficult birth came, and Capricorn, the tenth sign, was hidden by the sun, the weight of the child stretched my womb: what I carried was so great, you could tell that Jove was the father of my hidden burden. I could not bear my labour pains much longer....Tortured for seven nights and as many days, worn out with agony, stretching my arms to heaven, with a great cry, I called out to Lucina, and her companion gods of birth, the Nixi. Indeed, she came, but committed in advance, determined to surrender my life to unjust Juno. She sat on the altar, in front of the door, and listened to my groans. With her right knee crossed over her left, and clasped with interlocking fingers, she held back the birth, She murmured spells, too, in a low voice, and the spells halted the birth once it began.[2]

The Roman goddess Juno ruled over the primary domains of feminine life in the ancient world, namely, childbirth, marriage and motherhood. She is associated with the peacock and its feathers. As the wife of Jupiter she was one of the most important Roman gods and she is immortalized with the month of June named after her.

Browne's interest in the mystical body language of Juno's crossed-legs is first mentioned in the opening chapter of the Discourse.

'That they sat also crossed legg’d many noble draughts declare; and in this figure the sitting gods and goddesses are drawn in medalls and medallions'.

In ancient depictions, goddesses sitting cross-legged often symbolized their spiritual power. Juno's crossed legs (one imagines the goddesses of antiquity to be long-legged beauties in order to form an elegant, elongated X) is a literal expression of body language, child-birth being impossible with crossed-legs.

Mystical body language also features in the Old Testament book of Genesis in which the patriarch Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh.

'But Jacob crossed his arms as he reached out to lay his hands on the boys’ heads. He put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger boy, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, though he was the firstborn'. [3]

This Biblical episode is alluded to by Browne in The Garden of Cyrus thus-

'the Statuae Isiacae, Teraphims, and little Idols, found about Mummies, do make a decussation or Jacobs Crosse, with their armes, like that on the head of Ephraim and Manasses' [4]

Browne's pioneering comparative religion studies detected that mystical body language is shared by various world religions. His ability to supply Egyptian, Judaic and Roman examples of mystical body language in The Garden of Cyrus demonstrates his finding connections between seemingly disparate concepts and highlights his fascination with hidden patterns underlying human culture and symbolism.

The literary critic Peter Green noted that Browne, 'packs his prose with as much concentrated symbolic meaning as it will stand' and that, 'Every symbol is interrelated with the over-all pattern'.[5]

Browne's inclusion of the Roman goddess Juno in The Garden of Cyrus is exemplary of his methodical usage of proper-name symbolism. Taking his cue from Plato, Browne utilizes proper-name symbolism in order to tentatively sketch primordial patterns of the psyche known as archetypes. Indeed, the very title of the discourse features the archetype of the 'wise ruler' at a time when Britain wasn't ruled by the divine right of a King but during the short-lived proto-Republic of Cromwell. The 'wise ruler' figures of Moses, Solomon, Solon, Alexander the Great and Augustus along with Cyrus are all alluded to in The Garden of Cyrus. 

The archetype of the nurturing figure of the 'Great Mother' is also represented in the Discourse through allusion to Juno, the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Hebrew matriarch Sarah.

X

Received wisdom will claim that The Garden of Cyrus is 'all about' the Quincunx, but in fact the quincunx pattern, the vehicle whereby Browne drives home his message of universal interconnectivity, is quite literally only half of his Hermetic vision. The symbol X (formed by joining the five dots of the Quincunx) features an equal number of times in the Discourse to the quincunx pattern.

The psychologist C.G. Jung noted that symbols can endure paradox and that's just as well because the symbol X is one of the most hard-working and flexible of all symbols and has accumulated many meanings over centuries.

The Roman numeral for ten, the Mosaic code of ten commandments as well as the Pythagorean tetractys (a pyramid of ten dots which Pythagoreans swore by) were all well-known by Browne. The Pythagorean and mathematical aspect of Browne's hermetic vision cannot be overlooked, as his candid confession in Religio Medici reveals-

'I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret magicke of numbers'. [6]

The art historian J. B. Onians noted - 'The power of the Pythagorean mystery was based largely upon his understanding of the mathematical order of the universe, which could be summed up in visual representation of such numbers as tetractys and Quincunx.' [7]

It was also during Browne's lifetime that the mathematician William Oughtred designated the symbol X to denote the multiplication of number. Browne himself owned an edition of Oughtred's Clavis Mathematica (1648) [8]

Today, the hard-working symbol X can denote invisible X-rays, affection in the form of a kiss, as well as a wrong answer, restrictive viewing or X rated material or an unknown factor. It retains its abbreviated form for Christ in the word Xmas, and in the pattern known as the Criss-cross. Finally, conclusive evidence that all the money in the world cannot buy imagination, the social media platform once known as Twitter was rebranded X by its new owner.

Crucially, (a word which itself derives from the Latin of Crux meaning a cross) Browne as a Christian knew that the Greek word for Christ begins with x (Chi) and this interpretation of X as a pre-Christian anticipation of the Coming of Christ is foremost in his hermetic vision.

The crossed-legs of Juno and the Biblical crossed-arms of Jacob are also exemplary of how Browne and other hermetically inclined antiquarians interpreted the ancient pagan world. Hermetic philosophers believed that the mythic Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus (in reality a fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes) was the inventor of number and letter, including the letter X.

It was the Italian Renaissance scholars Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and his prodigy Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) who first advanced and promoted the profile of Hermes Trismegistus as the founder of a priscia theologia. Ficino and Mirandola made Hermes Trismegistus the author of a pagan tradition of divine knowledge, an ancient theology (priscia theologia) which paralleled and confirmed the revealed truth of the Bible and whose Egyptian providence reinforced tales of Plato’s travels in Egypt.

Browne subscribed to Ficino and Mirandola's belief that the Greek philosopher Plato studied in ancient Egypt, the land of Hermes Trismegistus, stating in The Garden of Cyrus -

'.. whereas it is not improbable, he (Plato) learned these and other mystical expressions in his Learned Observations of Egypt, where he might obviously behold the Mercurial characters, the handed crosses, and other mysteries not thoroughly understood in the sacred Letter X, which being derivative from the Stork, one of the ten sacred animals, might be originally Egyptian, and brought into Greece by Cadmus of that Country. [9]

The symbolism of how X was introduced through Hermes Trismegistus's observation of bird's legs is alluded to in The Garden of Cyrus thus-

'And if Egyptian Philosophy may obtain, the scale of influences was thus disposed, and the genial spirits of both worlds, do trace their way in ascending and descending Pyramids, mystically apprehended in the Letter X, and the open Bill and straddling Legs of a Stork, which was imitated by that Character'. [10]

The worthy Norwich philosopher-physician reinforces the symbolic importance of X and its close relationship to Platonic thought, notably Plato's discourse Timaeus stating-

'Of this Figure Plato made choice to illustrate the motion of the soul, both of the world and man; while he delivereth that God divided the whole conjunction length-wise, according to the figure of a Greek X, and then turning it about reflected it into a circle'; [11]

Plato along with Ovid is mentioned in the opening page of The Garden of Cyrus. The ancient Greek philosopher's influence looms large throughout the Discourse, especially his Timaeus which is named by foot-note in the Discourse's opening. Plato's Timaeus is his most Pythagorean writing. It elaborates upon the relationship between geometry, number and mysticism, all of which are primary thematic concerns of Browne's Garden of Cyrus.

Quincunx

In the discourse's dedicatory epistle Browne wittily declares of the Quincunx pattern that, 'we have not affrighted the common Reader with any other Diagrams, then of it self; and have industriously declined illustrations from rare and unknown plants'.

Such is the potency of the Quincunx pattern as seen in the discourse's frontispiece which Browne 'borrowed' from a book by the Italian polymath Della Porta, that the crossing point or X figure of the pattern is occulted and hidden by circles as if  X-rated material too potent to view.

The phantasmagorical procession of art-objects, botany, star constellations, optical theories and mystical religious considerations in The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial (,)Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically considered has been little understood throughout the centuries, so much so that a stray comma erroneously reproduced in the Discourse's full running title has become embedded in almost all subsequent editions since 1658. However, this stray comma in the Discourses title is incompatible with either the syntax, symmetry or artistic message of the Discourse. The five red dots added to the frontispiece illustration (below) highlights how Browne's Lozenges are Quincuncial. [12]

In recent times the American poet and literary critic John Irwin focussed his critical attention on Browne's quincunx in his labyrinthine book The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story (1994). Irwin's book is primarily concerned with the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and the early magical realist author Jorge Borges (1899-1986) both of whom were admirers of Browne's writings. Irwin recognised that -

'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 continues with one of the most perceptive remarks ever stated about the quincunx pattern -

‘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’. [13]

The Argyle pattern (below) is a neat variant of the frontispiece of The Garden of Cyrus. The central point of decussation, X is visible within each lozenge. Its overlaid diamond or Lozenge pattern creates a 3D perspective, an optical trick which without doubt would have intrigued Thomas Browne

Notes

[1] No less than 8 editions of Ovid's Metamorphoses are listed as once in Thomas Browne and his son Edward's combined libraries in the 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue.

[2] Ovid Metamorphoses Book 9 lines 290-300

[3] Genesis 48: verse 14

[4] chapter 3 of Cyrus

[5] Sir Thomas Browne by Peter Green pub. Longmans, Green and Co. 1959

[6] Religio Medici Part 1:12

[7] J. Onians Art and thought in the Hellenistic Age Thames and Hudson 1979

[8] 1711 Sales Catalogue page 30 no. 13

[9] Cyrus Chapter 4

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid

[12] A 1658 edition of Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica with the two 1658 Discourses Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus appended does not reproduce the stray comma which is featured in most subsequent editions.

[13] The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story. John T. Irwin pub. The Johns Hopkins University Press 1996