Religio Medici and Hydriotaphia: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Religio Medici and Hydriotaphia, credited to Thomas Browne, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Religio Medici and Hydriotaphia, by Thomas Browne. Read by Nicole Lee. Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor) sets out Sir Thomas Browne's spiritual testament as well as being an early psychological self-portrait. In its day, the book was a European best-seller. It was published in 1643 by the newly-qualified physician, and its unorthodox views placed it swiftly upon the Papal Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1645. Although predominantly concerned with Christian faith, the Religio also meanders into digressions upon alchemy, hermetic philosophy, astrology, and physiognomy. Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk, was published in 1658. Its nominal subject was the discovery of a Roman urn burial in Norfolk. The discovery of these remains prompts Browne to deliver, first, a careful description of the antiquities found, and then a careful survey of most of the burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, of which his era was aware. The most famous part of the work, though, is the fifth chapter, where Browne quite explicitly turns to discuss man's struggles with mortality, and the uncertainty of his fate and fame in this world and the next, to produce an extended funerary meditation tinged with melancholia. The changes wrought by time and eternity, the fleetingness of mortal fame, and our feeble attempts to cope with the certainty of death are Browne's subjects. Yet, at the same time, Browne can be tersely witty, mocking human vainglory. A piece of exquisite baroque prose that George Saintsbury called "the longest piece, perhaps, of absolutely sublime rhetoric to be found in the prose literature of the world," Hydriotaphia displays an astonishing command of English prose rhythm and diction. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Religio Medici and Hydriotaphia
• Author credits: Thomas Browne
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 15
• Listed recording duration: 5:24:54

Catalogue topics

• religion
• philosophy
• meditation

Track guide

1. 00 - Religio Medici - To the Reader — 4:10
2. 01 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 1 - 12 — 27:12
3. 02 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 13 - 19 — 26:51
4. 03 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 20 - 29 — 27:45
5. 04 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 30 - 39 — 28:20
6. 05 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 40 - 49 — 27:15
7. 06 - Religio Medici - Pt I: Sections 50 - 60 — 20:53
8. 07 - Religio Medici - Pt II: Sections 1 - 6 — 27:07
9. 08 - Religio Medici - Pt II: Sections 7 - 15 — 32:59
10. 09 - Hydriotaphia - Dedication — 6:37
11. 10 - Hydriotaphia - Chapter 1 — 14:50
12. 11 - Hydriotaphia - Chapter 2 — 18:10
13. 12 - Hydriotaphia - Chapter 3 — 25:53
14. 13 - Hydriotaphia - Chapter 4 — 18:58
15. 14 - Hydriotaphia - Chapter 5 — 18:01

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.