The Power of the Broken: Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici and Aphoristic Writing

An analysis of the generic affiliations and mixtures of Religio Medici helps make sense of certain features of its dazzling intricacies, but it does not consider the shape of the eight extant manuscripts. Especially in two manuscripts whose provenance is linked closely to Browne himself, the text of Religio Medici is broken into smaller portions of prose than are found in the print editions from 1642 onward. Furthermore, in the first manuscript stage of composition and the 1643 authorized edition, Browne divides his meditations by numbers rather than titles. These features suggest that the mode if not the genre of Religio Medici was intended by the author and received by its earliest readers as aphoristic.