"My Rude and Imperfect Manuscript": Sir Hamon L'Estrange's "Observations" on Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica1

Sir Hamon L'Estrange's comments on Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica are the most extensive of any that survive. L'Estrange was well qualified for the task, since he had all the characteristics of a virtuoso, fuelled as he was by a library that rivalled Browne's in size and scope. Although his comments had little influence on subsequent editions of the Pseudodoxia, they are further evidence of how stimulating Browne's work was to his contemporaries as well as an indication of the mental furniture of a man who shared some of Browne's extraordinary curiosity about the natural world.