The cusp of life and death: Sir Thomas Browne & the religion of a physician

Join the Royal College of Physicians for a special free evening event devoted to the remarkable Sir Thomas Browne.

Hear a talk on the famous 17th century polymath by a leading expert and take the final opportunity for a late visit to our acclaimed exhibition 'A cabinet of rarities': the curious collections of Sir Thomas Browne’.

Collector of curiosities, debunker of myths, inspiration to writers and doctors alike, coiner of words, owner of a live ostrich and expert witness at a witch trial. Sir Thomas Browne is probably the greatest British genius the vast majority of British people have never even heard of.

He was also a renowned physician, wrote some of the most beautiful prose in English and has long figured in the history of medicine and the humanities. His most famous work, Religio Medici, 'the Religion of a Physician', deals with the relation between the body and soul, the cusp of life and death.
In his lecture Dr Kevin Killeen will address Browne's intellectual world, his experiments and how he understood the mesh of science, humanities and the religious.

Dr Kevin Killeen, a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of York, is one of the editors of the Oxford Works of Sir Thomas Browne. He has written several books, on Browne, on seventeenth century politics and religion and on the history of science.

"...the Royal College of Physicians have resurrected Browne and his enthusiasms in a small but exquisitely constructed exhibition. Visiting is as close as anyone can get to today to the paradise John Evelyn encountered... a remarkable achievement.’
Times Literary Supplement

Programme:

6.30pm: arrival and exhibition viewing
7pm: talk with Dr Kevin Killeen
8pm: drinks reception and exhibition viewing

Places for this evening event are limited. Reserve your free places online now.