Robert Burton

Not simply an investigation into melancholy, these unique essays form part of a panoramic celebration of human behaviour from the time of the ancients to the Renaissance. God, devils, old age, diet, drunkenness, love and beauty are each given equal consideration in this all-encompassing examination of the human condition. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Obra desmesurada, cuya enorme extensión ha hecho sumamente azarosa su trayectoria editorial desde que se publicara por vez primera en 1621, la ANATOMÍA DE LA MELANCOLÍA es un minucioso examen de un rasgo propio de numerosos temperamentos humanos que, vinculado a veces al genio y otras a la locura, ha hallado forma de manifestarse desde la antigua hipocondria al moderno spleen o los contemporaneos trastornos psiquicos. Contemporaneo de John Donne y en buena medida de Shakespeare, ROBERT BURTON (1577-1640), hombre de carrera silenciosa, sedentaria, solitaria, intima en el Christ Church College de Oxford, del que llego a ser bibliotecario en 1626, incluyo en su magna obra el vasto caudal de sus conocimientos sobre los mas diversos autores y materias en forma de resumenes historicos, consideraciones filosoficas, anecdotas literarias, mitos y leyendas, citas poeticas, informaciones cientificas, meditaciones teologicas, juicios medicos y entretenidas digresiones. Prologuista y antologo de este volumen, Alberto Manguel hace de guia por esta intrincada selva, seleccionando los pasajes mas curiosos y cercanos al lector actual, y proporciona una inmejorable posibilidad de asomarse a una obra mucho mas citada que conocida y que constituye una obra fundamental de la cultura.

One of the richest, most inexhaustible books in the English language, "The Anatomy of Melancholy" is an elaborately systematized medical treatise dealing with various morbid mental states -- their causes, symptoms, and cures -- as well as a compendium of memorable utterances on the human condition in general, compiled from classical, scholastic, and contemporary sources.

One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in all its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Lewellyn Powys called it "the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing," while the celebrated surgeon William Osler declared it the greatest of medical treatises. And Dr. Johnson, Boswell reports, said it was the only book that he rose early in the morning to read with pleasure. In this surprisingly compact and elegant new edition, Burton's spectacular verbal labyrinth is sure to delight, instruct, and divert today's readers as much as it has those of the past four centuries.

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) has cast a long, shimmering shadow, on Milton (L'Allegro and Il Penseroso in particular), on the wits of Queen Anne's reign and the beginning of George I's, and on Swift. Doctor Johnson praised it vehemently. Sterne is its most comprehensive beneficiary in Tristram Shandy. He was a favourite with Coleridge, Lamb and Southey. Keats owes 'Lamia' and much else to Robert Burton. Byron praised it as the most entertaining of literary miscellanies. The Anatomy is either the first major text in the history of Western cognitive science, or a satire on human learning and striving. Burton is not original, but he is comprehensive, and he writes with a wry brilliance. He was familiar with nearly all the medical, astrological, and magical books then extant. He introduces several key terms which remain dominant in models of cognition through to the Victorian era, among them Phantasy or Imagination, Reflection, the Senses and Understanding. Locke in 1690 was to adopt much of Burton's model and terminology. Anthony a Wood gives the following character of Robert Burton (1577-1640): 'As he was by many accounted a severe student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humorous person, so by others who knew him well a person of great honesty, plain dealing and charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ Church often say that his company was very merry...' This new selection draws on The Anatomy and other key writings.

Obra desmesurada cuya enorme extensión ha hecho sumamente azarosa su trayectoria editorial, la "Anatomía de la melancolía" (1621) es un minucioso examen de un rasgo propio de numerosos temperamentos humanos que, vinculado a veces al genio y otras a la locura, ha hallado forma de manifestarse desde la antigua hipocondria al moderno "spleen" o los actuales trastornos psiquicos. Contemporaneo de John Donne y en buena medida de Shakespeare, Robert Burton (1577-1640) -hombre de carrera silenciosa, sedentaria, solitaria, intima en el Christ Church College de Oxford- incluyo en su magna obra su vasto caudal de conocimientos sobre los mas diversos autores y materias en forma de resumenes historicos, consideraciones filosoficas, anecdotas literarias, mitos y leyendas, citas poeticas, informaciones cientificas, meditaciones teologicas, juicios medicos y entretenidas digresiones. Alberto Manguel nos guia por esta intrincada selva seleccionando los pasajes mas curiosos y cercanos al lector actual, a la vez que proporciona una inmejorable posibilidad de asomarse a una obra mucho mas citada que conocida y que constituye un hito de la cultura occidental.Obra desmesurada cuya enorme extensión ha hecho sumamente azarosa su trayectoria editorial, la "Anatomía de la melancolía" (1621) es un minucioso examen de un rasgo propio de numerosos temperamentos humanos que, vinculado a veces al genio y otras a la locura, ha hallado forma de manifestarse desde la antigua hipocondria al moderno "spleen" o los actuales trastornos psiquicos. Contemporaneo de John Donne y en buena medida de Shakespeare, Robert Burton (1577-1640) -hombre de carrera silenciosa, sedentaria, solitaria, intima en el Christ Church College de Oxford- incluyo en su magna obra su vasto caudal de conocimientos sobre los mas diversos autores y materias en forma de resumenes historicos, consideraciones filosoficas, anecdotas literarias, mitos y leyendas, citas poeticas, informaciones cientificas, meditaciones teologicas, juicios medicos y entretenidas digresiones. Alberto Manguel nos guia por esta intrincada selva seleccionando los pasajes mas curiosos y cercanos al lector actual, a la vez que proporciona una inmejorable posibilidad de asomarse a una obra mucho mas citada que conocida y que constituye un hito de la cultura occidental.

El sueño utópico de Robert Burton (1577-1640), el desmedido autor de Anatomía de la melancolía, maestro de la prosa barroca inglesa y uno de los raros por