Output details
29 - English Language and Literature
University of Leicester
Melancholy, Medicine and Religion in Early Modern England: Reading 'The Anatomy of Melancholy'
This 97,700 word (220-page) book draws on 7 years’ research, representing 40% of Lund’s REF research. It offers a new, historicised approach to constructions of readership drawing on classical, early modern and 20th-century reading theories, and the latest historical work on reading habits. It required analysis of an extensive body of English and Latin material in religion, medicine, and philosophy. Study of Burton’s marginalia involved access to his library (c. 1700 books) in the Bodleian and ChristChurch libraries, Oxford. Analysis of readers’ markings and notes involved examining 25 separate copies of The Anatomy as well as 3 manuscripts.