page_title: Pseudodoxia Epidemica
hierarchical_section_title: Pseudodoxia Epidemica
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Thomas Browne's 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica' -frontispiece to 1658 edition
context_page_description: Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquiries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths, also known simply as Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, is a work by Thomas Browne challenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common errors and superstitions of his age. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. The work includes evidence of Browne's adherence to the Baconian method of empirical observation of nature, and was in the vanguard of work-in-progress scientific journalism during the 17th-century scientific revolution. Throughout its pages frequent examples of Browne's subtle humour can also be found.
  Browne's three determinants for obtaining truth were firstly, the authority of past authors, secondly, the act of reason, and lastly, empirical experience. Each of these determinants is employed upon subjects ranging from common folklore to the cosmological.
context_section_description: Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquiries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths, also known simply as Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, is a work by Thomas Browne challenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common errors and superstitions of his age. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. The work includes evidence of Browne's adherence to the Baconian method of empirical observation of nature, and was in the vanguard of work-in-progress scientific journalism during the 17th-century scientific revolution. Throughout its pages frequent examples of Browne's subtle humour can also be found.
  Browne's three determinants for obtaining truth were firstly, the authority of past authors (scholarly works), secondly, the act of reason, and lastly, empirical experience (the scientific method). Each of these determinants is employed upon subjects ranging from common folklore to the cosmological. Subjects covered in Pseudodoxia Epidemica are arranged in accordance to the time-honoured Renaissance scale of creation; the learned doctor essaying on the nature of error itself (Book 1), continuing with fallacies  in the mineral, vegetable (Book 2), and animal (Book 3) kingdoms onto errors concerning Man (Book 4), Art (Book 5), Geography and History (Book 6), and finally Astronomy and the Cosmos (Book 7).
caption: Title-page of 1658 4th edition of Pseudodoxia Epidemica
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