Robert Burton

Robert Burton was born in 1577 at Lindley, in Leicestershire, England, into a gentry family. He was educated at grammar schools in Sutton Coldfield and Nuneaton and then at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1599 he was elected a student, or fellow, of Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for the rest of his life, serving as the college librarian. He was ordained and became vicar of St Thomas's Church in Oxford. He never married and spent his life among his books. Burton is known almost entirely for one work, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), which he published under the pen name Democritus Junior and revised and expanded through five more editions during his life. It examines the causes, symptoms and cures of melancholy, what would now be called depression, drawing on medicine, philosophy, theology, history and literature, with thousands of quotations, and its wide-ranging, humorous digressions have delighted readers ever since. Burton also wrote a Latin comedy, Philosophaster. He died at Christ Church in 1640.

Robert Burton is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: An Anglican clergyman who served as vicar of St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford. Source: Wikipedia