Sir Thomas Browne
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  • Home
    • The strange case of the skull
    • About
    • Funding support
  • Public Art
    • Public Art : Thomas Browne by henry Pegram
    • Public Art : Homage to Sir Thomas Browne
    • Talking Statues
    • Tazro Niscino installation
  • Champions
    • Barbara Miller OBE
    • Dr Kevin Killeen
    • Anthony Batty Shaw
    • Kevin Faulkner
    • Hugh Aldersey Williams
    • Professor Claire Preston
    • Maggie Wheeler
  • His Life
  • His works
    • Overview of major works
  • Events
    • Past events
  • Links
    • In Our Time
    • Articles
  • Publications
    • Essays by Kevin Faulkner
    • Adventures of STB in 21st C
  • Gallery
  • How Thomas Browne are you?
  • Thomas Browne Blog
  • Thomas Browne around Norwich
  • Stories and anecdotes
    • A Cabinet of Rarities
    • A humorous take on STB
  • FLOW : Temporary art commissions

Articles

The word 'Spagyricci (a Paracelsian neologism) inscribed upon the remaining half of Browne's coffin-plate in the care of the church of St. Peter Mancroft, has two meanings according to Martin Ruland's 1612 lexicon of alchemy. 
SPAGIRIA --- The Spagyric Art, is that which treats of the separation of the pure from the impure, so that after the refuse matter has been rejected, the virtue which remains can operate. It is the Art of Distilling and Separating. But a much better definition, more appropriate for a Coffin-plate and Browne's exemplary character is - 
SPAGIRUS– Any man who can separate the true from the false, set the good apart from the bad, and the pure from the impure, rejecting duality and cleaving to unity.
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This site is part of the Thomas Browne Project with the aim to collate information and contributions about Sir Thomas Browne, his work, life and times in Norwich and make them accessible to the public,  edited and published by Marion Catlin of The Shift Norwich
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