The Anatomy of Melancholy
The Anatomy of Melancholy is a book by Robert Burton, first published in 1621, but republished five more times over the next seventeen years with massive alterations and expansions.
Allegorical frontispiece to the 1628 third edition, engraved by Christian Le Blon
Robert Burton was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Portrait of Robert Burton by Gilbert Jackson, 1635
Lindley Hall, the Burton family manor, as depicted in a stylised frontispiece to William Burton's Description of Leicestershire (1622). The manor was a medieval foundation, inherited affinially by the Burton family, and torn down in the 17th century.
John Bancroft, Burton's tutor at Christ Church, and a lifelong friend. In the left corner is a view of Bancroft's palace near Oxford, Cuddesdon, which Burton praised in the Anatomy, suggesting he was a frequent visitor to his old tutor's estate.
Burton's arms above the gable of the south porch, at St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford.