Robert Burton

Robert Burton (1577–1640) was an English scholar and Anglican clergyman, best known for *The Anatomy of Melancholy* (first published 1621). Educated at the University of Oxford, he spent most of his career there, serving as a fellow of Christ Church. Burton also held clerical posts, including the vicarage of St Thomas the Martyr in Oxford. Writing under the pseudonym “Democritus Junior,” he produced a vast, learned compendium that blends medicine, philosophy, theology, and literature to examine melancholy and its supposed causes and cures. Burton revised and expanded the work through multiple editions during his lifetime.