SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND ANTIQUITY

INTRODUCTION BY THE MASTER OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
Pembroke College had for some time wished to commemorate one of its most distinguished members and at the same time contribute to the world of scholarship. The support of an anonymous member of the College made it possible this year for us to inaugurate the biennial lectures entitled 'The Sir Thomas Browne Lectures of Pembroke College'. Sir Thomas Browne has a very special significance for Pembroke. In 1624 he was the senior scholar of Broadgates Hall, the mediaeval hall on the site of Pembroke, when that year it received its new name and Royal Charter. To the scholars of Broadgates Hall he spoke of Pembroke College, 'rising like a phoenix out of the ashes'and called on them to show loyalty to the new College. Sir Thomas Browne was such a polymath that lecturers will find some connection between contemporary thought in the fields of religion, medicine, philosophy and archaeology, all having been illumined by his insatiable curiosity. However, taking a cue from the statue of Thomas Browne in Norwich, his home town, where this thoughtful figure holds a sherd of pottery in his right hand and sits on a pedestal of grey granite shaped to depict an urn, we decided that there could be no better start to the series than to invite one of the country's most distinguished archaeologists, Professor Stuart Piggott, to give our first lecture.