Burton, Robert (1577-1640)

English philosopher. He wrote an analysis of depression, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), a compendium of information on the medical and religious opinions of the time, much used by later authors.

Divided into three parts, the first dealing with causes and symptoms of melancholy, the second with cures, and the third with love melancholy and religious melancholy, it is an inspired hotchpotch of quotations from classical and medieval writers.

Burton was born in Lindley, Leicestershire, studied at Oxford and lived there as a fellow of Christ Church, though he also held clerical appointments.