Hydriotaphia – Urne Burial : Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk

Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial is a work by Sir Thomas Browne. Its nominal subject was the discovery of some 40 to 50 Anglo-Saxon pots in Norfolk. The discovery of these remains prompts Browne to deliver, first, a description of the antiquities found, and then a survey of most of the burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, of which his era was aware. The most famous part of the work is the apotheosis of the fifth chapter which is considered a piece of absolutely sublime rhetoric.