A small folio: Folio. [18], 386 pages, complete with the often-absent a1, the License leaf. A lovely clean copy of this important first edition, with wide margins, preserving the original calf binding but rebacked and with new corners in lighter calf. The purpose of Pseudodoxia Epidemica is to investigate and correct what Browne calls “vulgar errors,” or widely believed falsehoods about nature, medicine, animals, and everyday life. Across its many chapters, Browne examines claims such as whether elephants have no joints or whether certain animals possess magical properties. Rather than mocking these beliefs, he carefully explains how they arose and why they persisted, often tracing them back to mistranslations, repetition of authority, or faulty observation. This method makes the work less about proving Browne’s intelligence and more about teaching readers how to think critically and skeptically. As a first edition, the 1646 printing is important not only for its content but also for its influence. The book was expanded in later editions, but the original version already established Browne’s reputation as a serious and thoughtful writer. It contributed to a broader cultural shift toward empirical inquiry and helped normalize the idea that commonly accepted “truths” could be questioned. Here then is a panoply of unicorn horns, griffins, basilisks, snails, badgers, sneezing, bipedalism, Eve and the serpent, and the Tower of Babel being erected against a second flood... Thousands of years of received wisdom scrutinized and pitted against reason and observation.