Brief Lives 16691697 is a collection of short biographical sketches on famous British figures by author antiquarian and archaeologist John Aubrey. The work is significant for its unique style a blend of factsnames dates family important worksand personal anecdotes for which Aubrey combined his skills for research and conversation to compile. Unpublished during his lifetime the text was pieced together from extensive handwritten manuscripts by numerous editors and scholars and over the centuries has become a beloved cultural artifact of earlymodern Britain. A fascinating figure and gifted researcher in his own right John Aubrey sought to capture the significance of his era and the people whose contributions to art politics science and philosophy were not only changing Britain but the world forever. As a historical record his Brief Lives provides valuable information on such figures as poet John Milton playwright William Shakespeare philosopher Thomas Hobbes and chemist Robert Boyle. But as a work of art the text humanizes them reminding its readers that these were people whose desires imperfections and daytoday lives were not unlike our own. We turn to his works to discover that Sir Walter Raleigh was a poor scholar immerst...in fabrication of his owne fortunes or to read that Shakespeare the son of a butcher who worked for his father as a youth was known to make a speech while slaughtering a calf. At times straightforwardly factual at others filled with gossip Brief Lives is a document of its time that attempts to record a living history of knowledge and influence. Whether it succeeds is beside the pointthat it speaks to us centuries on is the heart of the matter the reason it must be read. A wellknown man in his lifetime Aubrey moved between cultural and political circles with ease compiling the sources that would later become Brief Lives. Although a tireless writer and scholar he published little during his life. His work including Brief Lives is thus the product