Burton spent a significant part of his life at Oxford both as a pupil at Brasenose College and as a student of Christ Church. Robert Burton was interested in a variety of subjects which together brought him a deep understanding of melancholia and ultimately provided the knowledge for his most famous work 'The Anatomy of Melancholy'.
•In 1599 he was elected to Christ Church where he received the degree of B.D.
•In 1616 Burton was appointed vicar of St. Thomas church in Oxford.
•In 1621 Burton completed his published book 'The Anatomy of Melancholy'.
•In 1630 he was made rector of Seagrave in Leicester.
Robert Burton's significant contribution to astrology was his published work 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' in which he attempts to use as a personal mechanism to bring himself out of depression. An illness that he suffered with throughout his life, but one that provided him great insights that he was able to record in his work. He describes himself to the reader in the preface of this work as "Deniocritus Junior to the Reader," As one of the great works of seventeenth century prose 'The Anatomy of Melancholia' indicates that the stars sew a seed to suggest that an individual take a line of action rather than forcing them to do so. Burton was a firm believer that man had the option granted to him by God and the Universe to exercise his own free will and therefore could only blame himself when things did not go as planned. Robert Burton did however accurately predict his own destiny interpreted from the celestial language that is today commonly known as astrology. Perhaps not surprisingly Burton's text is devoted to cataloguing the numerous variations, demonstrations, and causes of the mental "disease" Melancholy. However prior to his analysis of the anatomy of melancholy, he initially sets out a more general discussion relating to thought processes, believing it necessary to provide an overview of the anatomy of the human body and its faculties in the first instance and interaction with the soul in order that a comprehensive understanding of the rest of his work is more easily understood.
In 1981 a notebook containing Robert Burton's annotations was found listing his exact time of birth for the purpose of providing his personal horoscope included in the notebook. Annotations in another of his books Ephemerides Joannis Stadii Leonnouthensis, mathematici, secundum Antwerpiae. Ab anno (1554) confirmed Burton's personal interest in astrology.
His other published book titled 'Philosophaster' was a satirical Latin comedy that did not draw the same acclaim as The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Robert Burton died at Christ Church in 1640 at the age of 63. Although unsubstantiated rumors that he committed suicide by hanging himself did circulate.
The Anatomy of Melancholy was reprinted and published in 2001 as a single volume by New York Review Books under their Classic banner. List price for this paperback is $24.95.