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940J Francis Bacon

Of The Advancement And Proficience Of Learning or the Partitions Of Sciences ix Bookes Written in Latin by the Most Eminent Illustrious & Famous Lord Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam Vicont St Alban Counsilour of Estate and Lord Chancellor of England. Interpreted by Gilbert Wats.

Oxford: Printed by Leon: Lichfield, Printer to the University, for Rob: Young, & Ed: Forrest, 1640 [colophon dated 1640]                            Price $5,500

Small Folio 26 x 17.5 cm. Signatures: ¶⁴, ¶¶², ¶¶¶¹, A², B-C⁴, aa-gg4, hh², †4, ††², †1, A-Z⁴, Aa-Zz^4, Aaa-Qqq4^, Rrr².  

This copy has the usual minor rust otherwise the paper is quite crisp and clean, with the original type impression still visible. This is a nice copy, of a very important book. Bound in early full calf stored in a custom red Morocco box.  

“And even the title page [the engraved title page found in this copy], it now becomes clear, announces this figure, for the Pillars of Hercules there also represent the temple of the world through which the ship of apocalyptic exploration passes, just as one passes through the twin pillars before Solomon’s Temple. Thus when discussing the Great Instauration’s motto, plus ultra, and Daniel’s prophecy in The Advancement of Learning, Bacon says, ‘For it may be truly affirmed to the honor of these times, and in a virtuous emulation with antiquity, that this great building of the world had never through–lights made in it, till the age of us and our fathers.’ The engraver Thomas Cecill [who engraved the image for the 1620 edition. The engraver here is W. Marshall, after Cecill] saw this great building as Solomon’s Temple.” (quoted from Francis Bacon and Modernity, by Charles Whitney, page 33) An engraved portrait of Bacon is bound before the title. It is dated 1626.

“Partitiones Scientiarum, a survey of the sciences, either such as then existed or such as required to be constructed afresh—in fact, an inventory of all the possessions of the human mind. The famous classification on which this survey proceeds is based upon an analysis of the faculties and objects of human knowledge. This division is represent by the De Augmentis Scientiarum [The Advancement of Learning].”

“Bacon’s grand motive in his attempt to found the sciences anew was the intense conviction that the knowledge man possessed was of little service to him. ‘The knowledge whereof the world is now possessed, especially that of nature, extendeth not to magnitude and certainty of works.’ Man’s sovereignty over nature, which is founded on knowledge alone, had been lost, and instead of the free relation between things and the human mind, there was nothing but vain notions and blind experiments. … Philosophy is not the science of things divine and human; it is not the search after truth. ‘I find that even those that have sought knowledge for itself, and not for benefit or ostentation, or any practical enablement in the course of their life, have nevertheless propounded to themselves a wrong mark, namely, satisfaction (which men call Truth) and not operation.’ ‘Is there any such happiness as for a man’s mind to be raised above the confusion of things, where he may have the prospect of the order of nature and error of man? But is this a view of delight only and not of discovery? of contentment and not of benefit? Shall he not as well discern the riches of nature’s warehouse as the beauty of her shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce worthy effects, and to endow the life of man with infinite commodities?’ Philosophy is altogether practical; it is of little matter to the fortunes of humanity what abstract notions one may entertain concerning the nature and the principles of things. This truth, however, has never yet been recognized; it has not yet been seen that the true aim of all science is ‘to endow the condition and life of man with new powers or works,’ or ‘to extend more widely the limits of the power and greatness of man.’” (quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition, vol. 3, page 145.)

STC 1167, F. FBL. HD. LC. PML. Gibson 141B

https://datb.cerl.org/estc/S106902

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767J Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Sylva Sylvarum or A Naturall Historie in ten centuries written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS LO Verulam ViscountSt. ALBAN – published after the Autors death by WILLIAM RAWLEY Doctor in Divinitie, one of his Majesties Chaplaines. Hereunto is now added an Alphabeticall Table of the principall things contained in the whole work.

London:  Printed by John Haviland for William Lee and are to be sold by Iohn Williams., 1635

                                                                                                                          Price $ 2,500

Folio 26.5 x 18cm. Signatures: A-Z^6, Aa-Bb6, Cc⁴, a-g^4.. This copy is bound in early quarter calf expertly rebacked .  Book plate of Abel Smith Woodhall Park Binding tight and firm.  A good clean copy of an early edition. The engraved title page and portrait of Bacon dated to 1631 and 1631 respectively are both present in this volume.  

“The new method [Bacon’s big plan, the Instauratio Magna] is valueless, because inapplicable, unless it be supplied with materials duly collected and presented—in fact, unless there be formed a competent natural history of the Phenomena Universi. A short introductory sketch of the requisites of such a natural history, which, according to Bacon, is essential, necessary, the basis totius negotii, is given in the tract Parasceve, appended to the Novum Organum. The principal works intended to form portions of the history, and either published by himself or left in manuscript, are historia Ventorum, Historia Vitae et Mortis, Historia Densi et Rari, and the extensive collection of facts and observations entitled Sylva Sylvarum […] “Nature thus presented itself to Bacon’s mind as a huge congeries of phenomena, the manifestations of some simple and primitive qualities, which were hid from us by the complexity of the things themselves. The world was a vast labyrinth, amid the windings of which we require some clue or thread whereby we may track our way to knowledge and thence to power. This thread, the filum labyrinthi, is the new method of induction. But, as has been frequently pointed out, the new method could not be applied until facts had been observed and collected. 

This is an indispensable preliminary. ‘Man, the servant and interpreter of nature, can do and understand so much, and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature; beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.’ The proposition that our knowledge of nature necessarily begins with observation and experience, is common to Bacon and many contemporary reformers of science, but he laid peculiar stress upon it, and gave it a new meaning. What he really meant by observation was a competent natural history or collection of facts. ‘The firm foundation of a purer natural philosophy are laid in natural history.’ ‘First of all we must prepare a  natural and experimental history, sufficient and good; and this is the foundation of all.” (EB) This book is ‘the foundation of all,’ consisting of all of Bacon’s empirical experiments along with his utopian fable, The New Atlantis. In New Atlantis, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where “generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit”

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965J J Bacon, Francis 1561-1626

Resuscitatio, or, bringing into publick light several pieces of the works, civil, historical, philosophical, & theological, hitherto sleeping, of the right honourable Francis Bacon, baron of Verulam, viscount Saint Alban. According to the best corrected copies. Together, with his Lordships life. The second edition, some-what enlarged. By William Ravvley, Doctor in Divinity, his Lordships first, and last, chaplein. And now his Majesties chaplein, in ordinary. 

London : printed by S. Griffin, for William Lee, and are to be sold at his shop in Fleetstreet, at the signe of the Turks Head, neer the Mitre tavern, 1661.    $1,900

Folio 29 x19.cm. Signatures:π2,a2, (b)(c)4,π2B-Z4 Aa-Nn4, Oo1, Oo-Rr4,Ss5, Aaa-Qqq4. Second edition, a re-issue of the 1657 edition with the Addition of the Civil Characters of Julius Cæsar and Augustus Cæsar and A Collection of Apothegmes. 

This Edition as the 1657 edition contains “Speeches in Parliament, Star-Chamber, Kings Bench, Chancery, and other-where,” has separate dated title page inserted before quire B.  “Certain treatises vvritten, or referring, to Queen Elizabeths times:“, “Severall discourses written, in the dayes of King James,” and “A collection of apothegmes new and old.” each have separate dated title page on leaves O3r, 2C2r, ²2O4r, respectively. 

“Several letters, written by this honourable author,” has separate title page, with imprint “printed by F.L. for William Lee, … 1657”; pagination begins with quire 3A. 

“Other letters, by the same honourable authour,” and “A confession of the faith:” each have separate titlepage, with imprint “printed by F.L. for William Lee, … 1657” on leaves 3L4r and 3P4r, respectively.  With final advertisement leaf.

 A very clean copy bound in full appropriate paneled calf. 

At the hinge between the late Tudor and early Stuart worlds, Francis Bacon stands as both participant in, and diagnostician of, a profound reordering of knowledge. His project—articulated most famously in the Instauratio Magna—sought to move learning away from inherited authorities and toward a disciplined engagement with experience, experiment, and the accumulation of particulars. Yet Bacon’s intellectual life was never confined to natural philosophy alone. His legal arguments, parliamentary speeches, historical reflections, and theological meditations all belong to the same effort: to understand how knowledge operates within power, governance, and belief. In this sense, the Resuscitatio, assembled by his chaplain William Rawley, is not merely a posthumous miscellany, but a deliberate act of recovery—bringing into view the full breadth of Bacon’s engagement with the mechanisms of state and the structures of thought at a moment when England itself was negotiating the uncertain inheritance of the sixteenth century.

Issued in the decades following Bacon’s death, and here in its expanded 1661 form, the Resuscitatio reflects the early Restoration desire to stabilize intellectual and political memory after the upheavals of civil war and regicide. The inclusion of speeches, state papers, and the sharply observed “Civil Characters” situates Bacon within a continuum stretching from Elizabethan counsel to Stuart crisis, while the apothegms and letters reveal the texture of his method at its most compressed—observation distilled into usable form. Unlike the more programmatic philosophical works, this collection shows Bacon in practice: testing judgment against circumstance, and applying a new empirical sensibility to the problems of history, rhetoric, and governance. As such, the volume occupies a distinctive place within Bacon’s opera: it is both retrospective and instrumental, preserving the fragments of a life that helped to mark the transition from Renaissance humanism to the emerging intellectual disciplines of the seventeenth century.

Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon#227 Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon,; 227; Wing B320;ESTC No. R12265

https://datb.cerl.org/estc/R12265

Jamesgray2@me.com

GIBSON 174.; Portrait of Bacon (listed 1) and Engrave title dated 1631; STC 1172.

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3) 689J Bacon, Francis 1561-1626

Resvscitatio Or, bringing into Pvblick Light Several Pieces Of The Works Civil, Historical, Philosophical, and Theological, Hitherto Sleeping Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, Viscount Saint Alban. In Two Parts. The Third Edition, According to the best Corrected Copies, Together With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in Divinity, His Lordships First and Last Chaplain. And lately his Majesties Chaplain in Ordinary.

           [bound with]

The Second Part of the Resuscitatio Or A Collection Of several pieces of the Works Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount of St. Albans. Some of them formerly Printed in smaller Volumes, and being almsot lost, are now Collected and put into Folio, with some of his other pieces, which never yet was published. Collected By William Rawley Doctor of Divinitye, his Lordships first and last Chaplain, and lately Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty.

(both titles) London: Printed by S.G.[i.e. Sarah Griffin] and B.G. [i.e. Bennet Griffin] for William Lee, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the sign of the Turks head in Fleetstreet over against Fetter Lane, 1671                                                          SOLD

Folio  x. cm. Signatures: [unsigned]² B2 [π1 A² [π]¹, A-B⁴ C²; ²B-Z⁴ Aa-Kk⁴ Ll⁴(-Ll⁴); ³A-N⁴; X⁴ [B]1, ⁴A-D⁴; ⁵A-B⁴ C⁴(-C3,4) D-H² I1 K-M⁴ N1; ⁶A-C⁴ D² F-N² O1; ⁷a⁴ b1 A-L⁴ M² N⁴; ⁸A-G² H¹. Frontis. plate unsigned port of Bacon at age 66.  Plate bound at the end of ’The life of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon’ signed: W. Hollar fecit 1670.

This is the first edition to include both parts. 

Includes: ’A preparatory to the history natural & experimental. … By a well-wisher to his Lordships writings’ with a separate title page (⁴A1r) bearing the imprint: London, printed by Sarah Griffing and Ben. Griffing, for William Lee at the Turks-head in Fleet-street, over against Fetter-Lane, 1670 and with separate pagination (Wing B317).

                  Includes: ’Certain miscellany works of the Right Honourable, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban’ (Wing B275) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed by T.J. for H.R. and are to be sold by Wil. Lee, At the Turks-Head in Fleet-street. M. DC. LXX. [1670]’ and with separate pagination and register.

Includes: ’The natural and experimental history of winds, &c’ (Wing B306) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed for Anne Moseley, and Tho. Bassett at the George on Fleet-street, 1671 and with separate pagination and register. Includes: ’A brief discourse touching the office of Lord Chancellor of England. Written by the learned John Selden …’ (Wing S2420) with a separate title page bearing the imprint: London, printed for William Lee at the Turks head in Fleetstreet, over against Fetter-lane end, 1671 and with separate pagination and register.

The edition of ’A brief discourse touching the office of Lord Chancellor of England’ varies from copy to copy, containing the 1671 ed. (Wing S2420) or the 1672 ed. (Wing S2421). ’The life of the Right Honorable Francis Bacon … By William Rawley D.D.’, ’A collection of apophthegms new and old’, ’Several letters written by this honourable author, to Queen Elizabeth, King James, and divers lords, and others’, ’The apology of St. Francis Bacon Kt.’ (Wing B268), ’The translation of certain Psalms, into English verse’ and ’A charge given by the most eminent an learned St. Francis Bacon, Kt.’ each have separate dated title pages, with various imprints and dates and some have separate pagination and registers; for complete bibliographical information, see Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon a bibliography of his works and od Baconia to the year 1750, no. 229.

Wing (CD-ROM, 1996),; B321& B317;  Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon,; 229; ESTC (RLIN),; R037049

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First edition of Bacon’s Letters

718J. Bacon, FRANCIS . (1561-1626)

Letters of Sir Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban.written during the reign of King James the First. Now collected and augmented with several letters and memories, address’d by him to the king andDuke of Buckingham.Bacon, Sir Francis

London: Printed for Benjamin Tooke at the MiddleTemple Gate in Fleetwood, 1702.

$2,500

Quarto, 12 X 16.5 cm. . FIRST EDITION Signatures: A⁴ X1 b-k⁴ B-2Q⁴. “Epistle dedicatory”, signed Robert Stephens (leaf A2),IS wanting in many copies INCLUDING THIS ONE as it was cancelled following the death of William III. Cf. Gibson./ “The preface” signed “R.S.” and dated 14 Feb. 1701/2, Middle-Temple. Bound in its original paneled calf.

With a beautiful and large Armorial bookplate of Sir John Wentworth, 1st baronet of North Elmsall (1673-1720). (see Penn Libraries call number: EC65 L6975 699j)

Although best remembered for his contribution to natural philosophy, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English statesman and philosopher who served as both Solicitor General and Lord Chancellor. After being made Solicitor General in 1607 and thereafter was at or near the heart of James’ administration, although high office was risky in a Jacobean administration and bacon would be impeached in 1621 and spend time as a prisoner in the Tower. This collection contains 149 letters written by the statesman, philosopher, scientist and author Francis Bacon. The editor Robert Stephens (1665-1732) was Royal Historiographer and one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries. He spent 12 years editing theseletters. This copy like most is lsacking the dedication pages which were cancelled before the book was published on account of the death of William III.

Gibson, R. Bacon; 245;Pforzheimer,; 34; ESTC,; T88306 ESTCPostBlock

First edition of Bacon’s Letters

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1629 Bacon Essays, The first to include The Colors of Good and Evil.

694G Francis Bacon 1561-1626

The essayes or counsels, ciuill and morall, of Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban

London:Printed by Iohn Hauiland, and are sold by R. Allot, 1629. Price $3,800

Quarto, Signatures A-2V⁴ 2X² (a)² 2Y-3C⁴. Bound in the original limp vellum,(lacking ties) recently recased and a little rumpled but a very large,clean and unsophisticated copy of an early quarto edition.

“[Bacon’s] Essays, the fruits of his political and social observations, were first published in 1597, enlarged in 1612, and again in 1625. This 1629 edition contains all 58 essays. And is the First edition to contain The colors of good and evil and has divisional title page; register is continuous. Some copies may have been issued without this, but the present copy has it.

“Of Bacon’s literary, as distinct from his philosophical and professional works, far the most popular and important are the Essays [they] are the most original of all Bacon’s works, those which, in detail, he seems to have thought out most completely for himself, apart from books and collections of commonplaces. The last edition [referring to that of 1625, the first to contain all fifty-eight essays] teems indeed with quotations and illustrations, but they are suggested by his own matter and do not suggest it. Though the Essays have the same title as the larger collection of Montaigne, the two works have little in common, except that rare power of exciting interest and the unmistakable mark of genius which is impressed on them both.” (DNB)

      His long attempt to reform the intellectual habits of the European mind began with the publication of The Advancement of Learning in 1605, which attacked the unprofitable scholasticism that inhibited the growth of knowledge and the mental prejudices that helped to keep men in ignorance. Above all he deplored the poor and confused state of knowledge about the operations of the natural world. Novum Organum, begun about 1608, published 1620, called for a systematic study of the natural world and of the causes of things, and proposed the inductive method as the most reliable instruments of enquiry. Bacon worked out the principles of the experimental method in this book, and developed them in De Augmentis, 1623. Sylva Sylvarum, a proposal of 1,000 experiments to be undertaken, was published posthumously in 1627, together with New Atlantis, a Utopian fragment written about 1617 that urged the foundation of a college for scientific research. A short book that enjoyed much popularity in his lifetime was De Sapientia Veterum, 1609 (translated as The Wisdom of the Ancients, 1619), which tried to demonstrate that the myths of the Greeks were coded accounts of their knowledge of the physical world.” (Quoted from The Seventeenth Century, by Graham Perry, pages 264-265.)

“Of the colours of good and euill” has divisional title page; register is continuous. Some copies may have been issued without this.

STC 1149; Gibson 15 ; Pforzheimer 31.

https://datb.cerl.org/estc/S122369

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