Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning or the Parititions of Sciences. Second issue, as usual, with colophon dated 1640

Oxford, 1640.

Bacon, Francis (1561-1626). Of the advancement and proficience of learning or the partitions of sciences . . . Interpreted by Gilbert Wats. [34], 477, [21]pp. Engraved portrait frontispiece and engraved title by Will. Marshall. Oxford: Leon Lichfield for Robert Young and E. Forrest, 1640. 282 x 186 mm. Blind-ruled calf ca. 1640, rebacked, free endpapers renewed, later spine label, a few minor scratches. Tear in leaf C1 repaired, occasional light dampstaining but very good. Early ownership signatures on the engraved title and dedication leaf; extensive notes on the front and back pastedowns on various subjects in one or more early hands.

First Edition in English of Bacon's De augmentis scientarum (1623); second issue as usual, with the colophon dated 1640; variant reading on p. 21: "Scala Intellectus, or the method of the mind in the comprehension of things explained" (see Gibson, p. 123).

In 1605 Bacon published The Twoo Bookes . . . of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, a work that marked the beginning of his "massive plan for the reorganization of the scientific method." Over the next twenty years Bacon greatly reworked his ideas, expanding them from "two books" into nine and publishing them in Latin in De augmentaris scientarum. "In De augmentis scientarum, which is concerned primarily with the classification of philosophy and the sciences, Bacon develops his influential view of the relation between science and theology. He distinguishes in traditional fashion between knowledge by divine revelation and knowledge by the senses, and divides the latter into natural theology, natural philosophy and the sciences of man" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Bacon saw both theoretical and applied science as religious duties, the first for a greater knowledge of God through his creation, and the second for the practice of charity to one's fellows by improving their condition. This view of science as a religious function maintained its authority throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and was an important factor in the public success of the scientific movement.

The pastedown endpapers in this copy contain extensive manuscript notes or extracts in one or more early hand on various subjects: "Concerning Mr. Suttons Hospitall called the Charter House in London. In the life & death of Doctor Willets synopsis edition 5 printed 1637 it appeared that he solicited that old gentlemen Mr. Sutton to yt heroic work. . . "(front pastedown).

"In the 3. yeare of King Charles Io reign there were apprehended a company of Jesuits in Clarkenwell at a house designed for a colledge of that order . . . In 1634 A Parlt & Synod was calld in Ireland . . . The insolent deportment of ye Queens ffrench attendants . . ." (rear pastedown).

Gibson, Francis Bacon: A Bibliography, 141b.

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