:: Bacon's Dictionary Part 4 ::

Abbott A. Edwin (1838–1926) In 1885, Abbott published two books entitled Francis Bacon An Account of his Life and his Works. This work was undertaken six or seven years before its publication, at the request of Mr. J.R. Green, for the series of Literature Primers. Although the rough draft was prepared as early as 1880, unavoidable delays deferred completion, till Mr. Green’s lamented death destroyed the hope that the volume might receive his supervision. The Bacon works entered:

The revision and rewriting of this work were facilitated by biographies of Bacon written during the last few years of the 1880’s by Professor Fowler (1881), by Dean Church (1884), by Professor S.R. Gardiner in the Dictionary of National Biography (1885), by Mr. Aldis Wright in the biography prefixed to his edition of the Advancement of Learning, (1875) which closely follows Spedding in his views of Bacon’s character. Dean Church has been led to conclusions very similar to those, which Abbott endeavoured very roughly and imperfectly to express in the edition of the Essays (1878), and to which Abbott still, in the main, adhered to. Professor Gardiner had viewed Bacon in a new light. He had called attention to the political aspect of Bacon’s career; laid stress upon the grandeur of the work that Bacon might have achieved as a Statesman, if only he could have had his own way; and has herein found some extenuation, not only for his desertion from science to statesmanship, but also for his continuance in political pursuits even when it became evident that he could achieve nothing because he was forced to go the way of others.
Abbott, before going into the category of works, gives an exceptional biography of Bacon and his times, beginning with the following: “The greatest living states man in England was not long ago (1884) accused of being able to persuade himself of anything. The accusation savoured of hyperbole; but it by no means deserved to be treated as if it amounted to a charge of lunacy. No man can do great things if he is not persuaded that he can do somewhat more than he actually succeeds in doing; no man can lead a party or work for a people if he does not believe in the party or people to an extent a little beyond what is warranted by facts. It is by this imaginative and illogical surplusage of belief (commonly called faith) that a man uplifts both himself and others: within ordinary limits it achieves ordinary successes; beyond those limits it achieves stupendous marvels or disastrous failures. If the good was unattainable, then he would make the best of the bad, and aim at that, and call that good.”
Within his preliminary introduction, Abbott goes into Bacon’s weakness as Lord Chancellor, and how Buckingham manipulated him on many cases. After some further research on Bacon selling his sentences upon Buckingham’s favour, here is a ladder that climbs the tree: It is first mentioned by Douglas Denon Heath. 1 Professor Gardiner took this lead and followed up on it giving further evidence by letters written by Buckingham to Bacon in 1618, and says “Even in his [Bacon’s] Court he was made to feel the weight of the Favourite’s patronage, and was exposed to a constant flow of letters from Buckingham, asking him to show favour to this person or that, of course under the reservation that he would do so only so far as was consonant with justice.” Abbott in his above-mentioned work, replies to this, saying “sometimes, it is true, Buckingham adds the qualification, so far as may stand with justice and equity.” For these letters, see Part V: Important Letters written by Bacon. On another occasion, May 14, 1619 Buckingham writes, in behalf of some friends and relations, to request Bacon to enforce the performance of certain conditions by some contractors who had purchased a Patent for the “transportation of butter out of Wales” from some “who have near relation to me. And herein I desire your Lordship to make what expedition you can, because now is the season to make provision of the butter that for this year is to be transported, whereof they take advantage to stand out.” On the following day, Buckingham repeats and emphasises his request or command. On December 11, disguising a shameful assent in a hasty postscript added to a hastily-written letter, Bacon’s answer comes back as follows: “I forget not your doctor’s matter. I shall speak with him to-day, having received your Lordship’s letter; and what is possible shall be done. I pray pardon my scribbling in haste.” The entire case is briefed out in a few pages in Abbott’s Francis Bacon An Account of his Life and his Works, 1885; twenty pages in Spedding’s Works, Vol. VI., but in an Appendix with Heath’s reported investigations and conclusions. Cecil Monro also notes on this particular case and concludes that Bacon “after competent investigation, to have been guilty of a deliberate perversion of justice, at the orders of Buckingham.” Wotton then took a step higher and commented “Bacon sold his sentences to Buckingham.” These biographers may be mistaken; the above two letters cannot offer any mistake as to how Buckingham manipulated Bacon’s position as Chancellor, how Buckingham made a good amount of money through these favours he asked from Bacon, and how Bacon took the bait and fell, in 1620, smack onto London’s cobbled alley ways. Somewhere in the correspondence of Anthony Bacon, at Lambeth Library, there occurs the following description of the Four Arts, without which no one could hope to succeed at Court in the later days of Queen Elizabeth:

Cog, lie, flatter and face,
Four ways in Court to win men grace.
If thou be thrall to none of these,
Away, good Piers! Home, John Cheese! 2

1 Bacon’s Works in seven volumes, published 1857–1859

2 These verses must have been quoted by the writer, whoever he was, from Roger Ascham’s Scholemaster, Arber edition, p. 54

In 1885, Abbott comments on the following works:

Partus Masculus Temporis: 3 In the autumn of 1625, Bacon confessed to a correspondent that, some forty years before, he had written a work, which with juvenile audacity and a presumptuous title he had called The Greatest Birth of Time, or the Great Renewal of the Empire of Man over the Universe [Partus Maximus Temporis sive Instauratio Magna Imperii Humani in Universum]. No such work is extant; but we have a short fragment proved to be very early by internal evidence, the title of which is Partus Masculus Temporis, or the Male Birth of Time. There are grounds for thinking that, under a title slightly changed and toned down, we have here the Partus Maximus, the first germ of the Magna Instauratio. By “male” he means “generative” or “fruitful” as opposed to the barren philosophy of Aristotle. The exact date of this fragment is not known; but it is characteristic of Bacon’s sanguine spirit that this early (perhaps earliest) effort at the Magna Instauratio contains little more than a grand title and a prayer against the dangers of an immoderate success.
Valerius Terminus, Of the Interpretation of Nature: 4 Accordingly Bacon’s earliest connected work on Philosophy was intended to be published with the title Valerius Terminus, Of the Interpretation of Nature, with the annotations of Hermes Stella a work intended for a select few, and requiring the aid of an interpreter (Hermes) to cast a helpful star-light (Stella) on the wanderings of the reader towards the philosophic goal (Terminus). The work is fragmentary; and of the annotations of Hermes Stella, the author himself writes “none are set down.” It is supposed to have been written about 1603.
The Advancement of Learning: 5 The Advancement of Learning (published in 1605) supplies the Inventory of the results of knowledge, and the deficiencies, suggested (as Mr. Ellis believes, and as appears from the above sketch) in Valerius Terminus. It is written in a more popular style, avoiding many technicalities used in Bacon’s other works; describing, for example, the fallacies denoted by the Idols, but avoiding the use of the term Idol; and it adopts a much more conciliatory attitude to the ancient philosophers than is expressed in Bacon’s unpublished treatises. Scarcely a page of the Second Book of the Advancement fails, directly or indirectly, to guide us towards the Novum Organum.
The Cogitata et Visa: 6 In June, 1607, Sir Francis Bacon was made Solicitor-General; and about this time (possibly in the following vacation) he bethought himself that as time was slipping away and he was now “entangled more than he could have desired in civil business;” he ought not to wait for the completion of the proposed work on the Interpretation of Nature, but to publish at once some particular Investigation “Tables of Invention,” or “Formulae of Legitimate Investigation;” to serve as specimens of his general work, and to excite in their readers a curiosity for the Key of Interpretation. Accordingly he composed, about this time, some Tables called a Legitimate Investigation of Motion. As an introduction to the Tables, he wrote a treatise entitled Thoughts and Judgments concerning the Interpretation of Nature, or concerning Operative Science (Cogitata et Visa De Interpretatione Naturae, sive De Scientia Operativa.) 7 The Legitimate Investigation would have covered the ground which the second book of the Novum Organum was meant to occupy; the Cogitata covers most of the ground actually covered by the first book of the Novum Organum.
Wisdom of the Ancients [De Sapientia Veterum]: In the year 1609 was published this Latin treatise.
Description of the World of Thought [Descriptio Globi Intellectualis]: The work published in 1612, is chiefly remarkable for its neglect of recent astronomical discoveries. He indeed refers briefly to Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s satellites (published together with other discoveries in the Sydereus Nuncius, 1611), but he does not appear to have seen its importance in confirming the theory of Copernicus; and concerning Kepler’s Laws (two of which had been published in the De Stella Martis in 1609, and had become known in England in 1610), he is entirely silent. In 1613 he was appointed Attorney-General, and from that time till 1620, the year before his down fall, no literary work of any kind published, or unpublished, is known to have issued from his pen. All that he did was apparently to re-write repeatedly and revise the Novum Organum.
The Novum Organum Book I: Fifteen years after the publication of the Advancement of Learning (which might serve as a first part of his Magna Instauratio) Bacon published (1620) the Key of the Interpretation of Nature, or, as he now preferred to call it, the Novum Organum [New Instrument] which was to serve as the second part of his great work. The title page contains the title Magna Instauratio (being intended as the title of the whole work, and not of the Novum Organum) and a picture of a ship passing safely between the two Pillars of Hercules, with the text, Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia an allusion to Bacon’s favourite comparison between the recent discovery of the new material world, and the anticipated discovery of a new intellectual world. Then follows an important section (entitled The Arrangement of the Work, Distributio Operis), which sets forth the divisions not of the Novum Organum, but of the whole of the proposed Magna Instauratio (in which the Novum Organum is but the second part). They are as follows:
The Divisions of the Sciences (Partitiones Scientiarum).
The New Instrument (Novum Organum), or Testimonies concerning the Interpretation of Nature, [Indicia de Interpretatione Naturae].
The Phenomena of the Universe, or History, Natural and Experimental, adapted for the foundation of Philosophy [Phaenomena Universi, sive Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam philosophiam].
The Ladder of the Understanding [Scala Intellectus]. This part was to contain examples of the operation of the New Method and of the results to which it leads.
Fore-runners, or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy [Prodromi, sive Anticipations Philosophiae Secundae]. This was to contain such discoveries as Bacon had made by ordinary methods; and without waiting for the New Method; and it was intended to be tentative.
The Second Philosophy, or Active Science (Philosophia Secunda, sive Scientia Activa). This was to contain the results of the application of the New Philosophy to all Phenomena.

After the Distributio Operis a second title page announces that the First Part of the Instauratio concerning the Divisions of Learning is wanting, but that it may be supplied in some measure from the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning. It adds these words, “Here follows the Second Part of the Instauration, which sets forth the Art itself of interpreting Nature and of a truer operation of the Understanding; but not in the form of a regular treatise, but only summarily (per summas) digested into Aphorisms.” A third title introduces the Novum Organum, or True Testimonies concerning the Interpretation of Nature.
The following is the arrangement in the Novum Organum, in a quadruple division, the idols, or false human phantasies, are opposed to the ideas of the divine mind. Of the four classes of idols, two are inherent in the human mind; two, external:

The Idols of the Tribe, to which the mind is exposed because of the qualities common to the whole race or Tribe of humanity.
The Idols of the Cave, which results from the special peculiarities or circumstances of individuals, dwelling each in his own cave.
The Idols of the Market Place, resulting from the use of words, which are the coins (often spurious or deceitful) by which men exchange thoughts.
The Idols of the Theatre, whereby men in masses, like the vast audience of a theatre, allow themselves to be swayed by the impostures of symmetrical and authoritative systems of Philosophy, which are no better than theatrical fictions.
The Novum Organum Book II: The Second Book of the Novum Organum was intended to set forth the particular example of the Art of Interpretation, for which the First Book served as a mere introduction, and accordingly Bacon selects heat as the object of his investigations.
Contributions to the Third Part of the Instauratio Magna: The Third Part of the Instauratio Magna was to be the Phenomena of the Universe, or History Natural and Experimental, adapted for the foundation of Philosophy. Accordingly in the same year in which Bacon published the unfinished Novum Organum, he also published a short treatise entitled Preparation for a Natural and Experimental History [Parasceue ad Historians Naturcdem et Experimentaleni.]

History of Density and Rarity: In the year 1623 was written (though not published till 1658) the History of Density and Rarity, principally noteworthy because Bacon appears from it to have been ignorant of the method of calculating specific gravities published by Ghetaldus twenty years before and substantially in use now. He gives, instead, a method of his own which has not commended itself to modern science.
De Augmentis & Sylva Sylvarum: In 1623 was published the De Augmentis et Dignitate Scientiae, a greatly amplified Latin Translation of the Advancement of Learning. It will be remembered that the Advancement of Learning consisted of two books, one on the Dignity of Learning, the other on the Divisions of Learning, and that on the title page of the Novum Organum in 1620, occur these words: “The First Part of the Instauration, which embraces the Divisions of Learning, is wanting; but these Divisions may be in some measure obtained from the Second Book of the Advancement of Learning.” The Latin Translation accordingly amplifies the Divisions contained in the Second Book of the Advancement into eight books. The First Book of the Advancement, though retained in the Translation, is treated as a mere Introduction on the Dignity of Science, and is not even mentioned in the Introductory Table of the Divisions of Learning.
Sylva Sylvarum: published in 1627 after Bacon’s death is supposed to have been written about 1624. Written after the Sylva Sylvarum come two brief papers, one called Scala Intcllectus, or ladder of the Understanding, and the other Prodromi sive Anticipations Philosophiae Secundae, that is, Forerunners or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy. As early as 1608, we find Bacon in the Commentarius Solutus seriously considering the possibility of securing some College for combined research subject to his direction; “laying for a place to command wits and pens; Westminster, Eton, Winchester, Trinity or St. John’s at Cambridge, Magdalene College, Oxford.”

New Atlantis: The New Atlantis was published by Dr. Rawley, Bacon’s Chaplain, in 1627, at the end of the volume containing the Sylva Sylvarum, with a Preface in which the editor informs us that the object of the work was not only to sketch the model of Salomon’s House, the name given to the imaginary College instituted for the Interpretation of Nature, but also to describe the laws and constitution of an ideal Commonwealth.

Advertisement touching an Holy War: Only one other work of imagination (if we accept the Dialogue in the Redargutio) proceeded from Bacon’s pen. This is a fragment of an Advertisement touching an Holy War written in the form of a Dialogue, in which the interlocutors represent a Moderate Divine, a Protestant Zelant, a Romish Catholic Zelant, a Militar Man, a Politique, and a Courtier. The conversation is life-like, and the characters well sustained; but the work is so imperfect as to leave the reader doubtful as to the intended conclusion. In 1622 (the year in which the Advertisement was written) the Spanish marriage being still on foot, it was natural that Bacon should recur to the instructions which in 1617 he had sent to Sir John Digby, suggesting that the marriage might “be a beginning and seed of a Holy War against the Turk.” The fragment is preceded by a long dedication to Bishop Andrews, and Bacon thought it worthy of being translated into Latin and included in his Opera Moralia et Civilia.

The History of Henry VII.: The History of Henry VII., was probably begun in June, 1621, soon after Bacon’s release from the Tower, and presented to the King in the following October. A history of England from the Wars of the Roses to the Union of the two Kingdoms, had been noted in the Advancement of Learning as deficient; and a fragment, of doubtful date, but previous to 1609, shows that Bacon had previously intended to supply this deficiency. The character of Henry VII., given in that earlier fragment goes far to disprove the notion that now in 1621 Bacon idealised that monarch in order to gratify the reigning King. Bacon’s collection of Apophthegms was probably intended to supply the deficiency noted in the Advancement of Learning and in the De Augmentis. With the exception of King John the historical dramas of Shakespeare extend consecutively from the reign of Richard II., to that of Henry VIII., a period of one hundred and eighty one years. One break, and one only, occurs in the series, that of Henry VII., which is omitted. Bacon wrote one historical work, that on the reign of Henry VII. He began it abruptly with the victory of Bosworth Field, making but slight reference to the causes and events that led up to it. Shakespeare leaves us at this exact point in the drama preceding Richard III. This ends with the crowning of Henry on the battle-field by Lord Stanley who plucks the crown for the occasion from Richard’s “dead temples.” Bacon’s history begins with the crowning of Henry on the battle-field by Lord Stanley, who finds the crown “among the spoils.” The two accounts seem to be tongued and grooved together, as though from one hand. (Reed).

The argument for Bacon’s authorship of the play Henry VIII., may be rested in part on three points:

The author was indebted for some of his materials directly to Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey, which though written in 1557, was not printed until 1641, or eighteen years after the appearance of the play. As Bacon was one of Wolsey’s successors in office, he would naturally have had access to this manuscript, while a play-actor would not.

It is practically certain that in 1622–23, Bacon was engaged upon a work pertaining to the reign of Henry VIII. He completed his history of Henry VII., in October 1621. This was so much admired that Prince Charles immediately requested him to write also a history of Henry VIII. Bacon promised to do so. Accordingly, in January 1623, he applied to the proper authorities for the loan of such documents as might be in the public archives relating to that monarch’s reign. The application was formally granted. At this time, Bacon appears to have been actually at work in real or apparent fulfillment of his undertaking, for under date of February 10, Chamberlain writes: “Lord [Bacon] busies himself about books, and hath set out two lately Historia Ventorum and De Vita et Morte, with promises of more. I have not seen either of them because I have not leisure; but if the life of Henry VIII., which they say he is about, might come out after his own manner, I should find time and means enough to read it.” A few days later (February 21), Bacon himself writes to Buckingham, who had gone to Spain with Prince Charles, asking to be remembered to the Prince, “who, I hope ere long, will make me leave King Henry VIII., and set me on work in relation to his Highnesses heroical adventures.” The next reference to the subject is also in one of Bacon’s own letters. Acknowledging the receipt of a communication from Toby Matthew, June 26, 1623 he says: “Since you say the Prince hath not forgot his commandment touching my history of Henry VIII., I may not forget my duty. But I find Sir Collier, who poured forth what he had in my other work, somewhat dainty of his materials in this.” It appears, however, that notwithstanding all these repeated implications to the effect that he was engaged upon a history of Henry VIII., he was actually doing no such thing. He did, indeed, make a beginning; he gathered materials; he dictated one morning about two pages; and then he wrote to the Prince, apologizing for not going on with the work and for dropping it altogether. But did he drop it? From whose pen came those wonderful panegyrics of Queen Elizabeth and King James that were printed six months afterward in the drama of Henry VIII., and that can be exactly paralleled in the Advancement of Learning and the In felicem Memoriam Elizabethœ? Those heart-breaking lamentations over fallen greatness, such as Bacon must have still been uttering in private over his downfall in 1621? Those entrancing visions of peace and plenty, of honor and gladness for the English people, characteristic of one in whom forgiveness of injuries was a cardinal virtue, and love of mankind an absorbing passion?

Queen Catherine, the first wife of King Henry VIII., made her residence during the latter part of her life at Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire. The Duke of Manchester, to whom the place belonged, published in 1864 a valuable collection of papers, found in the castle and at Simancas in Spain, which show that of all the numerous and gifted persons who have written of that unfortunate Princess, two, and two only, have correctly adjudged her character. These two, thus in singular agreement, are Francis Bacon and the author of the Shakespeare dramas: “So far as concerns all popular ideas of her, Catherine is a creature of the mist. Shakespeare and Bacon, the highest judges and firmest painters of character, have, it is true, described her, if only lightly and by the way, as a woman of flesh and blood; the flesh rather stubborn, the blood somewhat hot; as a lady who could curse her enemies and caress her friends; a princess full of natural graces, virtues, and infirmities. Had the portraits by Shakespeare and Bacon been painted in full, they would have been all that we could hope or wish.” 8 And from another source: “The whole story of the Queen, as now told from the ample Simancas text, is in perfect harmony with what Shakespeare and Bacon say of her.” 9 Lord Montagu of Kimbolton, first Earl of Manchester, was one of Bacon’s dearest friends.

Meditationes Sacrae: In the Meditationes Sacrae (published with the first edition of the Essays in 1597) there are several thoughts which may be found embodied in Bacon’s later works.

Translation of Certain Psalms into English Verse: The Translation of Certain Psalms into English Verse was made, like the collection of Apophthegms, during a period of illness in 1624.

3 Spedding. Works, Vol. III. pp. 521–539

4 Spedding. Works, pp. 215–252

5 Ibid., Vol. III. pp. 253–491; for the amplified Latin translation called the De, Augmentis, see Works, Vol. I. 413–837

6 Ibid., Vol. III. pp. 589–620

7 Ibid., Vol. I. p. 78, Vol. III. p. 619

8 Duke of Manchester. Court and Society, Vol. I. p. 5

9 The Athenœum, January 16, 1867

Meaning of Essays: As to the word Essay, it is interesting to contrast what Bacon and Ben Jonson say of it. The former (in the cancelled dedication to Prince Henry,) distinguishes Essays from just treatises; implying that his work must be expected to be a little disconnected and abrupt: “Certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously, which I have called Essays. The word is late, but the thing is ancient. For Seneca’s Epistles to Lucilius, if one mark them well, are but Essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of Epistles.” Ben Jobson will have none of the Essayists: “They are the writers that turn over books, and are equally searching in all papers, that write out of what they presently find or meet, without choice by which means it happens that what they have discredited and impugned in one work, they have, before or after, extolled the same in another. Such are all the Essayists, even their master, Montaigne.” 10 Considering the great admiration expressed by Ben Jonson for Bacon’s style one is a little surprised to find no mention of Bacon’s Essays, and to note the assumption that Montaigne is “Master of the Essayists.” It may be noted that in 1625, describing the new edition of his Essays to Father Fulgentio, Bacon says that in Italy the book was called “Saggi Morali, but I gave it a weightier name, calling it Faithful Discourses, or The Inwards of Things.”

10 Jonson Ben. Works, ed. Gifford, p. 747

Birch Thomas (b. 23 Nov. 1705–d. 9 Jan 1766) historian and biographer, was born of quaker parents in St. George’s Court. The example of the greatest men, in preserving in their editions of the classics the smallest remains of their writings, will be a full justification of Birch’s industry in collecting and inserting even the fragments of a writer equal to the most valuable of the ancients. Nor will the candid and intelligent object to the least considerable of the Duke of Buckingham’s letters, since they acquire an importance from the rank and character of the writer, as well as from their carrying on the series of his correspondence, acquainting us with new facts, or ascertaining old ones with additional evidence and circumstances, and shewing the extent of that authority and influence, which his situation, as a favourite, gave him in all parts of the government, even as high as the seat of justice itself.

Blackbourne John (1683–1741), nonjuror, born and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became B.A. in 1700, and M.A. in 1705. See Part II., for a short biography on him. In 1730 Blackbourne published the following works:

Opera omnia: Publication of Opera omnia, quatuor voluminibus and edited by Blackbourne, in 4 volumes, sm. folio, with engraved frontispieces.
Schedule of the Debts of Francis Bacon, Lord Viscount of St. Alban at his death with the dividends paid to the respective Creditors: A legal Document on vellum, signed by Fra. Phelips Audit and John Penkethman Scri. Publ. A most interesting document was in the possession of Thomas Granger, who allowed Blackbourne to copy and reprint it in his edition of Bacon’s Works. There are however, variations between the original and the copy. Waite states that “the Confessio Fraternitatis appeared in the year 1615 in a Latin work, entitled, Secretioris Philosophiæ Consideratio Brevis à Phillipo à Gabella, philosophiæ conscripta; et nunc primum unâ cum Confessione Fraternitatis R.C. in lucem edita, Cassellis, excudebat. G. Wesselius à 1615, Quarto.” Phillipo à Gabella, mentioned above in the title, is nowhere to be found in biographical dictionaries and could be a non-name, a pen-name, since in John Blackbourne’s edition of Lord Bacon’s Works, amongst the characters of Lord Bacon, there is a panegyric upon Bacon by one Burrhus, who calls Bacon Phillip Bacon. 11

11 W.F.C. Wigston. Francis Bacon Poet, Prophet, Philosopher, versus Phantom Captain Shakespeare, 1891

Spedding James (June 28, 1808–March 9, 1881) English author chiefly known as the editor of the Works & Life of Francis Bacon.

Ellis Leslie Robert (Aug 25, 1817–May 12, 1859) an English polymath, remembered principally as a mathematician and editor of the Works of Francis Bacon.

Heath Douglas Denon (1811–1859) born in Chancery Lane.

Spedding used a unique collection in bringing out that “unsurpassable model of thorough and scholar like editing” edition of Bacon’s Works, from 363 Vols. in 318, folio, 4yo., and 8vo. The library included a number of the first and early editions of Bacon’s Works and those of his contemporaries, some of them of grate rarity, and also valuable collection of books in Baconian literature.

Baconian Collection used by Spedding:

Schedule of the Debts of Francis Bacon. In 1730 this document was in the possession of Thomas granger, who allowed Blackbourne to copy and reprint it in his edition of Bacon’s Works. See Section 6 Blackbourne John.
King James His Apophthegmes; Or, Table-Talke, by B.A. Gent. London printed by B.W. sm. 4to., unbound (1643).
Amos Andrew. The Great Oyer of Poisoning: The Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London. 8vo., with portrait; cloth (1846).
Apophthegms. Apophthegmata Græca, Latina, Italica, Gallica, Hispanica; Collecta a Geraerdo Tuningio Leidensi, I.C. Ex Officina Plantiniana Raphelengii. Sm. 8vo., one leaf slightly defective; contemporary calf (1609).
Opera Francisci Baronis De Verulamio. Tomus Primus. Qui continent De Dignitate & Augmentis Scientiarum Libros IX. Londini, In Offi cina Ioannis Haviland. MDCXXIII.] Sm. folio, two leaves (¶2), containing the general title and dedication, missing, and P4 slightly defective; contemporary calf, 1623.
First edition of the De Augmentis, prepared for publication by William Rawley; exceedingly rare, and according to Archbishop Tenison, the “fairest and most correct edition.” Joseph Knight’s copy fetched £64 in 1905.
Francisci Baconi. Operum Moralium Et Civilium Tomus. Qui continet Historiam Regni Henrici Septimi, Regis Angliæ. Sermons Fideles, sive Interiora Rerum. Traćtatum de Sapientiâ Veterum. Dialogum de Bello Sacro. Et Novam Atlantidem. Curâ & Fide Guilielmi Rawley, in hoc volumine, iterum excusi, includuntur Traćtatus de Augmentis Scientiarum. Historia Ventorum. Historia Vitæ & Mortis. Londini. Excusum Typis Edwardi Griffi ni, 1638. First collected edition of Bacon’s Latin works. The Dialogus de Bello Sacro, Nova Atlantis, and the Tractatus De Augmentis Scientiarum were all three printed by John Haviland, not by Edward Griffin as was the case with the remainder.
Francisci Baconi. Opera Omnia, cum Novo eoque insigni Augmento Traćtatuum haćtenus inedditorum, & Ex Idiomate Anglicano in Latinum Sermonem translatorum, Opera Simonis Johannis Arnoldi. Lipsiæ, Impensis Johannis Justi Erythropili, excundebat Christiannus Goezius, A,MDCXCIV. Leipzig, 1694.
Francisci Baconi. Opera omnia, quatuor voluminibus [edited by J. Blackbourne] 4 Vols., 1730.
The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam Methodized, and made English, from the Originals. With occasional Notes. By Peter Shaw. 3 vols., 1733.
The Works of Francis Bacon. 12 Vols., 1818.
Baconiana. Or Certain Genuine Remains Of Sr. Francis Bacon In Arguments Civil and Moral, Natural, Medical, Theological, and Bibliographical; Now the First time faithfully Published. London, Printed by J.D. for Richard Chiswell 1679. This is Boswell’s copy with his autograph on the back of the portrait. The work is preceded by a long account of these remains and of Bacon’s other works, by the publisher. This Discourse By Way Of Introduction occupies 104 pages and has a separate title page.
The same. Sm. 8vo., with portrait (mounted); contemporary calf, rebacked 1679.
Certaine Considerations touching the better pacification, and Edification of the Church of England printed for Henry Tomes.
A Wise and Moderate Discourse, Concerning Church-Affaires written by the Authour of those considerations, which seem to have some reference to this imprinted in the yeare 1641. Two works in 1 vol., sm. 4to., with two plain corners of the first title slightly mended; modern vellum, with the original limp vellum wrapper bound in; partly uncut [1640]/41. With numerous contemporary MS., notes.
Certaine Miscellany Works Of Frrancis Lo. Verulam published By William Rawley, London, Printed by J. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson 1629. The Essayes Of Francis Lo. Verulam With A Table Of the Colours of Good and Evill Newly enlarged. London, Printed by John Beale 1639. In 1 vol., sm. 4to., old calf, rebacked 1629–39.
A Charge Given by Sr. Francis Bacon Kt at a Sessions holden for the Verge Declaring The Latitude of the Jurisdićtion thereof London, Printed for Robert Pawley 1662.
The Charge Of Sir Francis Bacon touching Duells, upon an information in the Star Chamber against Priest and Wright. With The Decree of the Star Chamber in the same cause. Printed for Robert Wilson 1614.
A conference of Pleasure, composed about 1592. Edited, from a MS., belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, by James Spedding. 1870.
Considerations Touching A Warre With Spaine. Written by Francis Lo. Verulam, Vi. St. Alban. Imprinted 1629.
Fr. Baconis De Augmentis Scientiarum Lib. IX. Lungd. Batavorum, Ex officina Adriani Wijngaerden. Ao 1652.
De Augmentis Scientiarum; see above: Opera 1623.
Francisci Baconi De Sapientia Veterum Liber Londini, Excudebat Robertus Barkerus Anno 1609. First Edition; of extreme rarity. It was reprinted in 1617 (with the omission of Bacon’s address to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1612) and first translated into English, by Sir Arthur Gorges, in 1619. There was no copy of this original edition in the Hoe and Huth collections.
Francisci Baconi De Sapientia Veterum Liber Iam recusus. Londini Apud Ioannen Billium, Anno M.DC.XVII. 12mo., vellum 1617.
Francisci Baconi De Sapientia Veterum Liber Editio tertia. Lugduni Batavorum, Ex Officina Joannis Maire, cIoIoCLVII 1657.
The Wisedome Of The Ancients, Written In Latine By Sir Francis Bacon done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges London Imprinted by John Bill. 1619. First Edition in English. It remained the only English translation until 1836.
The Elements Of The Common Lawes Of England, Branched into a double Tract: The One Containing a Collećtion of some principall Rules and Maximes of the Common Law, with, their Latitude and Extent The Other The Use of the Common Law By Sir Francis Bacon London, Printed by the Assignes of John More Esquire. 1639.
The Elements Of The Common Lavves Of England By Sir Francis Bacon London, Printed by the Assignes of John More Esquire. 1639. Three Speeches Of Sir Francis Bacon Concerning the Post-Nati Naturalization of the Scotch in England Union of the Lawes of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland London, Printed by Richard Badger, for Samuel Broun 1641. The Essayes Or, Counsels, Civill and Morall: Of Francis Lo. Verulam With A Table of the Colours, or Apparances of Good and Evill, and their Degrees, as places of Perswasion, and Disswasion London, Printed by John Beale 1639. True Peace: Or a Moderate Discourse To Compose the unsettled Consciences, and Greatest Differences In Ecclesiastical Affaires, Written by Sir Francis Bacon London, Printed for A.C. 1663. Together in 1 vol., sm. 4to., old calf, rebacked 1639–63. Bound in with the above is: Certaine Considerations touching the better pacification and Edification of the Church of England London Printed for Henry Tomes. An. 1604. This is the first edition, of which there exists an undated reprint. It is defective, as eight leaves (E1–F4) are missing.
An Essay Of A King, With An explanation what manner of persons those should be that are to execute the power of ordinance of the Kings Prerogative. Written By Francis, Lord Verulam Viscount Saint Alban. London, Printed for Richard Best, 1642.
The Essaies Of Sr. Francis Bacon Knight, the Kings Atturney Generall. His Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Diswasion Printed at London for John Jaggard 1613. A pirated reprint of Beale’s genuine edition of 1612, with the addition of the essay “Of Honour and Reputation”, the Meditationes sacræ and Of the colours of Good and Evill. The two essays “Of the publique” and “Of Warre and Peace”, though announced in the table, are not printed. Another edition, also published by John Jaggard, and apparently printed by William Jaggard, containing exacting the same metter, appeared in the same year.
The Essayes Of Francis Lo. Verulam Newly enlarged. London, Printed by John Haviland for Hanna Barret, and Richard Whitaker 1625. First Complete Edition and the last published during the author’s lifetime. In his “Epistle Dedicatori”, Bacon says “I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other workes, haue beene most Currant: For that, as it seemes, they come home, to Mens Businesse, and Bosomes. I haue enlarge them, both in Number, and Weight; So that they are indeed a New Worke.”

Part 4. Author's who published Bacon’s Works