Author: Bacon, Francis
Publisher: Leiden: Franciscum Hackium 1648.
Description: 12mo., [1]ff, [34], 612pp [pp 454-5 misnumbered 654-5], [47]; 87pp. Bound in contemporary sheepskin with faded manuscript title to spine, additional collective engraved title and separate title page for Novus Atlas, pages clean and fresh but some minor worming to upper margin (affecting a few letters of ) of aprox. 75 pages as well as blank margin of engraved title, but not detracting much from the work, a handsome copy likely in original binding, holding extremely well, manuscript 17th/18th century signature of a William Wright to endpaper and title. Scarce first Latin edition of Bacon’s celebrated work, published the same year as an Elzevir printing in Amsterdam. First published posthumously in the year of Bacon’s death (1626), Sylva Sylvarum is a an aptly-described “miscellany of topics”, dealing with the prolongation of life, the natural world, and the wisdom of the ancients, arranged in 1000 numbered paragraphs. William Rawley, Bacon’s secretary, chose to addend the unfinished manuscript of New Atlantis to the former work, if only for convenience’s sake. Bacon’s utopian population famously practice eugenic breeding and are committed fundamentally to the pursuit of scientific learning. Having enjoyed five English editions by 1639, the present work attests to Bacon’s popularity beyond British shores; Elzevir in Amsterdam and Hackium in Leiden brought out simultaneous Latin translations in 1648. Hackium’s re-engraved title page, interestingly, follows the original of 1626 rather closely, including a globe with outlines of the continents.
Order No: PIP 91808
Language: Latin
This book has been catalogued with the following subject terms: Antiquarian, History of Science, Renaissance
