Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Bacon's account of an ideal state reveals both practical methods and unique fantasy; a utopia, described with philosophical and rosicrucian undertones.An excellent story of a sailor/explorer that accidently finds Atlantis.Even though considered incomplete by some, this book has proven to be one of Francis Bacon's best works. Please Note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decifer.This eBook is printable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not What I Thought it Would Be
It's not what I thought it would be. It seemed to be advertised as an esoteric Rosicrucian document, but it's really just Bacon's portrait of an ideal society. It's true that society has Rosicrucian ideals, but it is mostly a politcal book.

Bacon is a rarity:an author that who writes with verve and insight!
This is a fascinating read and my favorite of all Bacon's writings.

A Must Have for the Esoteric Scholar!
I loved this book. It tied so much together for me regarding the mystery schools.If you are an esoteric fanatic like me, then this must be added to your collection.

A Mystical Journey to America
This is Francis Bacon's model for America. Many believe it is the vision of the ancient spiritual adepts. Fascinating reading and most provoking.

Two visions of The Good Life
This is a very short text: 85pp for the two pieces, plus an intro. Each piece gives a brief description of one thinker's ideal world, a Utopia of a sort. This book is strengthened by presenting two such different views, casting them into sharp contrast.

The first, by Bacon, makes much of pomp, ceremony, and fine accoutrements. He starts by describing the wonderful pageant put out for any man whose living descendants exceed thirty in number. He is paraded among and served by his issue, and granted gifts by the benevolent ruler. At this point - only at this point - is a woman of the realm mentioned. His wife, should she have survived such a feat of childbearing, is to be presented as well, in a carriage, tightly enclosed. A featureless box, the best to which a woman might aspire. (Bacon goes out of his way to disparage More's Utopia, in an amusing aside.)

The remainder of the story details the alchemical feats and workshops of the land. They interested Bacon much the way a candy store might interest a child, with no thought as to how they might be provisioned or staffed. Although the many labs are of interest to today's technologist, the country's means of feeding itself and its voracious researchers remains unsaid.

Campanella's "City of the Sun" is a Utopia of very different character. Above all, it focusses its energies on war more than any other city since Sparta. He demands training in arms for men and women both from the earliest age on, though women would enter combat only in final resort. Even the infirm are put to service however they may serve: the lame can watch and guard, the blind can work in some crafts, and so on. Women are expected to participate in industry, too, except in the woodworkers' and armorers' trades. This city is surprisingly free in religion - Jews are tolerated, if not too jewish, as well as Brahmins and others who acknowledge a soul. Hey, in those days, it was radical.

Both authors express ideas that repulse a modern mind. Even Campanella's enlightened treatment of women and religious minorities sounds brutal, until considered in the context of his time. Bacon's blinkered self-involvement would barely be worth a chuckle, until one considers his influence on history.

It's not formal, but it's a way to view history: what is it that each age most wanted itself to be? What views existed, and what views have survived? And how did the writers of each age differ from the man in the street, or more likely the man behind the plow?

//wiredwierd ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on December 1, 1995. The length of the article is 1334 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Francis Bacon: History, Politics and Science, 1561-1626. (book reviews)
Author: D.R. Woolf
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1995
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: v30Issue: n3Page: p506(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on March 22, 1998. The length of the article is 700 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Francis Bacon: History, Politics and Science, 1561-1626.
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1998
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: v51Issue: n1Page: p314(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of one of the most complex and innovative figures of the late-Elizabethan and Jacobean age. In the centuries since his death, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has been perceived and studied as a promoter and prophet of the philosophy of science--natural science--but he saw himself also as a clarifier and promoter of what he called "policy" or the study and improvement of the structure and function of civil states. Mr. Wormald shows that Bacon was concerned equally with the knowledge of the world of nature and with that of policy. The junction between the two enterprises was effected by his work in history; and in the end it was Bacon's conception and practice of history that provided the answer to his efforts to advance policy and natural philosophy. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode.It brings together an extensive collection of Bacon's writing - the major prose in full, together with sixteen other pieces not otherwise available - to give the essence of his work and thinking.Although he had a distinguished career as a lawyer and statesman, Francis Bacon's lifelong goal was to improve and extend human knowledge.In The Advancement of Learning (1605) he made a brilliant critique of the deficiencies of previous systems of thought and proposed improvements to knowledge in every area of human life. He conceived the Essays (1597, much enlarged in 1625) as a study of the formative influences on human behaviour, psychological and social.In The New Atlantis (1626) he outlined his plan for a scientific research institute in the form of a Utopian fable.In addition to these major English works this edition includes 'Of Tribute', an important early work here printed complete for the first time, and a revealing selection of his legal and political writings, together with his poetry. A special feature of the edition is its extensive annotation which identifies Bacon's sources and allusions, and glosses his vocabulary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Best Bacon in Paperback
I concur with Gulley Jimson about the number of unnecessarily annotated words.The space could have been put to better use:a larger topical index would have been welcome, and I sorely missed Bacon's own apophthegms.But I would emphasize the positive point Jimson makes and do so in capital letters:this is the BEST edition of Bacon in paperback.Every page of the collection shows immense editorial care.

Though Vickers may have overdone the annotation, the notes are nonetheless exceedingly helpful.Vickers goes far beyond defining words.He provides concise and very well informed introductions to each individual piece; he points out how Bacon returns to topics, quotations, and metaphors; he identifies sources and allusions; he provides translations of Bacon's frequent use of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French.If he is overly cautious about how well his readers know English (he admits on p. 493 that he may be excessive), I expect that most readers will be grateful that he meticulously assists with words and phrases that have altered or vanished from use:who now will understand "a seeled dove" or "a net of subtility and spinosity"?

Vickers frankly acknowledges his debts to prior scholars, James Spedding and Michael Kiernan in particular.His introduction is concise, packed with information, and reminds modern readers that Bacon's career was a legal one.Vickers' decision to include two of Bacon's legal charges--one for poisoning, one regarding duels--was inspired;these pieces are short and eye-opening.

All in all, the selection pays tribute to Bacon in the best manner, refreshing his works by presenting them whole, with sympathy and respect, in their perilous historical context.

Meet Brian Vickers, insane pedant
I actually recommended this edition in another review over the Penguin collection of Bacon's essays - and I still do: there is more here, and it is cheaper.But this is still one of the most horrible pieces of scholarship I have ever come across.Vickers, the editor, has decided that there is absolutely no distinction between what a reader actually needs to know and what Brian Vickers happens to know.

Before I give some examples, here is the editor defending himself in the Preface: "Many of Bacon's words have totally changed their meaning since he wrote, and not to be aware of their intended sense means that readers would receive at best a vague impression."

Now, let me give an example of his helpful elucidations. I am choosing a passage literally at random.Here is first sentence of "Of Death."

Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak

How many footnotes does that passage seem like it requires?Perhaps one, two at most?Vickers gives us six.He helpfully explains that "go" can also mean "walk" - which certainly opened up the entire passage for me.He cites a scholarly paper that analyzes Bacon's use of the word "death" (I'll go right out and read that one); he explains every possible allusion that the passage might contain, and also points out that "tribute" means "something owing."

I want to quote one more example, to show how seriously pathological this guy is.Here is the first sentence from Of Beauty: "Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set, and surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect."

This perfectly ordinary sentence has - get this - five footnotes!"Best plain set" is identified as "Mounted simply."Vickers points out that "comely," in Bacon's distant 17th century English, actually means "attractive."That's still what it means, you nutcase!Anyway, he goes on like this for the entire book, and produces a truly astonishing 300 pages of notes for about 500 pages of actual text.

By the end of a single page, any reader who is actually reading Bacon for pleasure will be unable to tell when to flip to the back of the book, because every other word has a footnote mark next to it.The result is that the genuinely necessary notes, which could actually have been helpful, are lost along with the useless ones.

I showed my friend the book and after flipping through it his first reaction was: "Wow, this guy really hates Francis Bacon."And he might be right.Maybe Vickers resents the fact that he has devoted his life to this writer, and wants to bury him under an avalanche of minutae; or, more charitably, perhaps he feels that you are just too dumb to understand Francis Bacon without Brian Vickers explaining every single word to you.

Well, if the first is true, he is failed; and if the second, he is wrong: Bacon is as readable as ever.Ignore the footnotes and enjoy.But somewhere out there is an older edition of the Major Works edited by a sane man, where useful background notes are concisely provided - try to find it.And if there isn't, Oxford needs to hand these great pieces of writing over to someone else. ... Read more

Book Description
"This is a masterly book which brings together the two major Bacons--the politician and the philosopher. . . .Impeccably researched, elegantly written, and comprehensive in scope, it is simply the best synthetic study of Bacon now available."--Donald Kelley, Rutgers University

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution, exerted a powerful influence on the intellectual development of the modern world. He also led a remarkably varied and dramatic life as a philosopher, writer, lawyer, courtier, and statesman. Although there has been much recent scholarship on individual aspects of Bacon's career, Perez Zagorin's is the first work in many years to present a comprehensive account of the entire sweep of his thought and its enduring influence. Combining keen scholarly and psychological insights, Zagorin reveals Bacon as a man of genius, deep paradoxes, and pronounced flaws.

The book begins by sketching Bacon's complex personality and troubled public career. Zagorin shows that, despite his idealistic philosophy and rare intellectual gifts, Bacon's political life was marked by continual careerism in his efforts to achieve advancement. He follows Bacon's rise at court and describes his removal from his office as England's highest judge for taking bribes. Zagorin then examines Bacon's philosophy and theory of science in connection with his project for the promotion of scientific progress, which he called "The Great Instauration." He shows how Bacon's critical empiricism and attempt to develop a new method of discovery made a seminal contribution to the growth of science. He demonstrates Bacon's historic importance as a prophetic thinker, who, at the edge of the modern era, predicted that science would be used to prolong life, cure diseases, invent new materials, and create new weapons of destruction. Finally, the book examines Bacon's writings on such subjects as morals, politics, language, rhetoric, law, and history. Zagorin shows that Bacon was one of the great legal theorists of his day, an influential philosopher of language, and a penetrating historian.

Clearly and beautifully written, the book brings out the richness, scope, and greatness of Bacon's work and draws together the many, colorful threads of an extraordinarily brilliant and many-sided mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

misses the boat
Zagorin has not added much to the great mystery of Francis Bacon. He has written a superficial understanding of the life and as a result left out many salient aspectsthat would have provided greater insight into Bacon'smotivations and philosophy. Save your money on this one and buy a copy ofAlfred Dodd's:"Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story"instead. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume belongs to the first new critical edition of the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) to have been produced since the nineteenth century. The edition presents the works in broadly chronological order and according to the best principles of modern textual scholarship. The seven works in the present volume belong to the final completed stages (Parts III-V) of Bacon's hugely ambitious six-part sequence of philosophical works, collectively entitled Instauratio magna (1620-6). All are presented in the original Latin with new facing-page translations. Three of the seven texts (substantial works in two cases, and all sharing a startlingly improbable textual history) are published and translated here for the first time: these are an early version of the Historia densi, the 'lost' Abecedarium, and the Historia de animato and inanimato. Another - the Prodromi sive anticipationes philosophiae secundae - has likewise never been translated before. Together with their commentaries and the introduction they open the way to important new understandings of Bacon's mature philosophical thought. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first extensive one-volume selection of Bacon's English writings in over 90 years. The latest addition to The Oxford Authors series, it includes all the major literary writings on which his reputation rests--the Advancement of Learning, the Essays (in their first and last versions), and the New Atlantis. It also includes sixteen other works not reprinted for over a century, which show Bacon's remarkable all-round abilities in politics, law, theology, and poetry. The selections are annotated in more detail than in any other edition, with particular emphasis on explaining Bacon's language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A different slant
John Russell wrote this "biography" while Francis Bacon was very much alive and tends to emphasize the influences on Bacon's work more from an environmental standpoint than an art historian view.But to jump into Bacon's raucous life "in medias res" is a gift that now can be savoured, like picking the grapes off the vines that in years to come will become a fine vintage wine.A diversion, and only in black and white reproductions, but a rather important comment in retrospect.

A good introduction to Bacon but not a very deep analysis.
Like many biographies, Russell's work concentrates more on the man's times than on the man himself.While we learn a lot about what was going on around Bacon, what he himself experienced is left unexplored.Granted,Bacon made gathering biographical information very difficult, but I wouldhave appreciated more insightful analysis of Bacon's life and itsconnections to his work.Overall it is a very good introduction to Bacon'scareer and total output, and includes a huge number of pictures that makethe book extremely valuable as a reference.Unfortunately though, whilethere are many color reproductions, they are outnumbered by black and whiteones that take away from truly experiencing the power of Bacon's work.

francis bacon
WellireallythinkthatFrancis Baconisagreatartist. Ijust stratid readingabout hisartworkandhehassomanygoosdrawingslike Henrretta Moraes, and hisselftportrait. Theyareverinicedrawings.Soireally thinkhisgreatt. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

My Dad Wrote this book
It took my father about 20 years or so to write this book. When I was four years old I saw him working on it. I did't know what he was doing at thetime but I now know what he was woring on.Francis Bacon this book is foryou! ... Read more

Book Description
Wigner attempts to place Bacon within the perspectives of his time. ... Read more