897c Bacon, Francis. (1561-1626) 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].

$3,500

Small folio, 6.2 x 4 in. First complete edition of this work in English. π2, ¶4, ¶¶2, ¶¶¶1, A2, B-C4, aa-gg4, hh2, †4, ††2, †1, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Qqq4, Rrr2, complete. An engraved portrait of Bacon by Marshall dated 1640 is bound before the title page. The famous engraved allegorical title by Thomas Cecill is present in this copy. It depicts a metaphorical “ship of apocalyptic exploration” as it passes through the twin pillars before Solomon’s Temple. Some worming in the margins of the last leaves and minimal chipping and loss do not affect the printed word. The binding is full seventeenth century calf that has been rebacked.

“Partitiones Scientiarum is a survey of the sciences, either such as then existed or such as required to be constructed afresh—in fact, it can be seen as 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 represented 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. [Bacon held that] 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.’ 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.’” (EB)

Gibson #142; Wing B-312.

STC 1167; Gibson 141b.