Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 398

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) Sylva sylvarum, or, A natural history, in ten centuries. Printed by J. R. for William Lee 1670 9th and last ed. [16] 215 [27] 64 [219]-227 [1] 31 [3] 14 [2] pp., [1] plate (port.). 29.3 cm.

The ideas and theories of Bacon and Descartes (see No. 467 ff.) exerted great influence on seventeenth century thought and also had an impact on medicine. Bacon, philosopher, statesman, essayist, and lawyer, is chiefly remembered as a philosopher and writer. He had an active career under Queen Elizabeth and James I, eventually rising to the position of Lord Chancellor. However, his political enemies successfully prosecuted him for bribery and corruption in chancery cases in 1621 and he retired to spend the remainder of his life in writing and scholarly pursuits. Bacon wrote more than thirty philosophical treatises but most of them are incomplete because they were written at odd moments between his official duties. He developed the inductive method of scientific investigation and showed the errors in the scholastic method that had been followed since the Middle Ages. Bacon rejected the deductive logic of Aristotle and believed that science should concern itself with the physical world and that its laws should be established as generalizations from masses of specific data. He believed that heat is motion, identified magnetic force and gravitation, held that light travels with finite velocity, and recognized the idea of conservation of mass. Bacon's ideas were later very influential in creation of the Royal Society. The present treatise is Bacon's last work, edited by William Rawley (1588?-1667), and published posthumously at London in 1627. In this work, "A forest of materials," he summarizes topics for investigation from the works of such writers as Aristotle, Pliny, Porta, Cardano, and Sandys. The book is arranged in ten chapters with each containing one hundred paragraphs. The subjects include medicine, botany, physiology, cooking, music, psychology, agriculture, architecture, and asthetics. Also included is a biography of Bacon written by Rawley, as well as Bacon's New Alantis, an essay in forecasting the future. This copy is wanting the engraved title page and the first blank leaf.

See Related Record(s): 467

Cited references: Cushing B16 (1631 ed.); Osler 683 (1635 ed.); Waller 10727 (6th ed., 1651); Wellcome II, p. 82 (1648 ed.)

Gift of Hans L. Ehrenhaft, M.D