The Instauratio Magna: Last Writings

by Bacon, Francis; Rees, Graham

• ISBN13: 9780198184706
• ISBN10: 0198184700
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-24
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

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 & inanimato . Another--the Prodromi sive anticipationes philosphiae 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.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	xiii
List of Tables	xiii
References, Abbreviations, Sigla, and Symbols	xiv
Introduction
The Texts: Chronology and the Instauratio magna	xix
The Texts and the Instauratio magna	xix
Works and Dates	xxv
Summary: Dating and the Instauratio magna	xxviii
The Historia densi and the Abecedarium: Contexts and Composition	xxx
Two Versions of the Historia densi & rari	xxx
The Abecedarium: Its Content and the Structure of Baconian Science	xxxvi
The Texts and their Transmission	xlix
The Bacon Manuscripts of Monsieur de la Hoguette	xlix
The Bacon Manuscripts of Messieurs Dupuy	lix
The Manuscript Copy-Texts: Final Considerations	lxx
The Printed Copy-Texts and William Rawley	lxxiii
The Opuscula and the Press	lxxxiii
This Edition: Principles, Conventions, And A Note On The Translations	xcii
THE TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Historia densi & rari (BN coll. Dupuy version)	1	(34)
Historia densi & rari (Rawley's version)	35	(136)
Abecedarium nouum naturœ	171	(56)
Historia & inquisitio de animato & inanimato	227	(10)
Inquisitio de magnete	237	(6)
Topica inquisitionis de luce et lumine	243	(16)
Prodromi sive anticipationes philosophiœ secundœ	259	(10)
THE COMMENTARIES
Commentary on Historia densi & rari	269	(36)
Commentary on Abecedarium nouum naturœ	305	(22)
Commentary on Historia & inquisitio de animato & inanimato	327	(3)
Commentary on Inquisitio de magnete	330	(2)
Commentary on Topica inquisitionis de luce et lumine	332	(5)
Commentary on Prodromi sive anticipationes philosophiœ secundœ	337	(11)
APPENDICES
I. The Opuscula varia posthuma and Scripta: Bibliographical Description and Technical Notes	338	(6)
(a)The Opuscula: Bibliographical Description and Technical Notes	338	(5)
(b)The Scripta: Bibliographical Description---Some Corrections	343	(1)
II. Signature and Folio References in this Edition with corresponding Page Numbers in SEH	344	(4)
Select Bibliography	348	(9)
General Index	357