The Oxford Francis Bacon, Volume III
A Newton Trust-funded project
Overview
This project examines all the writings composed by the lawyer, natural philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon between c.1603 and 1604. Its fundamental purpose is to edit these works to the highest scholarly and bibliographical standards currently obtaining. Together, these writings will form Volume III of the Oxford Francis Bacon ('OFB'), a new 15-volume edition of Bacon's works. Volume III will be edited by Dr Richard Serjeantson (Trinity College, Cambridge) with Dr Angus Vine (CRASSH, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge).
The Oxford Francis Bacon is a major editorial project, originally conceived in 1986 by Professor Graham Rees and Professor Lisa Jardine, and subsequently supported by the British Academy. Prof. Rees and Prof. Jardine remain the General Editors of the OFB. The volumes will appear under the Clarendon Press imprint of Oxford University Press. Five volumes have so far appeared: Volume IV, The Advancement of Learning, edited by Michael Kiernan (2000); Volume VI, Philosophical Studies, c.1611-c.1619 (1996), ed. Graham Rees; Volume XI, The Instauratio magna Part II: Novum organum (2004), edited by Graham Rees; Volume XIII, The Instauratio magna: Last Writings (2000), edited by Graham Rees; and Volume XV, The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall (1985; reissued 2000), edited by Michael Kiernan.
Nearly a century and a half has passed since the previous collected edition of Bacon's works, the monumental 14-volume Victorian edition of James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath (1857-74). Whilst this edition is many ways admirable, it is marred by its organisation. The edition is divided into Philosophical Works, Literary and Professional Works, and The Letters and the Life. This means that many of Bacon's works – in particular, those early ones which remained in manuscript – have lain buried in the quasi-biographical The Letters and the Life. The strictly chronological organisation of the OFB will address and amend this.
Moreover, the intervening century and a half has witnessed a considerable shift in editorial practice. Textual bibliography has developed as a discipline in its own right, with much of its focus on the early modern period. The OFB seeks to reflect as closely as possible the current theory and practice and so to produce editions that conform to the highest bibliographical standards.
The Edition
Volume III brings together a number of political, philosophical, legal and religious pieces, written between 1601 and 1604. It will contain:
1. A Proclamation Drawn for his Majesty's First Coming in (1603)
2. A Brief Discourse, Touching the Happy Union of the Kingdoms (1603)
3. Sir Francis Bacon his Apology, in Certain Imputations Concerning the Late Earl of Essex (1603/4)
4. Certain Considerations Touching the Better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England (1603/4)
5. A Speech ... Touching Purveyors (1604)
6. An Act for the Better Grounding of a Further Union (1604)
7. A Draught of a Proclamation Touching his Majesties Style (1604)
8. Certain Articles or Considerations Touching the Union of England and Scotland (1604)
9. The Certificate or Return of the Commissioners (1604)
10. Temporis Partus Masculus, sive de interpretatione naturae lib. 3. (n.d.)
11. De interpretatione naturae (c.1603)
12. Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature (n.d.)
13. Cogitationes de natura rerum (c.1604)
14. Cogitationes de scientia humana [so-called by Spedding] (c.1604)
15. Filum labyrinthi, sive Formula inquisitionis (n.d.)
Volume III therefore includes a number of important political writings. Text no. 3 contains Bacon's justification of his part in the trial of the earl of Essex. There are also legal texts, a treatise on the Church of England and a couple of tracts on the proposed Anglo-Scottish union, one of the most important political issues of the first years of James VI and I's reign. In one of these, text no. 2, there is an early attempt by Bacon to draw an analogy between the natural and political realms.
Perhaps of greatest import, however, are the philosophical writings (nos 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15). These represent Bacon's earliest ventures into natural philosophy. They provide an important insight into his reading and also lay some foundations for the ideas that ultimately emerged in the Novum organum (1620). And they are particularly relevant to understanding the genesis of The Advancement of Learning, Bacon's first major philosophical work, which was published in 1605.
All Latin texts will be published with new facing-page translations. The translations in Spedding's edition suffer from the editors' attempts to reproduce the cadences, syntax and language of early modern prose. The new translations will aim for clarity rather than for authenticity of language, seeking to convey faithfully Bacon's sense, meaning and intentions in writing. A detailed introduction will explain the thirteen texts and their history, placing them in the context of both Bacon's writing and early modern intellectual history more generally, as well as discussing their transmission. Volume III will also contain detailed commentaries for each text and a full textual apparatus.
With its interdisciplinary focus, and given that its topic for the year 2006-07 is the idea of evidence, CRASSH proves a most appropriate base for OFB III. We therefore look forward to placing the Bacon project at the heart of CRASSH's activities. We also hope to build on existing connections with early modern historians, historians of science and literary critics, as well as maintaining our links with Bacon scholars. We would welcome comments and correspondence from scholars with an interest in the project.
People
Dr Richard Serjeantson
Richard Serjeantson is the author of a range of studies in early modern history of philosophy and history of science, including work on Francis Bacon, Edward Herbert (Baron Herbert of Cherbury), Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume, as well as on more general themes in the intellectual history of the period. He is the author of 'Natural Knowledge in the New Atlantis', in Francis Bacon's 'New Atlantis', ed. Bronwen Price (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 82-105, and has previously edited Generall Learning: A Seventeenth Century Treatise on the General Scholar, by Meric Casaubon (Cambridge: RTM, 1999).
Tel.: +44 (0)1223 338589
Email: rws1001@cam.ac.uk
Dr Angus Vine
Angus Vine has recently been awarded his doctorate from Cambridge University. His thesis, 'Michael Drayton and Early Modern Antiquarianism', explores the permeation of antiquarian scholarship, method and thought in early modern literary culture. Research interests include sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historiography, antiquarianism, and the history of archaeological exploration. He also has a research interest in textual bibliography. Publications include 'Etymology, Names and the Search for Origins: Deriving the Past in Early Modern England', The Seventeenth Century, 21 (2006), 1-21, and a study of seventeenth-century pyramidography. He has a three-year Research Associateship on OFB III.
Tel.: + 44 (0)1223 760489
Email: aev21@cam.ac.uk
