The key for the Opening of the Instauration

BACON, Francis.

The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficience and advancement of Learning, divine and humane. To the King.

London: Printed for Henrie Tomes, and are to be sould at his shop at Graies Inne Gate in Holborne, 1605.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #001661

2 parts bound in one volume, small 4to. (183 x 136mm). [1], 1-45, 1-118 [i.e.,121] ff., 2 woodcut initials, with the final blank but without the errata leaves, as usual (a few small holes with slight loss or touching letters, some marginal repairs including one to corner of title, tear in title repaired, without loss, some light staining, offsetting and misfoliations). Later panelled calf (rubbed, inner hinges with old reinforcement). Provenance: Cathcart of Carbiston (old armorial bookplate partly torn away, with motto "I Hope to Speed"); illegible signature on front free endpaper ("S. ?Somervell, 1771). ----

Gibson 81; Grolier/Horblit 8a, Norman 97 -- FIRST EDITION OF THE "PREPARATIVE OR KEY FOR THE OPENING OF THE INSTAURATION" (Grolier/Horblit). "Bacon's major contribution to the development of science lies in his natural philosophy, his philosophy of scientific method, and in his projects for the practical organization of science. During the last years of his life, he expounded these ideas in a series of works, of which the Twoo bookes was the first. The only work Bacon ever published in English, it was later expanded and latinized into De augmentis scientiarum (1623). In the Twoo bookes, Bacon concerned himself primarily with the classification of philosophy and the sciences and with developing his influential view of the relation between science and theology. While preserving the traditional distinction between knowledge obtained by divine revelation and knowledge acquired through the senses, Bacon saw both theoretical and applied science as religious duties, the first for a greater knowledge of God through his creation, and the second for the practice of charity to one's fellows by improving their condition. This view of science as a religious function maintained its authority throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and was an important factor in the public success of the scientific movement" (Norman Library).

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