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The designation Renaissance philosophy' is used by intellectual historians to refer to the thought of the period running in Europe roughly between 1350 and 1650 (the dates shift forward for central and northern Europe and for areas such as Spanish America, India, Japan, and China under European influence). It therefore overlaps both with late medieval philosophy, which in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was influenced by notable figures such as Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, and Marsilius of Padua, and early modern philosophy, which conventionally starts with René Descartes and his publication of the Discourse on Method in 1637. It should be noted that philosophers usually divide the period less finely, jumping from medieval to early modern philosophy, on the assumption that no radical shifts in perspective took place in the centuries immediately before Descartes. Intellectual historians, however, take into considerations factors such as sources, approaches, audience, language, and literary genres in addition to ideas. This article reviews both the changes in context and content of Renaissance philosophy and its remarkable continuities with the past.

1. Continuities[link]

The structure, sources, method, and topics of philosophy in the Renaissance had much in common with those of previous centuries.

Structure of philosophy[link]

Particularly since the recovery of a great portion of Aristotelian writings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it became clear that, in addition to Aristotle’s writings on logic, which had already been known, there were numerous others roughly having to do with natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysics. These areas provided the structure for the philosophy curriculum of the emerging universities. The general assumption was that the most ‘scientific’ branches of philosophy were those that were more theoretical and therefore more widely applicable. During the Renaissance too, many thinkers saw these as the main philosophical areas, with logic providing a training of the mind to approach the other three.

Sources of philosophy[link]

A similar continuity can be seen in the case of sources. Although Aristotle was never an unquestioned authority^[1] (he was more often than not a springboard for discussion, and his opinions were often discussed along those of others, or the teaching of Holy Scripture), medieval lectures in physics consisted of reading Aristotle’s Physics, lessons in moral philosophy consisted of examinations of his Nicomachean Ethics (and often his Politics), and metaphysics was approached through his Metaphysics. The assumption that Aristotle’s works were foundational to an understanding of philosophy did not wane during the Renaissance, which saw a flourishing of new translations, commentaries, and other interpretations of his works, both in Latin and in the vernacular.^[2]

Method of philosophy[link]

In terms of method philosophy was considered during the late Middle Ages as a subject that required robust enquiry on the part of people trained in the subject’s technical vocabulary. Philosophical texts and problems were typically approached through university lectures and ‘questions’. The latter, similar in some ways to modern debates, examined the pros and cons of particular philosophical positions or interpretations. They were one of the cornerstones of the ‘scholastic method’, made students who proposed or responded to questions quick on their feet, and required a deep familiarity with all of the known philosophical tradition, which would often be invoked in support of or against specific arguments. This style of philosophy continued to have a strong following in the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola’s Disputations, for instance, relied directly on this tradition, which was not at all limited to university lecture halls.

Topics in philosophy[link]

Given the remarkable range of Aristotelian philosophy, it was possible to discuss all kinds of issues in medieval and Renaissance philosophy. Aristotle had treated directly problems such as the trajectory of missiles, the habits of animals, how knowledge is acquired, the freedom of the will, how virtue is connected with happiness, the relationship of the lunar and the sublunar worlds. Indirectly he had stimulated discussion on two points that were particularly of concern to Christians: the immortality of the soul and the eternity of the world. All of these continued to be of considerable interest to Renaissance thinkers, but we shall see that in some cases the solutions offered were significantly different because of changing cultural and religious landscapes.^[3]

2. Discontinuities[link]

Having established that many aspects of philosophy were held in common during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it will now be useful to discuss in what areas changes were afoot. I will use the same outline as above, to show that within trends of continuity one can also find surprising differences.

Sources of philosophy[link]

It is therefore useful to reconsider what was mentioned above about philosophical sources. It is absolutely true, of course, that Aristotle was to educated Europeans what Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England. But the Renaissance also saw a significant broadening of source material. Plato, known directly only through two and a half dialogues in the Middle Ages, came to be known through numerous Latin translations in fifteenth century Italy, culminating in the hugely influential translation of his complete works by Marsilio Ficino in Florence in 1484.^[4] Petrarch was not able to read Plato directly, but he greatly admired him. Petrarch was also a great admirer of Roman poets such as Virgil and Horace and of Cicero for Latin prose writing. Not all humanists of course followed his example in all things, but Petrarch contributed to a broadening of his time’s ‘canon’ (pagan poetry had previously been considered frivolous and dangerous), something that happened in philosophy as well. In the sixteenth century anyone who considered himself ‘au fait’ read Plato as well as Aristotle, trying as much as possible (and not always very successfully) to reconcile the two with each other and with Christianity. This is probably the main reason why Donato Acciaiuoli’s commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics (first published in 1478) was so successful: it blended the three traditions beautifully. Other movements from ancient philosophy also re-entered the mainstream. This was never really the case for Epicureanism, which was almost always caricatured and considered with suspicion, but Scepticism and Pyrrhonism did make a comeback thanks to writers like Michel Montaigne, and the movement of Stoicism made an impressive re-appearance in the writings of Justus Lipsius.^[5]' In all of these cases it is impossible to separate the pagan philosophical doctrines from the Christian filter through which they were approached and made legitimate.

Structure of philosophy[link]

While generally the Aristotelian structure of the branches of philosophy stayed in place, interesting developments and tensions were taking place within them. In moral philosophy, for instance, a position consistently held by Thomas Aquinas and his numerous followers was that its three subfields (oethics, oeconomics, opolitics) were related to progressively wider spheres (the individual, the family and the community). Politics, Thomas thought, is more important than ethics because it considers the good of the greater number. This position came under increasing strain in the Renaissance, as various thinkers claimed that Thomas’s classifications were inaccurate, and that ethics were the most important part of morality. ^[6] Other important figures, such as Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), questioned the whole assumption that the theoretical aspects of philosophy were the more important ones. He insisted, for instance, on the value of the practical aspects of ethics. Petrarch’s position, expressed both strongly and amusingly in his invective On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others (De sui ipsius ac multorum ignorantia) is also important for another reason: it represents the conviction that philosophy should let itself be guided by rhetoric, that the purpose of philosophy is therefore not so much to reveal the truth, but to encourage people to pursue the good. This perspective, so typical of Italian humanism, could easily lead to reducing all philosophy to ethics, in a move reminiscent of Plato’s Socrates and of Cicero.

Method of philosophy[link]

If, as mentioned above, the scholastic method continued to flourish, the Italian humanists (i.e., lovers and practitioners of the humanities) challenged its supremacy. As we have seen, they believed that philosophy could be brought under the wing of rhetoric. They also thought that the scholarly discourse of their time needed to return to the elegance and precision of its classical models. They therefore tried dressing philosophy in a more appealing garb than had their predecessors, whose translations and commentaries were in technical Latin and sometimes simply transliterated the Greek. In 1416/1417 Leonardo Bruni, the pre-eminent humanist of his time and chancellor of Florence, re-translated Aristotle’s Ethics into a more flowing, idiomatic and classical Latin. He hoped to communicate the elegance of Aristotle’s Greek while also making the text more accessible to those without a philosophical education. Others, including Nicolò Tignosi in Florence around 1460, and the Frenchman Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples in Paris in the 1490s, tried to please the humanists either by including in their commentaries on Aristotle appealing historical examples or quotations from poetry, or by avoiding the standard scholastic format of questions, or both. The driving conviction was that philosophy should be freed of its technical jargon so that more people would be able to read it. At the same time, all kinds of summaries, paraphrases, and dialogues dealing with philosophical issues were prepared, in order to give their topics a wider dissemination. Humanists also encouraged the study of Aristotle and other writers of antiquity in the original. Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist, even prepared a Greek edition of Aristotle, and eventually those teaching philosophy in the universities had to at least pretend that they knew Greek. Humanists were not, however, great fans of the vernacular. There is only a handful of examples of dialogues or translations of Aristotle’s works into Italian during the fifteenth century. Once it had been determined, however, that Italian was a language with literary merit and that it could carry the weight of philosophical discussion, numerous efforts in this direction started to appear, particularly from the 1540s onward. Alessandro Piccolomini had a programme to translate or paraphrase the entire Aristotelian corpus into the vernacular. Other important figures were Benedetto Varchi, Bernardo Segni and Giambattista Gelli, all of them active in Florence. Efforts got underway to present Plato’s doctrines in the vernacular as well. This rise of vernacular philosophy, which quite predated the Cartesian approach, is a new field of research whose contours are only now beginning to be clarified.^[7]

Topics in philosophy[link]

It is very hard to generalize about the ways in which discussions of philosophical topics shifted in the Renaissance, mainly because to do so requires a detailed map of the period, something we do not yet have. We know that debates about the freedom of the will continued to flare up (for instance, in the famous exchanges between Erasmus and Martin Luther), that Spanish thinkers were increasingly obsessed with the notion of nobility, that duelling was a practice that generated a large literature in the sixteenth century (was it permissible or not?).

Earlier histories gave perhaps undue attention to Pietro Pomponazzi’s pronouncements on the immortality of the soul as a question that could not be resolved philosophically in a way consistent with Christianity, or to Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the dignity of man, as if these were signals of the period’s increasing secularism or even atheism. In fact, the most successful compendium of natural philosophy in the period (Compendium philosophiae naturalis, first published in 1530) was authored by Frans Titelmans, a Franciscan friar from the Low Countries whose work has a very strong religious flavour.^[8] We must not forget that most philosophers of the time were at least nominal, if not devout, Christians, that the sixteenth century saw both the Protestant and the Catholic reformations, and that Renaissance philosophy culminates with the period of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). In other words, religion had a massive importance in the period, and one can hardly study philosophy without remembering this.

This is true among others for the philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), who reinterpreted Plato in the light of his early Greek commentators and also of Christianity. Ficino hoped that a purified philosophy would bring about a religious renewal in his society and therefore transformed distateful aspects of Platonic philosophy (for instance, the homosexual love exalted in the Symposium) into spiritual love (i.e., Platonic love), something later transformed by Pietro Bembo and Baldassar Castiglione in the early sixteenth century as something also applicable to relationships between men and women. Ficino and his followers also had an interest in ‘hidden knowledge’, mainly because of his belief that all of ancient knowledge was interconnected (Moses, for instance, had received his insights from the Greeks, who in turn had received them from others, all according to God’s plan and therefore mutually consistent; Hermeticism is relevant here). Although Ficino’s interest in and practice of astrology was not uncommon in his time, one should not necessarily associate it with philosophy, as the two were usually considered to be quite separate and often in contradiction with each other.

In conclusion, like any other moment in the history of thought Renaissance philosophy cannot be considered to have provided something entirely new nor to have continued for centuries to repeat the conclusions of its predecessors. Historians call this period the ‘Renaissance’ in order to indicate the rebirth that took place of ancient (particularly classical) perspectives, sources, attitudes toward literature and the arts. At the same time, we realize that every reappropriation is constrained and even guided by contemporary concerns and biases. It was no different for the period considered here: the old was mixed with and changed by the new, but while no claims can be made for a revolutionary new starting point in philosophy, in many ways the synthesis of Christianity, Aristotelianism, and Platonism offered by Thomas Aquinas was torn apart in order to make way for a new one, based on more complete and varied sources, often in the original, and certainly attuned to new social and religious realities and a much broader public.

References[link]

Movements of Note[link]

• Aristotelianism
• Hermeticism
• Humanism
• Neoplatonism

See also[link]

• Vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy, c. 1400-c.1650
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Pico Project
• EMPHASIS: Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination Seminar

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Ernst Cassirer

Born	(1874-07-28)July 28, 1874 Breslau, Silesia, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland)
Died	April 13, 1945(1945-04-13) (aged 70) New York, United States of America
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Neo-Kantianism
Influenced by Immanuel Kant, Hermann Cohen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Influenced Leo Strauss

Ernst Cassirer (German pronunciation: [kaˈsiːʁəʁ]; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science, but after Cohen's death he developed a theory of symbolism, and used it to expand phenomenology of knowledge into a more general philosophy of culture. He is one of the leading C20th advocates of philosophical idealism.

Biography[link]

Cassirer was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia, into a Jewish family. He studied literature and philosophy at the University of Berlin. After working for many years as a Privatdozent at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, he was elected in 1919 to the Philosophy chair at the newly-founded University of Hamburg, where he lectured until 1933, supervising amongst others the doctoral thesis of Leo Strauss. Because he was Jewish, he left Germany when the Nazis came to power.

After leaving Germany he taught for a couple of years in Oxford, before becoming a professor at Gothenburg University. When Cassirer considered Sweden too unsafe, he applied for a post at Harvard, but was rejected because thirty years earlier he had rejected a job offer from them. In 1941 he became a visiting professor at Yale University, before moving to Columbia University in New York City, where he lectured from 1943 until his death in 1945.

His son, Heinz Cassirer, was also a Kantian scholar.

History of Science[link]

Cassirer's first major published writings were a history of modern thought from the Renaissance to Kant. In accordance with his Marburg neo-Kantianism he concentrated upon epistemology. His reading of the scientific revolution, in books such as "The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy" (1927), as a “Platonic” application of mathematics to nature, influenced historians such as E. A. Burtt, E. J. Dijksterhuis, and Alexandre Koyré.

Philosophy of Science[link]

In "Substance and Function" (1910), he writes about late nineteenth-century developments in physics and the foundations of mathematics. In "Einstein's Theory of Relativity" (1921) he defended the claim that modern physics supports a neo-Kantian conception of knowledge. He also wrote a book about Quantum Mechanics called "Determinism and Indeterminism in Modern Physics" (1936).

Philosophy of Symbolic Forms[link]

At Hamburg Cassirer discovered the Library of the Cultural Sciences founded by Aby Warburg. Warburg was an art historian who was particularly interested in ritual and myth as sources of archetypal forms of emotional expression. In Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (1923–1929) Cassirer argues that man (as he put it in his more popular 1944 book Essay on Man) is a "symbolic animal". Whereas animals perceive their world by instincts and direct sensory perception, humans create a universe of symbolic meanings. Cassirer is particularly interested in natural language and myth. He argues that science and mathematics developed from natural language, and religion and art from myth.

Heidegger Debate[link]

In 1929 Cassirer took part in an historically significant encounter with Martin Heidegger in Davos. Cassirer argues that while Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" emphasizes human temporality and finitude, he also sought to situate human cognition within a broader conception of humanity. Cassirer challenges Heidegger's relativism by invoking the universal validity of truths discovered by the exact and moral sciences.

Philosophy of the Enlightenment[link]

Cassirer believed that reason's self-realization leads to human liberation. Mazlish (2000) however notes that Cassirer in his "The Philosophy of the Enlightenment" (1932) focuses exclusively on ideas, ignoring the political and social context in which they were produced.

The Logic of the Cultural Sciences[link]

In "The Logic of the Cultural Sciences" (1942) Cassirer argues that objective and universal validity can not only be achieved in the sciences, but also in practical, cultural, moral, and aesthetic phenomenon. Although inter-subjective objective validity in the natural sciences derives from universal laws of nature, Cassirer asserts that an analogous type of inter-subjective objective validity takes place in the cultural sciences.

The Myth of the State[link]

Cassirer's last work The Myth of the State (1946) was published posthumously. It traces the idea of a totalitarian state back to ideas promoted by thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hegel. He claimed that in the C20th politics there was a return back, with the active encouragement of philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, to the irrationality of myth, and in particular to a belief that there is such a thing as destiny.

Partial bibliography[link]

• Substance and Function (1910) & Einstein's Theory of Relativity (1921), English translation 1923 (at archive.org)
• Kant's Life and Thought (1918), English translation 1981
• Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (1923–29), English translation 1953–1957
• Language and Myth (1925), English translation (1946) by Susanne K. Langer
• The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (1927), English translation (1963) by Mario Domandi
• Philosophy of the Enlightenment (1932), English translation 1951
• The Logic of the Cultural Sciences (1942), English translation 2000 by S.G. Lofts (previously translated in 1961 as The Logic of the Humanities)
• An Essay on Man (written and published in English) (1944)
• The Myth of the State (written and published in English) (posthumous) (1946)
• The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, Science, and History since Hegel (1950) online edition
• Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer, 1935-1945 ed. by Donald Phillip Verene (1981)

See also[link]

• Aby Warburg

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Barash, Jeffrey Andrew. The Symbolic Construction of Reality: The Legacy of Ernst Cassirer (2008) excerpt and text search
• Friedman, Michael. A Parting of the Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger (2000) excerpt and text search
• Gordon, Peter Eli. Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos (2010)
• Krois, John Michael. Cassirer: Symbolic Forms and History (1987)
• Schilpp, Paul Arthur (ed.). The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer (1949)
• Schultz, William. Cassirer & Langer on Myth (2nd ed. 2000) excerpt and text search
• Skidelsky, Edward. Ernst Cassirer: The Last Philosopher of Culture (Princeton University Press, 2008) 288 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-13134-4. excerpt and text search

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ernst Cassirer

• Ernst Cassirer entry by Michael Friedman in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• History of the Cassirer family
• Centre for Intercultural Studies
• Information Philosopher on Ernst Cassirer on Free Will

Robert F. Pope, Jr. (b. March 11, 1946, Petaluma, California) is an American writer.

His father, Robert Pope, Sr., a United States Army officer, was stationed in Asmara, Eritrea, East Africa when his son was born. His wife and children joined him when Robert, Jr. was six months old. From then on they moved at least every three years, living in France, Germany and Washington, D.C.

Robert Pope, Jr. attended the University of Maryland in College Park for two years before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in 1968. He taught secondary school in Gonzales, California before returning to school to earn a standard secondary credential from California State University at Northdridge.

Following this, he taught high school English for two years in Porterville, California before returning to graduate school at California State University at San Diego, where he received his MA in English and taught courses in Freshman Composition and Creative Writing. He attended and graduated from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop in fiction, where he taught literature courses.

By this time he had published short stories in various literary magazines,^[1] including Denver Quarterly, Chicago Review, Iowa Review,'^[2]' as well as a handmade chapbook of stories called Imagine a Moment, printed by Leigh McClellen and The Meadow Press.

He wrote and waited tables at The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City for a year before taking a position as a professor at the University of Akron, which is now part of the NEOMFA program. Pope has taught literature and writing courses for both graduate and undergraduate students. During the time he has worked there, he has published fifty stories and essays, as well as a novel, Jack's Universe^[3] and a collection of stories, Private Acts.^[4]

References[link]

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Francis Bacon

Portrait of Francis Bacon, by John Vanderbank (ca. 1731), after a portrait by an unknown artist (circa 1618).
Born	(1561-01-22)22 January 1561 Strand, London, England
Died	9 April 1626(1626-04-09) (aged 65) Highgate, London, England
Era	English Renaissance, The Scientific Revolution
Region	Western philosophy
School	Renaissance Philosophy, Empiricism
Influenced by Presocratics (Democritus, Empedocles, Parmenides), Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Niccolò Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, Vanoccio Biringuccio, Bernard Palissy, Bernardino Telesio, William Gilbert, Roger Bacon
Influenced Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Encyclopédistes, Basil Montagu, Thomas Jefferson
Signature

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban(s),^[1] KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although his political career ended in disgrace, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

Bacon has been called the creator of empiricism.^[2] His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today.

Bacon was knighted in 1603, and created both the Baron Verulam in 1618, and the Viscount St Alban in 1621;^[3] as he died without heirs both peerages became extinct upon his death. He famously died by contracting pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

The 18-year old Francis Bacon. Inscription around head reads: "If one could but paint his mind". National Portrait Gallery, London

Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne (Cooke) Bacon, the daughter of noted humanist Anthony Cooke. His mother's sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, making Burghley Francis Bacon's uncle. Biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health (which plagued him throughout his life), receiving tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a strong leaning towards Puritanism. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, on 5 April 1573 at the age of twelve,^[4] living for three years there together with his older brother Anthony Bacon under the personal tutelage of Dr John Whitgift, future Archbishop of Canterbury. Bacon's education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum. He was also educated at the University of Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to calling him "the young Lord Keeper".^[5]

His studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as then practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his loathing of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed to him barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives.

The Italianate York Water Gate – the entry to York House, built about 1626 after Bacon's death

On 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris, while Anthony continued his studies at home. The state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain. During his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley, and Leicester, as well as for the queen.

The sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt. To support himself, he took up his residence in law at Gray's Inn in 1579.

Parliamentarian[link]

Bacon's threefold goals were to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church. He sought to further these ends by seeking a prestigious post. In 1580, through his uncle, Lord Burghley, he applied for a post at court, which might enable him to pursue a life of learning. His application failed. For two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn, until he was admitted as an outer barrister in 1582.

Francis Bacon's statue at Gray's Inn Hall

His parliamentary career began when he was elected MP for Bossiney, Devon in a 1581 by-election. In 1584, he took his seat in parliament for Melcombe in Dorset, and subsequently for Taunton (1586). At this time, he began to write on the condition of parties in the church, as well as on the topic of philosophical reform in the lost tract, Temporis Partus Maximus. Yet, he failed to gain a position he thought would lead him to success. He showed signs of sympathy to Puritanism, attending the sermons of the Puritan chaplain of Gray's Inn and accompanying his mother to the Temple chapel to hear Walter Travers. This led to the publication of his earliest surviving tract, which criticised the English church's suppression of the Puritan clergy. In the Parliament of 1586, he openly urged execution for Mary, Queen of Scots.

About this time, he again approached his powerful uncle for help; this move was followed by his rapid progress at the bar. He became Bencher in 1586, and he was elected a reader in 1587, delivering his first set of lectures in Lent the following year. In 1589, he received the valuable appointment of reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, although he did not formally take office until 1608 – a post which was worth £16,000 a year.^[6]

In 1588 he was returned as MP for Liverpool and then for Middlesex in 1593. He later sat three times for Ipswich (1597, 1601, 1604) and once for Cambridge University (1614).^[7]

He became known as a liberal-minded reformer, eager to amend and simplify the law. He opposed feudal privileges and dictatorial powers, though a friend of the crown. He was against religious persecution. He struck at the House of Lords in their usurpation of the Money Bills. He advocated for the union of England and Scotland, thus being one of the influences behind the consolidation of the United Kingdom; and also advocated, later on, for the integration of Ireland into the Union. These, he believed, would bring greater peace and strength to these countries.^[8][9]

Attorney General[link]

Memorial to Francis Bacon, in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge

Bacon soon became acquainted with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favourite. By 1591, he acted as the earl's confidential adviser.

In 1592, he was commissioned to write a tract in response to the Jesuit Robert Parson's anti-government polemic, which he titled Certain observations made upon a libel, identifying England with the ideals of democratic Athens against the belligerence of Spain.

Bacon took his third parliamentary seat for Middlesex when in February 1593 Elizabeth summoned Parliament to investigate a Roman Catholic plot against her. Bacon's opposition to a bill that would levy triple subsidies in half the usual time offended many people.^{[clarification needed]} Opponents accused him of seeking popularity. For a time, the royal court excluded him.

When the Attorney-Generalship fell vacant in 1594, Lord Essex's influence was not enough to secure Bacon that office. Likewise, Bacon failed to secure the lesser office of Solicitor-General in 1595.^[6] To console him for these disappointments, Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he sold subsequently for £1,800.

In 1596, Bacon became Queen's Counsel, but missed the appointment of Master of the Rolls. During the next few years, his financial situation remained bad. His friends could find no public office for him, and a scheme for retrieving his position by a marriage with the wealthy and young widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton failed after she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to a wealthier man. In 1598 Bacon was arrested for debt. Afterwards however, his standing in the Queen's eyes improved. Gradually, Bacon earned the standing of one of the learned counsels, though he had no commission or warrant and received no salary. His relationship with the Queen further improved when he severed ties with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, a shrewd move because Essex was executed for treason in 1601.

With others, Bacon was appointed to investigate the charges against Essex, his former friend and benefactor. A number of Essex's followers confessed that Essex had planned a rebellion against the Queen.^[10] Bacon was subsequently a part of the legal team headed by Attorney General Sir Edward Coke at Essex's treason trial.^[10] After the execution, the Queen ordered Bacon to write the official government account of the trial, which was later published as A DECLARATION of the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of Essex and his Complices, against her Majestie and her Kingdoms ... after Bacon's first draft was heavily edited by the Queen and her ministers.^[11]

According to his personal secretary and chaplain, William Rawley, as a judge Bacon was always tender-hearted, "looking upon the examples with the eye of severity, but upon the person with the eye of pity and compassion". And also that "he was free from malice", "no revenger of injuries", and "no defamer of any man".^[12]

James I comes to the throne[link]

The succession of James I brought Bacon into greater favour. He was knighted in 1603. In another shrewd move, Bacon wrote his Apologie in defence of his proceedings in the case of Essex, as Essex had favoured James to succeed to the throne.

The following year, during the course of the uneventful first parliament session, Bacon married Alice Barnham. In June 1607 he was at last rewarded with the office of Solicitor-General.^[6] The following year, he began working as the Clerkship of the Star Chamber. In spite of a generous income, old debts still couldn't be paid. He sought further promotion and wealth by supporting King James and his arbitrary policies.

In 1610 the fourth session of James' first parliament met. Despite Bacon's advice to him, James and the Commons found themselves at odds over royal prerogatives and the king's embarrassing extravagance. The House was finally dissolved in February 1611. Throughout this period Bacon managed to stay in the favour of the king while retaining the confidence of the Commons.

In 1613, Bacon was finally appointed attorney general, after advising the king to shuffle judicial appointments. As attorney general, Bacon prosecuted Somerset in 1616. The so-called "Prince's Parliament" of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence in the seat for Cambridge and to the various royal plans which Bacon had supported. Although he was allowed to stay, parliament passed a law that forbade the attorney-general to sit in parliament. His influence over the king had evidently inspired resentment or apprehension in many of his peers. Bacon, however, continued to receive the King's favour, which led to his appointment in March 1617 as the temporary Regent of England (for a period of a month), and in 1618 as Lord Chancellor. On 12 July 1618 the king created Bacon Baron Verulam, of Verulam, in the Peerage of England. As a new peer he then styled himself as "Francis, Lord Verulam".^[6]

Bacon continued to use his influence with the king to mediate between the throne and Parliament and in this capacity he was further elevated in the same peerage, as Viscount St Alban, on 27 January 1621.^[13]

Lord Chancellor and public disgrace[link]

Francis Bacon and the members of the Parliament in the day of his political fall

Bacon's public career ended in disgrace in 1621. After he fell into debt, a Parliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him with twenty-three separate counts of corruption. To the lords, who sent a committee to enquire whether a confession was really his, he replied, "My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine of £40,000 and committed to the Tower of London during the king's pleasure; the imprisonment lasted only a few days and the fine was remitted by the king.^[14] More seriously, parliament declared Bacon incapable of holding future office or sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped undergoing degradation, which would have stripped him of his titles of nobility. Subsequently the disgraced viscount devoted himself to study and writing.

There seems little doubt that Bacon had accepted gifts from litigants, but this was an accepted custom of the time and not necessarily evidence of deeply corrupt behaviour.^[15] While acknowledging that his conduct had been lax, he countered that he had never allowed gifts to influence his judgement and, indeed, he had on occasion given a verdict against those who had paid him. The true reason for his acknowledgement of guilt is the subject of debate, but it may have been prompted by his poor state of health, or by a view that through his fame and the greatness of his office he would be spared harsh punishment. He may even have been blackmailed, with a threat to charge him with sodomy, into confession.^[15][16]

The British jurist Basil Montagu wrote in Bacon's defense, concerning the episode of his public disgrace:

Bacon has been accused of servility, of dissimulation, of various base motives, and their filthy brood of base actions, all unworthy of his high birth, and incompatible with his great wisdom, and the estimation in which he was held by the noblest spirits of the age. It is true that there were men in his own time, and will be men in all times, who are better pleased to count spots in the sun than to rejoice in its glorious brightness. Such men have openly libelled him, like Dewes and Weldon, whose falsehoods were detected as soon as uttered, or have fastened upon certain ceremonious compliments and dedications, the fashion of his day, as a sample of his servility, passing over his noble letters to the Queen, his lofty contempt for the Lord Keeper Puckering, his open dealing with Sir Robert Cecil, and with others, who, powerful when he was nothing, might have blighted his opening fortunes for ever, forgetting his advocacy of the rights of the people in the face of the court, and the true and honest counsels, always given by him, in times of great difficulty, both to Elizabeth and her successor. When was a "base sycophant" loved and honoured by piety such as that of Herbert, Tennison, and Rawley, by noble spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson, and Selden, or followed to the grave, and beyond it, with devoted affection such as that of Sir Thomas Meautys.
^[17]

Personal life[link]

Francis Bacon

When he was 36, Bacon engaged in the courtship of Elizabeth Hatton, a young widow of 20. Reportedly, she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to a wealthier man—Edward Coke. Years later, Bacon still wrote of his regret that the marriage to Hatton had not taken place.^[18]

At the age of forty-five, Bacon married Alice Barnham, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a well-connected London alderman and MP. Bacon wrote two sonnets proclaiming his love for Alice. The first was written during his courtship and the second on his wedding day, 10 May 1606. When Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor, "by special Warrant of the King", Lady Bacon was given precedence over all other Court ladies.

Engraving of Alice Barnham

Reports of increasing friction in his marriage to Alice appeared, with speculation that some of this may have been due to financial resources not being as readily available to her as she was accustomed to having in the past. Alice was reportedly interested in fame and fortune, and when reserves of money were no longer available, there were complaints about where all the money was going. Alice Chambers Bunten wrote in her Life of Alice Barnham^[19] that, upon their descent into debt, she actually went on trips to ask for financial favours and assistance from their circle of friends. Bacon disinherited her upon discovering her secret romantic relationship with John Underhill. He rewrote his will, which had previously been very generous to her (leaving her lands, goods, and income), revoking it all.

Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain, William Rawley, however, wrote in his biography of Bacon that his inter-marriage with Alice Barnham was one of "much conjugal love and respect", mentioning a robe of honour that he gave to her, and which "she wore unto her dying day, being twenty years and more after his death".^[12]

The well-connected antiquary John Aubrey noted in his Brief Lives concerning Bacon, "He was a Pederast. His Ganimeds and Favourites tooke Bribes",^[20] biographers continue to debate about Bacon's sexual inclinations and the precise nature of his personal relationships.^[21] Several authors^[22][23] believe that despite his marriage Bacon was primarily attracted to the same sex. Professor Forker^[24] for example has explored the "historically documentable sexual preferences" of both King James and Bacon – and concluded they were all oriented to "masculine love", a contemporary term that "seems to have been used exclusively to refer to the sexual preference of men for members of their own gender."^[25] The Jacobean antiquarian, Sir Simonds D'Ewes implied there had been a question of bringing him to trial for buggery.^[26]

This conclusion has been disputed by others,^{[10][27][28][29][30]} who point to lack of consistent evidence, and consider the sources to be more open to interpretation. In his "New Atlantis", Bacon describes his utopian island as being "the chastest nation under heaven", in which there was no prostitution or adultery, and further saying that "as for masculine love, they have no touch of it".^[31]

Death[link]

Monument to Bacon at his burial place, St Michael's Church in St Albans

On 9 April 1626 Bacon died of pneumonia while at Arundel mansion at Highgate outside London. An influential account of the circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey's Brief Lives. Aubrey has been criticised for his evident credulousness in this and other works; on the other hand, he knew Thomas Hobbes, Bacon's fellow-philosopher and friend. Aubrey's vivid account, which portrays Bacon as a martyr to experimental scientific method, had him journeying to Highgate through the snow with the King's physician when he is suddenly inspired by the possibility of using the snow to preserve meat: "They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a fowl, and made the woman exenterate it".

After stuffing the fowl with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two contiguous, possibly coincidental events as related and causative of his death: "The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging ... but went to the Earle of Arundel's house at Highgate, where they put him into ... a damp bed that had not been layn-in ... which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told me, he died of Suffocation."

Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the philosopher wrote his last letter to his absent host and friend Lord Arundel:

My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of Mount Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone, or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to your Lordship's House, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness that I cannot steadily hold a pen."^[32]

Another account appears in a biography by William Rawley, Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain:

He died on the ninth day of April in the year 1626, in the early morning of the day then celebrated for our Saviour's resurrection, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate, near London, to which place he casually repaired about a week before; God so ordaining that he should die there of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied with a great cold, whereby the defluxion of rheum fell so plentifully upon his breast, that he died by suffocation.^[33]

At the news of his death, over thirty great minds collected together their eulogies of him, which was then later published in Latin.^[34]

He left personal assets of about £7,000 and lands that realised £6,000 when sold.^[35] His debts amounted to more than £23,000, equivalent to more than £3m at current value.^[35][36]

Philosophy and Works[link]

Francis Bacon's Philosophy is displayed in the vast and varied writings he left, which might be divided in three great branches:

• Scientifical works - in which his ideas for an universal reform of knowledge, scientific method and the improvement of mankind's state are presented.

• Religious/literary works - in which he presents his moral philosophy and theological meditations.

• Juridical works - in which his reforms in Law are proposed.

(See main article)

Influence[link]

"Frontspiece to 'The History of Royal-Society of London', picturing Bacon (in the right) among the founding influences of the Society. National Portrait Gallery, London

Science[link]

Bacon's ideas were influential in the 1630s and 1650s among scholars, in particular Sir Thomas Browne, who in his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646–1672) frequently adheres to a Baconian approach to his scientific enquiries. During the Restoration, Bacon was commonly invoked as a guiding spirit of the Royal Society founded under Charles II in 1660.^[37][38] In the nineteenth century his emphasis on induction was revived and developed by William Whewell, among others. He has been reputed as the "Father of Experimental Science".^[39]

Bacon is also considered to be the philosophical influence behind the dawning of the Industrial age. In his works, Bacon called for a "spring of a progeny of inventions, which shall overcome, to some extent, and subdue our needs and miseries",^[40] always proposing that all scientific work should be done for charitable purposes, as matter of alleviating mankind's misery, and that therefore science should be practical and have as purpose the inventing of useful things for the improvement of mankind's estate. This changed the course of science in history, from a merely contemplative state, as it was found in ancient and medieval ages, to a practical, inventive state - that would have eventually led to the inventions that made possible the Industrial Revolutions of the following centuries.^[41]

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history. In the two centuries following 1800, the world's average per capita income increased over tenfold, while the world's population increased over sixfold.^[42] In the words of Nobel Prize winner Robert E. Lucas, Jr., "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this economic behavior has happened before”.^[43]

He also wrote a long treatise on Medicine, History of Life and Death,^[44] with natural and experimental observations for the prolongation of life.

For one of his biographers, Hepworth Dixon, Bacon's influence in modern world is so great that every man who rides in a train, sends a telegram, follows a steam plough, sits in an easy chair, crosses the channel or the Atlantic, eats a good dinner, enjoys a beautiful garden, or undergoes a painless surgical operation, owes him something.^[45]

North America[link]

Some authors^[who?] believe that Bacon's vision for a Utopian New World in North America was laid out in his novel New Atlantis, which depicts a mythical island, Bensalem, located somewhere between Peru and Japan. In this work he depicted a land where there would be freedom of religion - showing a Jew treated fairly and equally in an island of Christians, but it has been debated whether this work had influenced others reforms, such as greater rights for women, the abolition of slavery, elimination of debtors' prisons, separation of church and state, and freedom of political expression,^{[46][47][48][49]} although there is no hint of these reforms in The New Atlantis itself. His propositions of legal reform (which were not established in his life time), though, are considered to have been one of the influences behind the Napoleonic Code,^[50] and therefore could show some resemblance with or influence in the drafting of others liberal constitutions that came in the centuries after Bacon's lifetime, such as the American.

A Newfoundland stamp which reads "Lord Bacon - the guiding spirit in colonization scheme

Francis Bacon played a leading role in creating the British colonies, especially in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Newfoundland in northeastern Canada. His government report on “The Virginia Colony” was submitted in 1609. In 1610 Bacon and his associates received a charter from the king to form the Tresurer and the Companye of Adventurers and planter of the Cittye of London and Bristoll for the Collonye or plantacon in Newfoundland^[51] and sent John Guy to found a colony there. In 1910 Newfoundland issued a postage stamp to commemorate Bacon's role in establishing the province. The stamp describes Bacon as, "the guiding spirit in Colonization Schemes in 1610."^[18] Moreover, some scholars believe he was largely responsible for the drafting, in 1609 and 1612, of two charters of government for the Virginia Colony.^[52] Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote: "Bacon, Locke and Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences".^[53] Historian and biographer William Hepworth Dixon considered that Bacon's name could be included in the list of Founders of the United States of America.^[54]

It is also believed by the Rosicrucian organization AMORC, that Bacon would have influenced a settlement of mystics in North America, stating that his work "The New Atlantis" inspired a colony of Rosicrucians led by Johannes Kelpius, to journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a chartered vessel called Sarah Mariah, and move on to Pennsylvania in late XVII Century. According to their claims, these rosicrucian communities "made valuable contributions to the newly emerging American culture in the fields of printing, philosophy, the sciences and arts".^[55]

Johannes Kelpius and his fellows moved to Wissahickon Creek, in Pennsylvania, and became known as "Hermits of Mystics of the Wissahickon"^[56] or simply "Monks of the Wissahickon".^[57][58]

Law[link]

Statue of Francis Bacon in the Library of Congress of the United States of America

Although much of his legal reform proposals were not established in his life time, his legal legacy was considered by the magazine New Scientist, in a publication of 1961, as having influenced the drafting of the Code Napoleon, and the law reforms introduced by Sir Robert Peel.^[59]

The historian William Hepworth Dixon referred to the Code Napoleon as "the sole embodiment of Bacon's thought", saying that Bacon's legal work "has had more success abroad than it has found at home", and that in France "it has blossomed and come into fruit".^[50]

The scholar Harvey Wheeler attributed to Bacon, in his work "Francis Bacon’s Verulamium - the Common Law Template of The Modern in English Science and Culture", the creation of these distinguishing features of the modern common law system:

• Using cases as repositories of evidence about the "unwritten law”;
• Determining the relevance of precedents by exclusionary principles of evidence and logic;
• Treating opposing legal briefs as adversarial hypotheses about the application of the "unwritten law" to a new set of facts.

As late as the eighteenth-century some juries still declared the law rather than the fact, but already before the end of the seventeenth century Sir Matthew Hale explained modern common law adjudication procedure and acknowledged Bacon as the inventor of the process of discovering unwritten laws from the evidences of their applications. The method combined empiricism and inductivism in a new way that was to imprint its signature on many of the distinctive features of modern English society.^[60]

In brief, Bacon is considered by some jurists^[who?] to be the father of modern Jurisprudence.^[61]

Political scientist James McClellan, from the University of Virginia, considered Bacon to have had "a great following" in the American colonies.^[62]

Historical debates[link]

Bacon and Shakespeare[link]

The Baconian theory of Shakespearean authorship, first proposed in the mid-19th century, contends that Sir Francis Bacon wrote the plays conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare, in opposition to the scholarly consensus that William Shakespeare of Stratford was the author.

Occult theories[link]

Francis Bacon often gathered with the men at Gray's Inn to discuss politics and philosophy, and to try out various theatrical scenes that he admitted writing.^[63] Bacon's alleged connection to the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons has been widely discussed by authors and scholars in many books.^[64] However others, including Daphne du Maurier (in her biography of Bacon), have argued there is no substantive evidence to support claims of involvement with the Rosicrucians.^[65] Frances Yates^[66] does not make the claim that Bacon was a Rosicrucian, but presents evidence that he was nevertheless involved in some of the more closed intellectual movements of his day. She argues that Bacon's movement for the advancement of learning was closely connected with the German Rosicrucian movement, while Bacon's New Atlantis portrays a land ruled by Rosicrucians. He apparently saw his own movement for the advancement of learning to be in conformity with Rosicrucian ideals.^[67]

An old volume of Francis Bacon and a rose

The link between Bacon's work and the Rosicrucians ideals which Yates allegedly found, was the conformity of the purposes expressed by the Rosicrucian Manifestos and Bacon's plan of a "Great Instauration",^[67] for the two were calling for a reformation of both "divine and human understanding",^[68][69] as well as both had in view the purpose of mankind's return to the "state before the Fall".^[70][71]
Another major link is said to be the resemblance between Bacon's "New Atlantis" and the German Rosicrucian Johann Valentin Andreae's "Description of the Republic of Christianopolis (1619)".^[72] In his book, Andreae shows an utopic island in which Christian theosophy and applied science ruled, and in which the spiritual fulfillment and intellectual activity constituted the primary goals of each individual, the scientific pursuits being the highest intellectual calling – linked to the achievement of spiritual perfection. Andreae's island also depicts a great advancement in technology, with many industries separated in different zones which supplied the population's needs – which shows great resemblance to Bacon's scientific methods and purposes.^[41][73]

The Rosicrucian organization AMORC claims that Francis Bacon was the "Imperator" (leader) of the Rosicrucian Order in both England and the European continent, and would have directed it at that time of the Renaissance.^[55]

Francis Bacon's influence can also be seen on a variety of religious and spiritual authors, and on groups that have utilised his writings in their own belief systems.^{[74][75][76][77][78]}

See also[link]

• The works of Francis Bacon
• Baconian method
• Scientific method
• Novum Organum Scientiarum
• Pseudodoxia Epidemica
• Francis Bacon School
• Cestui que (Defense and Comment on Chudleigh's Case)
• New Atlantis
• Essays (Francis Bacon)
• Bacon's cipher
• Code Napoleon
• Occult theories about Francis Bacon

Bibliography[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Francis Bacon

A complete chronological Bibliography of Francis Bacon. (Many of Bacon's writings were only published after his death in 1626).

• Notes on the State of Christendom (1582)
• Letter of Advice to the Queen (1585-6)
• An Advertisement Touching the Controversies of the Church of England (1586-9)
• Dumb show in the Gray’s Inn Christmas Revels (1587-8)
• Misfortunes of Arthur (1588)
• A Conference of Pleasure : In Praise of Knowledge, In Praise of Fortitude, In Praise of Love, In Praise of Truth. (1592)
• Certain Observations made upon a Libel (1592)
• Temporis Partus Maximus (‘The Greatest Birth of Time’) (1593)
• A True Report of the Detestable Treason intended by Dr Roderigo Lopez (1594)
• The Device of the Indian Prince : Squire, Hermit, Soldier, Statesman. (1594)
• Gray’s Inn Christmas/New Year Revels: The High and Mighty Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole ( 1594-5) (See Gesta Grayorum)
• The Honourable Order of the Knights of the Helmet (1595)(See Gesta Grayorum)
• The Sussex Speech (1595)
• The Philautia Device (1595)
• Maxims of the Law (1596)
• Essays (1st ed.) (1597)
• The Colours of Good and Evil (1597)
• Meditationes Sacrae (1597)
• Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and Committed by the late Earl of Essex (1601)
• Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature (1603)
• A Brief Discourse touching the Happy Union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland (1603)
• Cogitations de Natura Rerum (‘Thoughts on the Nature of Things’) (1604)
• Apologie concerning the late Earl of Essex (1604)
• Certain Considerations touching the better pacification and Edification of the Church of England (1604)
• The Advancement and Proficience of Learning Divine and Human (1605)
• Temporis Masculus Partus (‘The Masculine Birth of Time’) (1605)
• Filium Labyrinthi sive Formula Inquisitionis (1606)
• In Felicem Memoriam Elizabethae (‘In Happy Memory of Queen Elizabeth’) (1606)
• Cogitata et Visa de Interpetatione Naturae (‘Thoughts and Conclusions on the Interpretation of Nature’) (1607)
• Redargiutio Philosophiarum (‘The Refutation of Philosophies’) (1608)
• The Plantation of Ireland (1608-9)
• De Sapientia Veterum (‘Wisdom of the Ancients’) (1609)
• Descriptio Globi Intellectualis (‘A Description of the Intellectual Globe’) (1612)
• Thema Coeli (‘Theory of the Heavens’) (1612)
• Essays (2nd edition –38 essays) (1612)
• Marriage of the River Thames to the Rhine (masque performed by Gray's Inn and Inner Temple lawyers on the river and in Westminster Hall in celebration of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Frederick, Elector Palatine) (1613)
• Charge…touching Duels (1614)
• The Masque of Flowers (performed by Gray's Inn before the King at Whitehall to honour the marriage of the Earl of Somerset to Frances Howard, Countess of Essex) (1614)
• Instauratio Magna ('Great Instauration') (1620)
• Novum Organum Scientiarum (‘New Method’) (1620)
• Historia Naturalis (‘Natural History’) (1622)
• Introduction to six Natural Histories (1622)
• Historia Ventorum (‘History of Winds’) (1622)
• History of the Reign of King Henry VII (1622)
• Abcedarium Naturae (1622)
• De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623)
• Historia Vitae et Mortis (‘History of Life and Death’) (1623)
• Historia Densi et Rari (‘History of Density and Rarity’) (1623)
• Historia Gravis et Levis (‘History of Gravity and Levity’) (1623)
• History of the Sympathy and Antipathy of Things (1623)
• History of Sulphur, Salt and Mercury (1623)
• A Discourse of a War with Spain (1623)
• An Advertisement touching an Holy War (1623)
• A Digest of the Laws of England (1623)
• Cogitationes de Natura Rerum (‘Thoughts on the Nature of Things’) (1624)
• De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris (‘Of the Ebb and Flow of the Sea’) (1624)
• Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral (3rd/final edition – 58 essays) (1625)
• Apothegms New and Old (1625)
• Translation of Certain Psalms into English Verse (1625)
• Revision of De Sapientia Veterum (‘Wisdom of the Ancients’) (1625)
• Inquisitio de Magnete (‘Enquiries into Magnetism’) (1625)
• Topica Inquisitionis de Luce et Lumine (‘Topical Inquisitions into Light and Luminosity’) (1625)

All the following works were published only after his death (1626):

• New Atlantis (1627)
• Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History (1627)
• Certain Miscellany Works (1629)
• Use of the Law (1629)
• Elements of the Common Laws (1629)
• Operum Moralium et Civilium (1638)
• Dialogum de Bello Sacro (1638)
• Cases of Treason (1641)
• Confession of Faith (1641)
• Speech concerning Naturalisation (1641)
• Office of Constables (1641)
• Discourse concerning Church Affairs (1641)
• An Essay of a King (1642)
• The Learned Reading of Sir Francis Bacon (to Gray’s Inn) (1642)
• Ordinances (1642)
• Relation of the Poisoning of Overbury. (1651)
• Scripta in Naturali et Universali Philosophia (1653)
• Scala Intellectus sive Filum Labyrinthi (1653)
• Prodromi sive Anticipationes Philosophiae Secundae (1653)
• Cogitationes de Natura Rerum (1653)
• De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris (1653)
• The Mirror of State and Eloquence (1656)
• Opuscula Varia Posthuma, Philosophica, Civilia et Theologia (1658)
• Letter of Advice to the Duke of Buckingham (1661)
• Charge given for the Verge (1662)
• Baconiana, Or Certain Genuine Remains Of Sr. Francis Bacon (1679)
• Abcedarium Naturae, or a Metaphysical piece (1679)
• Letters and Remains (1734)
• Promus (1861)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Material originally from the 1911 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
• Material originally from the 1912 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bacon, Francis". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Cousin, John William (1910). " Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam, And Viscount St. Alban". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 
• John Farrell, "The Science of Suspicion." Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau (Cornell UP, 2006), chapter six.
• "Our Western Heritage" Roselle / Young: Chapter five "The 'Scientific Revolution' and the 'Intellectual Revolution'".
• Mary Heese, "Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Science," Essential Articles for the Study of Francis Bacon, ed. Brian Vickers (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1968), pp. 114–139.
• Benjamin Farrington, The Philosophy of Francis Bacon (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964). Contains English translations of
  • Temporis Partus Masculus
  • Cogitata et Visa
  • Redargutio Philosphiarum
• James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, Douglas Denon Heath, The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St Albans and Lord High Chancellor of England 15 vols (London, 1857–74). (Index at UPenn of Archive.org holdings)
• Paolo Rossi, Francis Bacon: from Magic to Science, Taylor & Francis 1978.

External links[link]

Find more about Francis Bacon on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Archival material relating to Francis Bacon listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Francis Bacon entry by Juergen Klein in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Works by Francis Bacon at Project Gutenberg
• The Francis Bacon Society
• Contains the New Organon, slightly modified for easier reading

v t e Shakespeare authorship question (History) A series on alternative authorship theories for the works of William Shakespeare Theories Declaration of Reasonable Doubt Baconian theory Derbyite theory Oxfordian theory Prince Tudor theory Marlovian theory Candidates List of Shakespeare authorship candidates Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Sir Edward Dyer Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland Christopher Marlowe Sir Henry Neville William Nugent Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby Emilia Lanier Anne Whateley Supporters Joseph C. Hart Delia Bacon Orville Ward Owen James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance George Greenwood Mark Twain Abel Lefranc J. Thomas Looney B. M. Ward Alden Brooks Charlton Greenwood Ogburn Calvin Hoffman Charlton Ogburn Roger Stritmatter Mark Anderson Charles Beauclerk Roland Emmerich John Orloff Bertram Fields Henry Albert Seymour

The-Dream
The-Dream performing on September 10, 2008 in New York City.
Background information
Birth name	Terius Youngdell Nash
Born	(1977-09-20) September 20, 1977 (age 34) Rockingham, North Carolina, U.S.
Genres	R&B, pop, hip hop
Occupations	singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	1998–Present
Labels	Def Jam, Radio Killa
Associated acts	Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Los Da Mystro, Jennifer Lopez, Electrik Red, Rihanna, Kanye West, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Drake Fabolous, Jamie Foxx
Website	the-dreammusic.com

Terius Youngdell Nash (Born September 20, 1977), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He is known for co-writing chart topping hits such as "Baby" for Justin Bieber, "Umbrella" for Rihanna and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" for Beyoncé, as well as for his three solo albums, Love Hate, Love vs. Money, and Love King.

Early life[link]

Terius Nash was born in Rockingham, North Carolina and moved with his mother, Reva Nash, to Atlanta at the age of 3. He played trumpet, drums, and guitar as a child.^[1] His mother died in 1992 when Nash was fifteen years old, an event which would inspire him to write songs.^[2] He states that the death of his mother gave him a "soft spot" for women, which he credits to his desire to write songs about female empowerment such as Rihanna's "Umbrella".^[2] He moved in with his grandfather, a concrete mason who instilled a strong work ethic in young Nash. Of his grandfather, Nash recalls "He came out of a bad time for blacks in the South, but even though we lived in the hood, we had a boat, some cars and a house that was paid for. So I’ve always had a different outlook on life. There’s nothing I can’t do."^[3]

Music career[link]

Background[link]

Nash met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001; Stewart helped him get a publishing deal after writing "Everything" for B2K's album Pandemonium!.^[1] Under the pen name "The-Dream", Nash began writing lyrics for many popular artists. He spent two years working on Nivea's second album Complicated, which he executive produced, and continued to write and produce with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Laney's brother, which led to Rihanna's 2007 smash hit "Umbrella". The success of "Umbrella" boosted Dream's music career, and in 2007, he signed a deal with Def Jam Records.^[4]