IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB801042380

The Works of Francis Bacon: A Victorian Classic in the History of Science (2021)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 112
Issue: 4
Pages: 717-736

URI: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/717036

DOI: 10.1086/717036

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Collected works Communication of scientific ideas Authorship Reference works for historians of science Scholarly publishing Baconianism Natural philosophy 19th century Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam

The Spedding-Ellis-Heath edition of The Works of Francis Bacon appeared in seven volumes between 1857 and 1859. Both a monument to Victorian scholarship and a staple of the history of science, this classic and historically significant work has been the authoritative edition of Bacon’s oeuvre ever since. This essay tells part of the story of its creation, reception, and influence. It describes the origin of and plan for the edition and, focusing on the three philosophical volumes, examines in detail the collaboration between James Spedding and Robert Leslie Ellis. On the basis of fresh archival research, it is shown that Spedding and Ellis disagreed fundamentally about the very thing their new edition was meant to settle: the correct interpretation of Bacon’s philosophical writings and of the role of his famous inductive method in the development of modern science from the time of Newton. With the Works, Spedding and Ellis did more than furnish what was long believed to be the Baconian canon; they also (at least in part unwittingly) produced a valuable primary source for the history of nineteenth-century Baconianism.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB801042380/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Chapter Heilbron, John L.; (2007)
Jean-André Deluc and the Fight for Bacon around 1800 (/isis/citation/CBB000775026/)

Book Nicole Howard; (2022)
Loath to Print: The Reluctant Scientific Author, 1500–1750 (/isis/citation/CBB894126119/)

Article Dana Jalobeanu; (2022)
Dissecting Nature ad vivum: Parts and Wholes in Francis Bacon’s Natural Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB815665162/)

Article Girten, Kristin M.; (2010)
Unsexed Souls: Natural Philosophy as Transformation in Eliza Haywood's Female Spectator (/isis/citation/CBB001030332/)

Article Ute Frietsch; (2022)
Robert Fludd’s Visual and Artisanal Episteme: A Case Study of Fludd’s Interaction with His Engraver, His Printer-Publisher, and His Amanuenses (/isis/citation/CBB604254184/)

Article Sarah E. Parker; (2016)
The Reader as Authorial Figure in Scientific Debate (/isis/citation/CBB342643342/)

Book Curtis N. Johnson; (2019)
Darwin's Historical Sketch: An Examination of the 'Preface' to the Origin of Species (/isis/citation/CBB352478446/)

Article Tomás Koch; Raf Vanderstraeten; Ricardo Ayala; (2021)
Making science international: Chilean journals and communities in the world of science (/isis/citation/CBB966669859/)

Article (2015)
Cumulative Author Index to Pharmacy in History Articles: Compiled from articles in Vol. 4 (1959)-Vol. 56 (2014) (/isis/citation/CBB215293389/)

Article Robert E. Kohler; Lynn K. Nyhart; Arnold Thackray; (2022)
Eloge: Frances Coulborn Kohler (1938–2021) (/isis/citation/CBB805437970/)

Article Jarvis, Charles E.; (2021)
An annotated bibliography of the printed works of James Petiver (c.1663–1718) (/isis/citation/CBB183122342/)

Thesis Caryn Maureen O'Connell; (2017)
Vegetal Life From Bacon to Milton: Incarnate Science (/isis/citation/CBB946145704/)

Article Sargent, Rose-Mary; (2012)
From Bacon to Banks: The Vision and the Realities of Pursuing Science for the Common Good (/isis/citation/CBB001230573/)

Article Schmitt, Stéphane; (2023)
L’édition critique des œuvres complètes de Buffon (/isis/citation/CBB285031712/)

Article Vincent Larivière; Nadine Desrochers; Benoît Macaluso; Philippe Mongeon; Adèle Paul-Hus; Cassidy R. Sugimoto; (June 2016)
Contributorship and division of labor in knowledge production (/isis/citation/CBB867302700/)

Article Sahra Jabbehdari; John P. Walsh; (September 2017)
Authorship Norms and Project Structures in Science (/isis/citation/CBB067688595/)

Article Mihnea Dobre; (2018)
Henry More and William Petty: Revisiting an Early Modern Polemic (/isis/citation/CBB300225375/)

Book Benedino Gemelli; (1996)
Aspetti dell'atomismo classico nella filosofia di Francis Bacon e nel Seicento (/isis/citation/CBB689205138/)

Chapter Vickers, Brian; (2007)
Francis Bacon, Mirror of Each Age (/isis/citation/CBB000775024/)

Book Klaus-Dietrich Fischer; Caroline Petit; Simon Swain; (2021)
Pseudo-Galenica: The Formation of the Galenic Corpus from Antiquity to the Renaissance (/isis/citation/CBB393312377/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}