Article ID: CBB801042380

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

unapi

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.

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Authors & Contributors
Cormack, Bradin
Frietsch, Ute
Gavagna, Veronica
Gemelli, Benedino
Girten, Kristin M.
Heilbron, John L.
Journals
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Social Studies of Science
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Archives of Natural History
Bruniana & Campanelliana: Ricerche Filosofiche e Materiali Storico-testuali
Eighteenth-Century Studies
Publishers
University of Chicago
Johns Hopkins University Press
Olschki
Oxford University Press
Concepts
Communication of scientific ideas
Scholarly publishing
Baconianism
Authorship
Natural philosophy
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
People
Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam
Browne, Thomas
Bry, Johann Theodor de
Darwin, Charles Robert
Deluc, J. A. (Jean André)
Fludd, Robert
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
16th century
Places
Great Britain
England
Chile
Europe
Nepal
Institutions
History of Science Society
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