Bacon, Francis.

Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries ...

London. Printed by J. R. for William Lee. 1670. The Ninth and Final Edition. Illustrated by two copper plate engraved frontispieces and further by various Rubrications throughout. Small Folio.7.5" x 11.5 Handsomely bound in 3/4 blind ruled calfskin and marbled boards. Blind embossed decorations to spine compartments. Raised bands.

Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries, belongs to a group of philosophical tracts that were published posthumously in 1626.It is an anthology of one thousand paragraphs consisting of extracts from many books, mostly from antiquity, and Bacon's own experiments and observations. At the end of the volume, Rawley also included the New Atlantis. A Worke vnfinished. This brief tract is a description of a utopian island and its scientific community: Salomon's House.

This remarkable work is a catalogue of natural phenomena - a curious hodge-podge of scientific experiments, personal observations, speculations, ancient teachings, and analytical discussions on topics ranging from the causes of hiccups to explanations for the shortage of rain in Egypt) and the principles of Alchemy. Artificially divided into ten “centuries” (that is, ten chapters, each consisting of one hundred items), the work was apparently intended to be included in Part Three of the Magna Instauratio.



Portion of margin lacking at first leaf of Dedication Page (with no loss of text). Various usual innocuous light foxing to prelims.Some usual scattered offset. A Near Fine, extremely crisp and clean copy.Wing-B33/A

Item #8727