Contemporary full brown calf. Small paper spine label. Boards triple ruled in blind. edges speckled red. Boards and joints rubbed and bumped. Head and tale of the spine chipped. Some toning and browning throughout, but mainly to preliminary and final leaves. Leaves A2 and A3 with some chipping along fore-edge, not affecting text. A bit of marginal worming, not affecting text. Previous owner's old ink signature on title-page and some instances of marginalia and text corrections in the same hand. Overall a very good copy.

“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).

Gibson 82. STC 1165.

HBS # 65822 $850