WEIGHING EXPERIENCE: FRANCIS BACON, THE INVENTIONS OF THE

MECHANICAL ARTS, AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN EXPERIMENT

Cesare Pastorino

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School

in partial fulfillment of the
requirements
for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
Indiana University
May 2011

UMI Number: 3456489

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Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Doctoral Committee
__________________________
William R. Newman, Ph.D.

__________________________
Domenico Bertoloni Meli

__________________________
Arthur Field

__________________________
Rose-Mary Sargent

Date of Dissertation Defense: May 2, 2011

ii

Copyright 2011
Cesare Pastorino

iii

Acknowledgements
My major debt is to my supervisor, Bill Newman, who during my Ph.D. has been a
constant source of encouragement and help, and an example of high scholarship. Nico
Bertoloni Meli has also helped me to shape my thoughts on historical arguments in many
important ways. Now at the end of my doctoral career, I feel very lucky to have had the
chance of working for some time with these two outstanding scholars. Other professors in
my department have helped me to reflect on historical and philosophical issues or
specifically discussed my work on Bacon. I particularly thank Jim Capshew, Ann
Carmichael, Jordi Cat, Michael Dickson, Sandy Gliboff, Noretta Koertge, and Jutta
Schickore. Also, I owe many thanks to my departments administrative officers, Peggy
Roberts and Becky Wood.
Outside my department, it has been a true pleasure to attend the classes of Eric
MacPhail, Arthur Field, and Michel Chaouli. Sheila Lindenbaum has been very generous
with help on many matters, and one of the first persons with whom I discussed my
project. My external advisor, Rose-Mary Sargent, has always been very supportive of my
work on Baconian issues, and invariably given me excellent suggestions on how to
improve my arguments and discussion. In different moments, I received generous help
from Stephen Clucas, Mary Domski, Peter Forshaw, Guido Giglioni, Margaret Pelling,
Jenny Rampling, Alan Stewart, Brian Vickers, and Charles Webster. I was also able to
discuss early Stuart projectors with Eric Ash, Vera Keller, and Koji Yamamoto in a
session of the 2009 HSS meeting.

iv

During my time in Bloomington I was lucky to enjoy the company, friendship and
learning of many fellow students, and in particular of Matt Dunn, Karin Ekholm, Melinda
Fagan, Stefano Gulizia, John Johnson, Allen Shotwell, Sarah Smith and Brian Wood.
With Stephen Crowley I had very interesting conversations on Francis Bacon and
experientia literata. Recently, it has been a pleasure to discuss my work on Bacon with
Evan Ragland.
I received special assistance from the personnel of the Herman B. Wells Library at
Indiana University, the Library of the Goldsmiths Company in London, and the Othmer
Library at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. I also thank for very
generous economic support the Chemical Heritage Foundation. While a fellow there, I
had the pleasure to meet Carin Berkowitz, Ron Brashear, Jim Voelkel, and the various
fellows of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.
I thank for their friendship Francesca Calderoni, Daniele Cerrato, Miranda Lucor,
Luca Moretti, Valter Moretti, Marleen Newman, Roberto Olivetti, Stella Chak and Chris
Townson. I owe special thanks to my friends and past teachers Mario De Paz and
Miranda Pilo, who helped me in difficult times and taught me important lessons on what
it means to carry out an experiment. I would also like to thank my mother and sister for
their continuous support and encouragement during my entire career. Finally, special
thanks go to my wife, without whose help and patience this dissertation would have not
been possible.
I would like to dedicate this work to my daughter, and to the memory of my father.

Cesare Pastorino

WEIGHING EXPERIENCE: FRANCIS BACON, THE INVENTIONS OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS,

AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN EXPERIMENT

This is a study of the links between Francis Bacon and the technical experimenters and
projectors of the early Stuart age, and of Bacons philosophy of technical invention and
experiment. This project reappraises the literature on the role of mechanical arts in
Francis Bacon. In the past, scholars often maintained that Bacons knowledge of
mechanical arts was limited to learned sources and authors of Renaissance technical
treatises, and that his actual links with artisans and entrepreneurs of his time were
negligible. This research shifts attention to early Stuart society, and to Bacons concrete
involvement in economic and institutional activities. A major aspect of this work is the
study of a set of early modern archival records, the privileges for new industrial
processes and patents of inventions that Francis Bacon reviewed while a Solicitor and
Attorney General during the reign of James I. While Elizabethan privileges for inventions
are well documented, this group of early Stuart institutional documents has never been
properly analyzed before this investigation. Also, Bacons role as a patent referee has
hardly been mentioned in literature. A scrutiny of this new evidence has shown that
Francis Bacon was close to a network of early Stuart mining projectors and assayers,
technical practitioners, and inventors of the mechanical arts. Francis Bacons familiarity
with the world of craftsmen significantly contributed to the development of his
philosophy. Important methodological features of the works of mechanical arts were
absorbed into Bacons system. An analysis of the central concept of experientia literata
(Literate Experience), the key notion behind Bacons influential experimental histories,
shows that Bacon developed this idea paying close attention to the actual practices of
mechanical artisans of his time. Bacons enquiry of dense and rare is the best example of
vi

an application of the quantitative research program of experientia literata. Bacons ideas

on this issue can be tied to experiments for the determination of specific gravities
developed in a monetary context. Overall, Bacons program of quantification calls for a
revision of Thomas Kuhns sharp dichotomy between a mathematical and a Baconian
experimental tradition in seventeenth-century science.

__________________________
__________________________
__________________________
__________________________

vii

Index of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
1. The Mine and the Furnace: Francis Bacon, Thomas Russell, and Early Stuart Mining
Culture............................................................................................................................... 11
1.1 - Mining Metaphors ........................................................................................ 11
1.2 - Democritean Allusions ................................................................................. 13
1.3 - Democritean Emblems: the Cave of Truth ................................................... 15
1.4 - Mining Emblems: the Advancement of Science by Labour ..................... 17
1.5 - Bacon and the Company of Mineral and Battery Works.............................. 21
1.6 - Making much of Russell ........................................................................... 27
1.7 - Bacon and the Commissioners for Suits ....................................................... 29
1.8 - Russell, Bacon, Sackville ............................................................................. 32
1.9 - Russell and Iatrochemistry ........................................................................... 34
1.10 - Minerall Tryalls....................................................................................... 36
2. Bacon and the State Promotion of Innovation: the Early Stuart Patent System ........... 41
2.1 A benefite to Common Wealth and Kinge .............................................. 42
2.2 This Eating Canker of Want .................................................................... 48
2.3 Bacon as Patent Referee............................................................................... 55
2.4 Patent Conflicts: the Production of Glass By Sea Coal .......................... 62
2.5 Mediating Activities: the Commission for Suits .......................................... 65
2.6 Dawbeneys Invention ................................................................................. 68
2.7 Bacon and Early Patent Specifications ........................................................ 70
3. Bacons Reform of Technical Innovation: Experientia Literata .................................. 79
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 79
3.2 - An Issue of Terminology .............................................................................. 80
3.3 Bacons Reform of Technical Invention ...................................................... 82
3.4 - Bacons reform as an Inventio Artium et Scientiarum .................................. 83
3.5 - From Axioms and Experiments to Arts and Technical Inventions .............. 88
3.6 - The New Organon, or a Utopian Reform of Technical Invention ................ 90
3.7 - Literate Experience, or a Pragmatic Reform of Technical Invention ........... 92
3.8 - From Literate Experience to Collaborative Innovation ................................ 98

viii

4. Bacon and the Institutions of Innovation .................................................................... 101

4.1 - Early Works (1590s) ................................................................................... 102
4.2 - Bacon in France: Jacques Gohorys Lycium philosophal, and Nicholas
Houels Maison de Charit Chrtienne ........................................................... 107
4.3 From the College for Inventors to Salomons House ............................. 111
4.4 - Colleges for Inventors in Europe: the Case of Henri IV ............................ 118
4.5 Bacons College and the Craft Guilds ....................................................... 124
5. Experiments, Assaying, Experientia Literata: Bacons Experimental Histories ........ 128
5.1 Recording Experience ................................................................................ 130
5.2 Weighing Experience ................................................................................. 137
5.3 Weighing Dense and Rare: from Vulcan to Minerva ................................ 141
5.4 On Bacons Method for the Determination of Specific Gravities ............ 146
5.5 Specific Gravities: the Monetary Context and the Issue of Coin
Counterfeiting ..................................................................................................... 149
5.6 Experimental Histories: Trials versus Recipes ......................................... 155
Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 162
A Gentlemanly Outsider? ................................................................................... 163
Early Stuart Patents: A Gap in the Evidence ...................................................... 166
Bacons Civic Role and Harknesss Thesis ........................................................ 173
A Question Regarding Sources ........................................................................... 180
Literate Experience and the Use of Baconian Histories ..................................... 185
Quantification and Mathematics in Bacon .......................................................... 188
Appendix 1 List of Patentees from British Library Hargrave MS 377. Calendar of
Patent Rolls temp. James I .............................................................................................. 199
Appendix 2 Two Examples of Patented Inventions Discussed in Bacons Works.... 213
Appendix 3 Gohorys Chasteau de Febus & de Diane ............................................. 217
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 219

ix

Introduction

This dissertation is a study of the links between Francis Bacon and the technical
experimenters and projectors of the early Stuart age, and of Bacons philosophy of
technical invention and experiment.
This project reappraises the literature on the role of mechanical arts in Francis
Bacons work. The importance of Bacons philosophical revaluation of technology is a
commonly accepted notion. However, even authors in the past who stressed the central
role of Bacons philosophical revaluation of mechanical arts, such as Paolo Rossi and
Benjamin Farrington, limited their investigation to learned sources, and to authors of
Renaissance technical treatises, such as Biringuccio, Agricola, or Palissy. These
limitations reinforced the notion that Bacons picture of mechanical arts was literary,
and that his actual links with artisans and entrepreneurs of his time were negligible or
nonexistent. The research presented here shifts attention to early Stuart society, and to
Bacons concrete involvement in economic and institutional activities, a significantly
neglected area of his biography.
Necessarily, this particular perspective calls into question the separation between two
aspects of Bacons career, namely his activities as a philosopher and as a political and
institutional figure. In this research, I argue that these two domains are not independent
and, as such, need to be investigated in conjunction. Because of this methodological
assumption, my discussion develops both at the level of Bacons intellectual reflection
and texts, and of Bacons civic and economic interests.
1

A major aspect of this research is the study of a set of early modern archival records,
the privileges and patents for new industrial processes and inventions that Francis
Bacon reviewed and refereed while serving as a Solicitor and Attorney General during
the reign of James I (National Archives, Kew; and British Library). While Elizabethan
privileges for inventions are well documented, this group of early Stuart institutional
documents has never been properly analyzed before this study. Also, Bacons role as a
patent referee has received little mention in the literature.
A scrutiny of these sources has shown that Francis Bacon was in direct contact with
a variegated network of early Stuart mining projectors and assayers, technical
practitioners, and inventors of the mechanical arts. A significant part of this study has
thus been devoted to the investigation of Bacons links with these individuals, and the
examination of the nature of their projects.
The new evidence uncovered prompted a reconsideration of a traditional aspect of
Francis Bacons overall program, that is to say Bacons reflection on the role of
craftsmen and the issue of technical innovation. A claim of this study is that Bacons
familiarity with the question of innovation, and with early Stuart technicians and
inventors, significantly contributed to the development of important aspects of his
philosophy. In general, Bacons reform of scientific method also inherently developed as
a reform of the way to achieve technical advances. Moreover, important methodological
features of the works of mechanical arts were absorbed into Bacons system, helping to
shape his more general ideas on experiment. An analysis of the central concept of
Experientia Literata (Literate Experience), the key notion behind Bacons influential
2

experimental histories, shows that Bacon developed this idea in part by paying close
attention to the actual practices of mechanical artisans of his time.
Given these general lines of investigation, the first two chapters of this dissertation
discuss material of a biographical nature about Francis Bacon, the patent system, and the
issue of early Stuart technical innovation; the remaining three chapters are instead an
examination of how this historical evidence provides different and new perspectives to
evaluate more intellectual aspects of Bacons reflection on technical invention and
experiment.
Chapter one is a case study of Bacons interests in the mining industry and his
connections with the mining entrepreneur and projector Thomas Russell. From an
intellectual point of view, attention given to the world of mining enterprises was vividly
reflected in the metaphors on the theme of mining that Bacon often used to graphically
represent important aspects of his project of reform of knowledge. This was the case of a
famous mining metaphor in The Advancement of Learning, which is analyzed in detail.
However, Bacons interests in mining were not only literary. Bacon maintained up to
now unexplored links with the early modern English mining enterprises, like the
Company of Mineral and Battery Works, of which he was a shareholder. Moreover,
Bacons notes in a private notebook, Commentarius Solutus, and records of patents of
invention, show his connections with the mining metallurgist and entrepreneur Thomas
Russell. The interesting and so far unexplored figure of Russell is analyzed in more detail
in the second part of the chapter. Russell was a typical example of literate entrepreneur
and inventor, the sort of figure Eric Ash has aptly described as expert mediator.
3

Through patronage and the use of his personal technical skills, Russell was able to come
in contact with major governmental officers, and even the secretary of state Robert Cecil,
thus making him an influential figure in circles close to Prince Henrys court. The
Commentarius and records of patents of invention show that Bacon actively sought
contacts with the entrepreneur, both to reach figures in Henrys court, and as a way to
collect information on chemical, medical, and metallurgical topics. Moreover, it is very
likely that Bacon received information and documentation on assaying trials conducted
by Russell, under governmental sanction, on silver mineral ores in the same time period.
As also discussed in Chapter five, these trial reports could have helped Bacon to develop
his ideas on Experientia Literata and on experimentation more generally. In general, the
case studies of Thomas Russell and of mining industry help to delineate the main themes
of the dissertation. The links between Bacon and Russell, typical of the connections
between governmental administrators and technicians and expert mediators, indicate the
relevance of Bacons involvement in the early Stuart patent system. Moreover, they
highlight the importance that technical invention assumed in Bacons reflection on
experiment.
In Chapter two, I argue that the study of Bacons work as a patent referee is an
essential requirement of an investigation of his links with the world of Stuart technicians
and entrepreneurs. Bacons firsthand knowledge of the early Stuart system for patents of
invention has never before been studied in detail. In this research, I analyze the privileges
for invention that were submitted during the reign of James I. In general, studies of the
English early modern patent system do not address the period of time between Queen
4

Elizabeths death and the year 1617, when nineteenth-century records for the patents
begin. In appendix one, I give an unpublished list of new patentees receiving privileges
for inventions, derived from British Library Hargrave Ms 377, and compared with the
Docquets Books of the Signet Office at the British National Archives for the period
between 1604 and 1623. From this list, using information in the Docquets Books of the
Signet Office, I derived a further list of patents that were directly subscribed by Francis
Bacon in his position as Solicitor and Attorney General between 1607 and 1617. I then
analyze the general characteristics of Bacons connections with the patentees belonging
to this list. This activity is better understood as part of Bacons role as Kings counselor
on financial issues, which I also describe. In general, Bacons duties included the drafting
of patents and the legal examination of the various cases. In practice, given his role in the
Commission for Suits, Bacon was often involved in lengthy negotiations and mediations
between patentees, guild representatives, and City officers. The evidence from these
activities shows what I called a civic side of Francis Bacons biography and work, an
often overlooked aspect, usually hidden because of the focus and concentration on
Bacons more specifically intellectual and philosophical occupations. Finally I consider
the important issue of the models and technical reports of inventions that some of the
patents required from the patentees. I suggest that this requirement, specifically linked to
several patents drafted by Bacon himself, finds its analogue in Bacons intellectual
concerns for the originality of inventions, a theme that clearly emerges in Bacons
reflection on technical innovation and Experientia Literata.

In Chapter three, I shift attention from the biographical involvement of Francis

Bacon with inventors and patents, to consider his intellectual reflection on the issue of
technological invention. While this is far from an unexplored aspect of Bacons overall
project, the juxtaposition of this subject with the discussion of Bacons contacts and
concrete experience with inventors and projectors brings a different perspective and
invites reappraisal of this material. I advance the suggestion that Francis Bacons
intellectual reflection on experiment and Inventio was shaped by a concern for the
promotion of technological innovation in Stuart England. Bacons method also included a
reform of technological innovation, and of the way in which experiments of the
mechanical arts can be achieved. This claim can be expressed more strongly: Bacons
discussion of technological invention must be considered as an integral part of his
discussion of method; Bacons method also entails a theory of technological invention. In
particular, in this chapter I focus on Bacons key notion of Experientia Literata. As
described by Bacon in De Augmentis, Experientia Literata is minimized as an unphilosophical activity, hardly reaching the level of an art; at the same time, it is clear that
it constitutes the main formal concept by which Bacon describes and assimilates within
his theoretical system the activity and practices of mechanical arts and skilled craftsmen.
For Bacon, Experientia Literata assumes two main roles. The operational aspect of
Experientia Literata is defined by the modes of experimentation, which illustrate the
rule of thumb approach to the development of new experiments and technical inventions
from ones already performed or obtained. Through a descriptive aspect (which I discuss
in detail in Chapter five), Bacon devised early standardized forms of experimental
6

reports, and stressed the role of quantification and measurement in experimental practice.
In this analysis, I demonstrate that both aspects were significantly shaped by Bacons
reflection on the practices of inventors and the characteristics of technical inventions.
The notion of collaboration between technical inventors and experimenters was a
central feature of Experientia Literata. In Chapter four, I look at Bacons considerations
regarding the concrete establishment of institutions and foundations for the promotion of
useful knowledge and technical innovation. Early references to establishments for the
promotion of knowledge can be found in Bacons work in the 1590s. However, the period
following the composition of The Advancement of Learning (1605) saw the convergence
toward more concrete ideas for the establishment of a college for inventors. In the
Advancement, Bacon had already delineated the necessity of a reform of technical
invention. Practical plans for the establishment of a college for inventors are hinted and
annotated in the notebook Commentarius Solutus (1608). These early ideas were to be
transformed into the imaginary institution of Salomons House in the New Atlantis
(1626). I claim that Bacons ideas of a college were far from accidental, and were in fact
part of his general concern for a fundamental revision of the traditional modes for the
production of innovation in Stuart society. In particular, Salomons House can also be
seen as an inventors utopia, where the best inventors are freed from the pressures and
constraints of the world of trades and crafts, and co-opted to work for a state-run
organization. This idea suggests that Bacon made practical plans to reform technological
innovation according to continental models, and toward state controlled foundations for
the fostering of technical innovation under royal patronage. In particular, I suggest that
7

Bacons attention to the French system of patronage during his journey to France, and
after that period may have influenced Bacons conceptions.
In Chapter five, I consider the descriptive aspect of Experientia Literata, that is to
say the group of practices that Bacon thought necessary to introduce in order to transform
ordinary experience into its literate form. These practices are primarily of two types:
one that regarded rules and tenets for early forms of standardized experimental reports;
and a second one that introduced and stressed the role and importance of quantification
and measurements in experimental practice. So far, authors have not stressed sufficiently
the importance of Bacons efforts to achieve standardization of experimental reports, or
of the place that quantification plays in such efforts. Weighing of experience was a
central point of what Bacon called the literate stage of experimentation. As early as
1608, Bacon devised precise tenets for standard reporting in a seminal text that was to be
expanded in his more general program for experimental histories. Bacons enquiry of
dense and rare is the best example of an application of the program of Experientia
Literata, and shows well how Bacons tenets for standardization and quantification
operated in practice. I suggest that Bacons ideas on these issues can be tied to the
experimental practice of goldsmiths. Bacons program for the investigation of specific
gravities was very likely a generalization of Jean Bodins experiments in Universae
naturae theatrum (1596). This is a new and important discovery, as it shows that Bacon
was likely responding to a research program for the determination of specific gravities
born not in a natural philosophical context, but rather in a monetary context, related to the
issue of counterfeiting. The determination of specific gravities of metals was commonly
8

perceived as relevant to money testing, a typical goldsmiths activity. The translation of

goldsmiths experiments to natural philosophical terms can be considered an example of
what Bacon called Experientia Literata. I finally claim that the structure and conceptual
characteristics of Bacons experiments in the experimental histories diverge from the
presentation of experiments in the tradition of recipe books and books of secrets, often
considered a likely source of inspiration for Bacons ideas on experiment. Bacons
experimental accounts conceptually differ from technical recipes, and are instead close to
technical trial reports in the vein of those detailing Thomas Russells assaying and
mineral trials of 1608.
In general, the evidence provided in this dissertation shows us so to speak a civic
aspect of Francis Bacon, his concern for very concrete political and economic matters,
and his deep involvement in public life. This perhaps mundane side of Bacons career is
directly at odds with interpretations that detach him from the civic and urban
environment he was part of, as is the case for Deborah Harknesss book, The Jewel
House. Instead, Bacons involvement in the patent system, showing us the actual ways in
which the early Stuart state tried to promote innovation, helps us to give a concrete
context and background from which to understand his aims and projects for a reform of
technological invention, and his development of the notion of Experientia Literata.
Moreover, Bacons interactions with the technical experimenters of his time allows
us to connect his discussion of experiment with concrete technical activities taking place
in England and early Stuart London. For instance, Bacon derived his ideas on the
quantification of experiment from the world of artisans. Around quantification and
9

weighing of experience Bacon built his program of experimental histories. This was the
truly original aspect of Bacons reform of natural history, a characteristic usually
overlooked by the authors who have dealt with this subject. Together with the reappraisal
of the role of mathematics in his work, the importance of quantification in Bacons
experimental histories calls for a revision of established historiographical ideas, and in
particular of Thomas Kuhns sharp distinction between a mathematical and a Baconian
experimental tradition in the development of early modern science. After Bacons death,
during the seventeenth-century and beyond, the composition of experimental histories
according to the tenets of Experientia Literata would define the Baconian way of
reporting phenomena. The history of this tradition, however, yet remains to be written.

10

1. The Mine and the Furnace: Francis Bacon, Thomas Russell, and Early Stuart
Mining Culture.

1.1 - Mining Metaphors

With the accession to the English throne of James in 1603, Francis Bacon sought new
recognition for his project of reform of knowledge. The publication of The Advancement
of Learning in 1605 was a fundamental step in this process. Conceived between 1603 and
1604, The Advancement of Learning was strongly programmatic in character. For Bacon,
the analysis of the deficiencies of Learning was instrumental to political and institutional
reform.1 The Baconian text, dedicated to the King, was planned to address a
heterogeneous readership of philosophers, public administrators, leaders of educational
institutions, and entrepreneurs.
New learning for Bacon meant the reshaping and transformation of traditional and
outworn hierarchies of knowledge. A fundamental issue was given by the role of
mechanical arts and entrepreneurial activities. Championing the need for a new Historia
Mechanica, collecting results and achievements from arts and trades, Bacon censured the
traditional philosophical dislike of matters mechanical: For it is esteemed a kinde of
dishonour unto Learning to descend to enquirie or Meditation uppon Matters
Mechanicall, except they bee such as may bee thought secrets, rarities, and speciall

See for instance: Rose-Mary Sargent, Bacon as an advocate for cooperative scientific research, in
Markku Peltonen, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Bacon. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
(1996), 148-50; and Francis Bacon, The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) Oxford and New York, Oxford
University Press (2002) 581-2.

11

subtilties. This is vaine and supercilious Arrogancie, Bacon continued, justly derided
by Plato and Socrates, and disapproved by Aristotle. It is in fact the use of Historie
Mechanical, Bacon affirmed, that is the most radicall and fundamentall towards the
development of natural philosophy. Experiences from the mechanical arts, better than
those of any other field, will serve to reach a more true and reall illumination concerning
Causes and Axiomes of philosophy.2
Bacons revaluation of the mechanical arts set the stage for interesting and
unexpected analogies. A few passages after these remarks, introducing his discussion of a
reform of natural philosophy, he employed a vivid and rather unusual metaphor:
We will nowe proceede to Naturall Philosophie: If then it bee true that
Democritus sayde, That the truthe of nature lyeth hydde in certaine deepe Mynes
and Caves; And if it be true likewise, that the Alchymists doe so much inculcate,
that Vulcan is a second Nature, and imitateth that dexterouslie and
compendiouslie, which Nature worketh by ambages, & length of time, It were
good to devide Naturall Phylosophie into the Myne and the Fornace, and to
make two professions or occupations of Naturall Philosophers, some to bee
Pionners, and some Smythes, some to digge, and some to refine, and Hammer:
And surely I do best allowe of a division of that kinde, though in more familiar
and scholasticall termes: Namely that these bee the two parts of Naturall
philosophie, the Inquisition of Causes, and the Production of Effects:
Speculative, and Operative; Naturall Science, and Naturall Prudence3
Bacons metaphor was devised both to intrigue and amuse his readers.
The core of the rhetorical device was an irreverent comparison between natural
philosophers and miners, which purposely mixed high and low, scholarly and manual

Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Edited by Michael Kiernan. Vol. 4 of The Oxford Francis
Bacon. Oxford, Clarendon Press (2000), 64-5.
3
Ibid., 80.

12

work. In the De Augmentis, the 1623 Latin translation of The Advancement of Learning,
Bacon acknowledged that the mineral similitude was to a certain extent intended in jest,
to amuse, and per lusum.4 Nevertheless, Bacons juxtaposition marked and stressed the
novelty and discontinuity of his attitude toward manual activities: the study of
mechanical arts and crafts was not dishonorable, but the most radical and
fundamental component of the natural philosophical reflection. One such craft mining
was an apt term of comparison for philosophical enquiry.

1.2 - Democritean Allusions

But the choice of mining was suggestive in other respects.
For instance, both in this passage of The Advancement of Learning and in other parts
of Bacons work, the mining metaphor tended to assume an epistemological connotation.5
Truth, the metaphor told the readers, lies hidden deep down in the bowels of nature, to
use the expression that Bacon will employ in De Augmentis. It is the duty of the
philosopher to dig for it, below the surface of things.
It is interesting that, at the beginning of his analogy, Bacon adapted a well-known
Democritean quotation from Diogenes Laertius: 'in reality we know nothing, for truth is

Francis Bacon, De Augmentis, in Works, James Spedding, Robert L. Ellis, and Douglas D. Heath eds.
(London, 18571874), 1: 547.
5
In the past, Brian Vickers has noticed the presence of this aspect; see: Brian Vickers, Francis Bacon and
Renaissance Prose. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1968) 177, 292. Lauren Klein has recently
given a not very convincing treatment of this characteristic in terms of feminist and ecologist
historiography; see Lauren Klein, To Mine for Truth: The Metaphor of Mining in Francis Bacons The
Great Instauration, in Sara L. French and Kay Etheridge (eds)., Origins of Scientific Learning. Essays on
Culture and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Lewiston, NY, Edwin Mellen Press (2007).

13

in the depths'.6 The Democritean aphorism clearly implied a high level of skepticism
toward sense perception. Bacon would have agreed with Democritus in his suspicion
toward perception and appearances. As he clearly explained in the Novum Organum, by
far the greatest hindrance and distortion of human intellect stems from the dullness,
inadequacy and unreliability of the senses.7
But a second aspect of the Democritean maxim would have pleased Bacon as well.
As he affirmed in the Novum Organum, Democritus had penetrated further into the
comprehension of nature than any other philosopher. Both for Bacon and Democritus
things invisible were more important for the comprehension of reality than their
visible, manifest counterpart. Truth needed to be investigated beyond the surface of
things, and at a deeper, microscopic level, in the bowels of matter and nature.8
Bacons metaphor, in its Democritean slant, constituted an important epistemological
and methodological reminder. It was very natural to frame the Democritean investigation
into the depths of nature in terms of actual mining activity.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives, IX, 72. "Democritus, getting rid of the qualities, where he says 'By convention
hot, by convention cold, but in reality atoms and void' and again 'In reality we know nothing, for truth is in
the depths'. In Christopher C. W. Taylor, The Atomists: Leucippus and DemocritusFragments. A Text
and Translation. Toronto, University of Toronto Press (1999) 143. Diogenes Laertiuss expression
can be literally translated as in an abyss, see R. D. Hickss note in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of eminent
philosophers, Loeb Classical Library. London, Heinemann (1925) vol. 2, 485.
7
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, in The Instauratio Magna. Part 2: Novum Organum and Associated
Texts. Edited by Graham Rees. Vol. 11 of The Oxford Francis Bacon. Oxford, Clarendon Press (2004) 87.
8
Ibid., 89. Analogous favorable comments toward Democrituss commitment to investigate the depths of
nature were often repeated in Bacons work. For instance, see De principiis atque originibus: there, for
Bacon, Democritus penetrated somewhat more sharply and deeply into nature than other philosophers.
Francis Bacon, Philosophical Studies c. 1611c. 1619. Edited by Graham Rees. Vol. 6 of The Oxford
Francis Bacon. Oxford, Clarendon Press (1996) 204.

14

1.3 - Democritean Emblems: the Cave of Truth

Bacons reference to the Democritean image of truth is also helpful for revealing a further
Baconian borrowing: one from the Renaissance culture of emblems. It is by means of a
specific series of these emblems that Democrituss generic reference to the depths of
nature was easily reframed by Bacon in terms of caves (and, by extension, of mines).
Variants of the Democritean aphorism according to which truth lies in the depths
were in fact often used as emblem subjects during the sixteenth century. A very popular
one was inspired by an adaptation of the maxim due to the fourth century Christian
apologist Lactantius, according to which truth lies sunk down a well-shaft so deep that it
has no bottom: in this case, Truth was then represented as a young woman emerging
from the depths of such a well.9
However, in Bacons metaphor, truth was hydde in certain deepe Mynes and
Caves. To a contemporary reader, the image that Bacon evoked could have been
familiar because often present in a different series of emblems, produced byAdrianus
Junius, Thomas Palmer, and Geoffrey Whitney, and published in the second half of the
sixteenth century.10 This series illustrated the motto Veritas filia temporis (Truth

Democritus quasi in puteo quodam sic alto, ut fundus nullus sit, veritatem iacere demersam. Lactantius,
Divinae institutiones iii. 28. 13. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 19, 266. transl.
Anthony Bowen and Peter Garnsey (eds.) Divine Institutes. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press (2003)
220.
10
See: emblem 53 in Adrianus Junius, Emblemata (Antwerp 1565), 59; Thomas Palmer, Two hundred
poosees (British Library Ms Sloane 4794), emblem 67, Time trieth truth, also John Manning (ed.) The
Emblems of Thomas Palmer: Two Hundred Poosees, Sloane MS 4794. New York, AMS (1988); Geoffrey
Whitney, A Choice of Emblems, and other Devises (Leyden 1586), 4; Fritz Saxl, Veritas filia Temporis,
in Raymond Klibansky and Herbert J. Paton (eds.), Philosophy and History, Essays presented to Ernst
Cassirer. Oxford, Oxford University Press (1936); Donald Gordon, "Veritas Filia Temporis": Hadrianus

15

daughter of Time), and was explicitly inspired by the Democritean aphorism. This is
how Adrianus Juniuss book described the emblem:
The saying of the old poet is on everyones lips: Truth is the daughter of Time,
because evidently time brings truth to light: and Saturn is without doubt to be
regarded as time. Now certainly it is well known that Democritus said that truth
was once buried and lay hidden in a very deep well: from which comes the
reason for devising this emblem. Truth should then be represented as a naked
young woman, emerging from the navel up out of a dark cave, among rocks,
whom Saturn, flying in the air, leads out by the right hand.11
Truth, the daughter of Time, was then represented in close resemblance to the image
given in the Baconian text [Fig. 1].12

Junius and Geoffrey Whitney, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 3, no. 3/4 (1940), 228240; Guy de Tervarent, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 7 (1944), 95-101. The motto
Veritas filia temporis had been used by English monarchs like Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth; see:
Saxl, Veritas filia temporis and Gordon, "Veritas Filia Temporis": Hadrianus Junius and Geoffrey
Whitney. The same allegory had been represented in one of the pageants greeting Elizabeths coronation
Entry of 1559; see: Hester Lees-Jeffries, Location as Metaphor in Queen Elizabeths Coronation Entry
(1559): Veritas Temporis Filia, in Jayne E. Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, and Sarah Knight (eds.), The
Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth I. Oxford, Oxford University Press (2007),
65-85; and Germaine Warkentin and John C. Parsons (eds.), The Queen's Majesty's Passage and Related
Documents Toronto, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (2004), 58-65, 87-8.
11
Nemini non est in ore vetusti poetae dictum: Veritas Temporis filia, quod nimirum tempus in lucem
proferat veritatem: Saturnum autem pro tempore accipi indubitatum est. Iam vero constat Democritum
dixisse quondam veritatem altissimo in puteo demersam atque obrutam iacere: unde sumpta est fingendi
Emblematis occasio. Pingatur virgo nuda Veritas, specu obscuro inter scopulos umbilico tenus emicans,
quam Saturnus libratis in are alis volitans dextra educit. Adrianus Junius, Emblemata (Antwerp 1565),
144.
12
In this context it is worth recalling that the image of truth daughter of time was a favorite Baconian
theme. See De Augmentis Scientiarum (Works, 1: 458), Cogitata et Visa (Works, 3: 612), Novum Organum,
in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 132 (book 1, aphorism 84). On this issue see also Rees, Oxford Francis Bacon
11: xlvi, 523; Saxl, Veritas filia temporis, 218-221; Giovanni Gentile, Giordano Bruno e il pensiero del
Rinascimento. Firenze, Vallecchi (1920) 96-100.

16

Fig. 1: Veritas Filia Temporis, in Adrianus Junius, Emblemata (Antwerp 1565), 59.

1.4 - Mining Emblems: the Advancement of Science by Labour

However, Bacons mining similitude, the core of his metaphor, seems to reflect a
different type of emblem tradition, that of the industrial corporations of Renaissance
England. In particular, Bacons imagery had a visual counterpart in that of the two main
mining enterprises of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, the Company of Mines Royal
and the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. Both established in the 1560s through a
series of patents and grants, they both received a royal charter in 1568, officially
establishing their governing bodies, administrative structure, and partnership
responsibilities. In particular, the companies were also granted official seals and elaborate

17

emblems and coats of arms, capturing the ethos and features of the industrial
enterprises.13
As mentioned before, Bacons text envisioned the division of natural philosophy
into the Myne and the Fornace, making so to speak two professions or occupations of
Naturall Philosophers, some to bee Pionners and some Smythes, some to digge, and some
to refine, and Hammer. This representation had a graphic equivalent on the insignia and
coat of arms of the Company of Mines Royal [see fig. 2].

Fig. 2: Coat of arms of the Company of Mines Royal - from Richard Wallis, Londons Armory
(London 1677)14

13

The Company of Mines Royal and of Mineral and Battery Works were respectively granted an armorial
device on May 28, 1568 and on February 20, 1570. I will discuss the companies in more detail in the
second part of this chapter.
14
Following John Pettus, Fodinae regales (London, 1670), Henry Hamilton, English Brass and Copper
Industries to 1880. London, Cass (1967) wrongly attributes this coat of arms to the Company of Mineral

18

The coat crest represented a mining surveyor, holding in his hands his professional
instruments. The surveyors elevated position in the coat was not accidental. Georgius
Agricola, in his praise of the mining business at the beginning of De Re Metallica,
included the science of surveying among the many arts and sciences (philosophy,
medicine, and astronomy among others) that a miner had to master. Agricolas miner, in
a vein that would have found Bacons approval, was not an ignorant workman, but an
expert and literate professional.15 The arms shield bore the image of a mine and of a
miner holding two hammers, in the act of digging a mineral vein. The two supporters at
the sides represented two metal refiners, one called the Hammer-man, with a Hammer
on his Shoulder; and the other the Smelter, with a Fork in his Hand16: Bacons
subdivision between digging and smelting miners had a close visual portrayal in the
Mines Royal company emblem.
Likewise, the coat of arms of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works [fig. 3]
bore the depiction of an allegorical theme, the increase of Science by Labour. It is
interesting to read the actual heraldic text that described the allegory in the grant of 1570:
the fielde asure, on a Mount vert a Pillar of brasse, between a Lyon rampant
gardaunt and a Dragon rampaunt golde ; in the chief a Rynge of laten wyer
betweene a Bezaunt and a Plate ; Upon the heaulme on a Goree argent and sable,
two naked Armes susteyninge a Calamine stone in proper couler; Mantellede
asur, Doubled golde; Supported with the personnages of Science and Labour,
she holdinge in her right hande a Rodde representinge virgulam divinam; and

and Battery Works. This error is frequent; see for instance William Rees, Industry before the Industrial
Revolution, 2 vols. Cardiff, University of Wales Press (1968) vol. 2, 388-9.
15
See Agricola, De re metallica, 3-4.
16
Pettus, Fodinae, 23.

19

Labour holdinge in his left hande a hammer; And on either of their heddes a
Crescent; signifyenge Encrease in Science by Labour.17

[Fig. 3] Arms of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works (from Wallis, Londons Armory)

In the allegory, Mineral Science was identified through a virgula divina, or a

divining rod, the forked twig that a venerable tradition associated to the discovery of
the mineral veins.18 The other figure, a miner, allegorized Labour, or manual work. As
the charter explained, the crescent moon present on the figures head symbolized the
Encrease in Science by Labour or, one may gloss, the advancement of learning by
means of mechanical arts.

17
18

Moses Stringer, Opera mineralia explicata (London, 1713), 24-5.

The divining rod was first described in printed form by Agricola. See Agricola, De re metallica, p. 38-41.

20

In his mining analogy, Bacon blended several themes and suggestions that had a
recognizable correspondence in images and emblems well popular in Elizabethan and
Jacobean culture. Bacons distinction between a theoretical and operative side of natural
philosophy was easily presented in terms of imagery of mining and the mining profession
that was already very well known to Bacons readership. More importantly, Bacons
message of intellectual reform the advancement of knowledge through the revaluation
of matters mechanical could find a reflection in civic and entrepreneurial values such
as those allegorized in the emblems of the two major Londons mining corporations.
Bacon shared with his readers common interests in such entrepreneurial activities, and his
thoughts about reform could be well received among those who could see their practical
relevance in a civil and economic setting. In the following section, I will delineate this
shared entrepreneurial network of both institutional and technical figures.

1.5 - Bacon and the Company of Mineral and Battery Works

At the end of July 1608, during the course of one week, Bacon prepared a collection of
private notes in the form of a notebook he called Commentarius Solutus (literally, a
loose notebook, or a register of loose notes).19 In Bacons own description, the
notebook had the structure of a Marchants waste booke where to enter all maner of

19

Bacon, Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 18-95.

21

remembrance of matter, fourme, business, study, towching my self, service, others eyther
sparsim or in schedules, without any maner of restraint.20
The points that Bacon noted down belong to very different subjects, ranging from
considerations on his own financial situation, health, and career, to notes on natural
philosophy and on his project for a reform of knowledge, and give us a firsthand sense of
Bacons daily activities.21
Among the notes that he wrote down on July 28, is a group titled Sors sive fortunae
Praesentes (lot, or present fortunes), which listed freeholds, Bacons personal
properties, debts, and expected expenses.22 At the end of a section in which he noted his
personal estates, as last item of the list Bacon annotated his share in the Company of
Mineral and Battery Works: My Part of ye battry woorkes being of inherit . . . . 60l, that
is to say, a share of the amount of 60 pounds. In the next page of the manuscript,
annotating his Debts sperate,23 Bacon noted five pounds dividd of battry.24
The origins of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works dated back to the 1560s.
In 1565, William Humphrey, assay master of the Mint, and Christopher Schtz, a
German metallurgist from Annaberg, Saxony, were given rights for the extraction of
calamine, a zinc ore that, together with copper, was essential in the production of brass.

20

Ibid., 62.
On the characteristics of this text, and the circumstances that gave the occasion of its composition, see
Speddings introduction (Ibid., 18-37); Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart, Hostage to fortune: the troubled life
of Francis Bacon. London, Gollancz (1998) 299-302.
22
Bacon, Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 81-8.
23
Sperate, or having some likelihood of being recovered (Oxford English Dictionary, a. 1).
24
dividend of battry. Bacon, Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 84-5.
21

22

Brass production, its working in plates to be used in industry, together with the battering
and working of iron, were also given a grant that constituted the so called battery
works. In 1568, at the same time of the Company of Mines Royal, the society was given
a charter and officially constituted in a joint-stock company.25
Francis Bacons share was inherited from his father Nicholas, who died in 1579.
According to Donald, Nicholas Bacon owned half a share of the company out of thirtysix, for which he paid 36 and 10s.26 Apart from his role as a shareholder, the part that
Nicholas Bacon played in the constitution and organization of the company has never
been properly investigated. In his book on the history of the Mineral and Battery Works,
Donald was very quick to dismiss his involvement (according to him, Bacon had little or
no part in the management).27 Donald based his judgments on an evaluation of the
companys minute books, which referred to the period following the charter. However, he
did not discuss the period before 1568, in which the company, although not incorporated,
was already active.28 Moreover, as in the case of political figures like William Cecil and

25

Rees, Industry, vol. 2, 387. On the origins of the company and its links with the Company of Mines
Royal, see: Pettus, Fodinae; Stringer, Opera mineralia; William R. Scott, The constitution and finance of
English, Scottish and Irish joint-stock companies to 1720 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1912);
Rees, Industry, vol. 2; Maxwell B. Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies: The History of the Company of
Mineral and Battery Works from 1565 to 1604 Edinburgh and London, Oliver and Boyd (1961); Theodore
K. Rabb, Enterprise and empire: merchant and gentry investment in the expansion of England, 1575-1630
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press (1967); John W. Gough, The Rise of the Entrepreneur
London, Batsford (1969); Eric H. Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England.
Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press (2004).
26
Holt Wilson MSS S1/11, box 89:4:9, Ipswich and East Suffolk Record Office. Quoted in Donald,
Elizabethan Monopolies, 74, 85.
27
Ibid., 35.
28
Payments for the company shares started to be collected shortly after the patent granting: see Donald,
Elizabethan Monopolies, 74.

23

the Earl of Leicester, who both held two shares of the company but did not explicitly
figure in the societys management, the role of Nicholas Bacon would have not regarded
the day-to-day organization, but the facilitation of the companys activities at an
institutional level and in the court.29 For these reasons, Nicholas Bacons connections
with the company still have to be fully understood.30
In 1604, James I reconfirmed the Elizabethan patent of 1565 to the company of
Mineral and Battery Works. The document of 1604 listed twenty-two new shareholders
(many of whom were heirs of the old shareholders listed in the charter of 1568), but not
Francis Bacon. Nevertheless the patent, after mentioning the explicit shareholders,
referred with a formula to every other Person and Persons now having, or which
hereafter shall have any lawful Interest of or in the said Grants, Powers, Authorities,
Licences, Privileges, Benefits and Immunities.31 It is then clear that the lists of
shareholders in the charters were not complete.32 Archival evidence for the organization
of the company after 1604 is also very scant, as the extant records end with that year.
The initial goal of the companys projectors regarded the introduction and
establishment of the brass industry from Germany, virtually non-existent in England at
that time. However, the development of this technology proved harder and less
marketable than originally thought; the patent rights for brass production were soon

29

This lobbying activity was in fact expected and provided for in the charter.
Robert Tittler, Nicholas Bacon: the making of a Tudor statesman London, Cape (1976), the only
biographical study of Francis Bacons father, does not consider his involvement in the Company of Mineral
and Battery Works.
31
See for instance Stringer, Opera mineralia, 112.
32
See the partial lists of shareholders in Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 71-76.
30

24

leased, and the company turned its efforts to the making and treatment of iron and ironwire.33 Wire goods were in high demand in the English market, and supplies were
required for very diverse merchandise, such as nails, fishhooks, needles, wire, and chains.
However, most important of all were the wool-cards, humble yet essential instruments in
the rapidly-spreading woollen industry, so vital in the economy of the period.34
The companys wireworks industry was concentrated in two sites along the river
Wye, the villages of Tintern and Whitebrook, in the county of Monmouthshire, in South
Wales.35 Apart from its richness in iron ore, this area was chosen for its close proximity
to the rich wood supplies of the royal forest of Dean (situated between the rivers Wye and
Severn, in the western part of Gloucestershire), since charcoal was essential for the iron
industry. In fact, evidence for Bacons involvement in the companys operations is
related to the wood that the wire-works expected to get from the Forest. In May 1611,
Bacon and ten other shareholders addressed a request to the secretary of state Robert
Cecil:
understandinge that his Majestie wilbe pleased to sell some good proportion of
wood in the Forest of Dene, which lyes verie convenientlie to the companyes
wyer workes at Tynterne and Whitbrooke, wee are inforced to have recourse to
your Lordship as to our Gouvernor of the saide companie, homblie prayinge
your Lordship to affourde us some reasonable quantitye thereof, the better to
uphoulde the saide workes, whereof by information from our Farmers there wee

33

Rees, Industry, vol. 2, 584-596.

Ibid., 608.
35
Gough, The Rise, 84-91, 117-20; Rees, Industry, vol. 2, 596-635.
34

25

stande in suche neede, as without your Lordship's favor wee shall hardelie be
able to subsiste any longe tyme36
As the letter implied, Cecil was also a governor of the company from 1604, together
with William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke. This petition to the Secretary of State,
signed by a conspicuous number of shareholders, acted as a formal request that would
have been difficult to ignore. The Oath of the Company was clear in this respect: every
member was supposed to help and aid, to their power, unto the Governours, Deputies,
Assistants, Commonality, Officers, Members, Works and Business of the same [Society],
to the Commonwealth and Profit thereof.37 Apart from Bacon, other signatories included
Robert Sidney, James Pemberton, Charles Chewte and Nathaniel Martin, son of Sir
Richard. Sidney, Viscount Lisle and first earl of Leicester, whose sister Mary was wife to
the governor Pembroke, had strong interests in the iron industry, and figured in fact as the
first signatory, before Bacon himself.
The availability, use and correct management of wood were crucial issues for the
iron industry. The period following 1611 saw great activity of the ironworks in the Forest
of Dean, with the establishment of new furnaces and forges. However, frequent abuses
and excessive cutting of wood prompted the action of the Privy Council, which in 1618
established a commission to survey and examine into the wastes made in the Forest of

36

State Papers Domestic, SP 14/63, May 7 1611. Also see: Henry G. Nicholls, Iron making in the olden
times. London, C.A. Bartlett (1866) 23-30; Joy Hancox, Kingdom for a stage: magicians & aristocrats in
the Elizabethan theatre. Stroud, Sutton (2001) 224-6.
37
Stringer, Opera Mineralia, 75.

26

Dean by Sir Basil Brooke and others, farmers of the iron works there.38 It is likely that
Bacon was instrumental in the establishment of this investigation, for in a letter about the
treasury addressed to the King sometime in 1620, he could mention, among a list of other
issues, the time that hath been spent by us (and yet no time lost) ... about letting of
copses that lie out of parks, about the coals, about keeping the forest of Deane from
spoil....39

1.6 - Making much of Russell

Bacons private notebook of 1608, the Commentarius Solutus, is also useful in
reconstructing a different type of connection that he pursued among mining
entrepreneurs.
In a group of notes jotted down on July 25, Bacon listed a series of figures he wanted
to involve in his experimental works.40 Bacons attention concentrated on influential or
high-ranking persons, whom he knew as already interested in experimentation, or at least
as possibly so. Various courtiers and royal physicians figured in Bacons list, including
William Paddy, John Hammond, and Leonard Poe. Other possible candidates included
two ecclesiastics, Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was single and
glorious, and believing in the sense and empirical observations, and Bacons friend

38

See Acts of the Privy Council of England, May 1613-Dec 1614. 22 November 1613. Rees, Industry, vol.
1, 272-3; Nicholls, Iron Making, 30-1; Gough, Rise, 89-92. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series,
James I. 1611-1618. July 17 1618.
39
Works, 14: 86-7.
40
Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 62-4.

27

Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Chichester, also single, and rich, sickly, a professor to
some experiments.41 Bacon also considered approaching Henry Percy, ninth lord of
Northumberland, Walter Ralegh, and Thomas Harriot.
A last group of persons had connections with mining and mining enterprises. Bacon
made the following notes:
Making much of Russell that depends upon Sr Dav. Murry and by that means
drawing Sr Dav. and by him and Sr Th. Chal. in tyme the prince.
Getting from Russell a collection of phainomena, of surgery, destillations,
Minerall tryalls.42
Sr Dav. Murry and Sr Th. Chal. were respectively Sir David Murray (15671629) and Sir Thomas Chaloner (1561-1615), two courtiers very close to King James
son, prince Henry. They had both followed the prince from Scotland after the accession
of James to the English throne. Chaloner, who had a long-standing interest in the alum
industry, had traveled extensively in Italy and France. He was close to Essex and to
Bacons brother Anthony, and acquainted with Francis. In Scotland after 1599, he
became close to James, who, in 1603, put him in charge of Henry as his governor.
Murray had been Keeper of the Privy Purse, Groom of the Stole and Gentleman of the
Robes in the princes household, and Henry was very attached to him.43
The Russell of Bacons text is a more elusive character. Spedding, in a note to the
previous passage, listing a series of documents from the State Papers in which his name

41

The last name was Speddings interpretation of the note: Bp Aund..

Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 63.
43
Roy C. Strong, Henry, Prince of Wales, and England's Lost Renaissance. New York, Thames and
Hudson (1986) 13-14.
42

28

appeared, identified him in all likelihood with the Thomas Russell who was engaged
about this time, with the sanction of the Government, in experiments for separating silver
from lead ore.44 These documents show Russells familiarity with the leading officers of
the Royal Mint and even with the secretary of state Robert Cecil: Bacons mysterious
contact was thus connected with the most important courtiers and governmental officers
of his time.45
Other evidence confirms Speddings suggestion, according to which Russell was a
mining entrepreneur: in particular, documents related to patents of invention connect
Russell to Murray and Bacon in an interesting way. Their examination can help us to get
a better idea of who Russell was, and why Bacon had some interest in cultivating such a
man.

1.7 - Bacon and the Commissioners for Suits

Bacons interest in patents and monopolies dated already from the time of Elizabeth.46
Initially introduced to favor the growth of new industry and technologies in England and
to increase state revenues, Elizabeths granting system expanded to include licenses for
ordinary industries, productions, and commerce, often rewarding courtiers, servants, and
clerks of the queens household with profitable monopolies. Abuses and exploitations

44

Works, 11: 63.

State Papers Domestic, SP 14/35, Aug. 13 1608; SP 14/38, Dec. 11 1608; Ibid., Dec. 14 1608; SP 14/56,
July 29 1610.
46
William H. Price, The English Patents of Monopoly. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
(1906) 21.
45

29

made the system very unpopular, and towards the end of Elizabeths reign complaints
were repeatedly raised, until the crisis of 1601, when the parliamentary protest brought
the queen to issue a proclamation for the reformation of many abuses and misdemeanors
committed by patentees of certain privileges and licenses, to the general good of all her
Majestys loving subjects.47 Soon after his accession, James was forced to intervene
resolutely on the same issue, or at least to show his commitment to so doing. As early as
May 1603, the new king suspended monopolies and put them under review of the Privy
Council; in 1608, James established an important reviewing body, usually referred to as
the Commissioners for Suits, with the task of examining and refereeing petitions
(including patents and licenses) that were not immediately acceptable.48 The so-called
Book of Bounty of 1611 (a proclamation by James on the issue of patents and
monopolies) formalized the ongoing practice and operations of the Commissioners. For
requests that could fall within the expertise of a particular Commissioner, the suitors were
directly referred to him:
If any of [the] Suites shall require further examination or information from any
of our Officers or Commissioners, whose knowledge therein may be necessary,
for giving Us further light of the Value and Nature thereof, [the suitors] shall be
referred to those whome it concerneth, upon whose Answeres and Certificates
Wee will signifie Our further Pleasure, as cause shall require.
These officers would come to a decision only after conferring with the parties, that
doe present the said Suits, or those that may have some particuler interest in the same,

47
48

Ibid., 3-24.
Ibid., 25-6.

30

either in respect of trade or otherwise. In the case of particularly complex and technical
petitions, a full committee would meet to produce a thorough legal and technical analysis
of a case:
And because there may be Suits, which doe not fall within the knowledge or
distinction of proper Officers and Offices ... Wee have thought meet (in that
respect) to appoint a certain number of Commissioners, to examine and consider
of all such particulers, as shall be referred unto them by Us or Our Counsell.
And to preventing the passing or graunting of any thing which should be
contrary to our Lawes, We have made Our choice of persons severally qualified,
both in the understanding of our Lawes, and other knowledges, that they may be
so much the better enabled, to report the quality of such Suits, to Our Privy
Councel after conference with the Suitors, and Examination of their severall
natures, and the Circumstances depending thereupon, which would take too
much time, from Our sayd Privy Councell, if they should not be first prepared
and digested by that course which is herein expressed.49
This particular committee had to be formed by at least six members.50 As Price in his
seminal work on the origin of the English patents system noted,
Of the Commissioners, Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Julius Caesar were the most
prominent. They were on nearly every reference, whether as members of the
commission or not; and as the public career of both practically extended over the
whole reign, their connection with the patents was long and intimate.51
Like Bacon, Sir Julius Caesar, with his family, was very much involved with the
Company of Mineral and Battery works. Caesar became shareholder in 1583, and
governor of the company in 1594. From then on, he took an active part in pursuing its

49

James I, A Declaration of His Maiesties Royall pleasure, in what sort He thinketh fit to enlarge, or
reserve Himselfe in matter of Bountie (London, 1611), 9-11.
50
BL Add. Mss. 11402, May 30 1603. Cited in Price, English Patents, 25.
51
Price, English Patents, 25-6. I will discuss the role of the Commissioners more extensively in Chapter
two.

31

legal interests and obtaining a new charter in 1604.52 The same year, his brother Thomas
was nominated as deputy Governor of the Company. Moreover, Caesar was son-in-law of
Sir Richard Martin, who was joint-governor of the Company in 1594 and an influential
officer at the Royal Mint. It is then clear that figures with strong interest in mining and
metallurgical enterprises occupied key roles in relation to the patent process.

1.8 - Russell, Bacon, Sackville

Only two months before the time of the composition of his notes on Russell, Murray, and
Chaloner in the Commentarius Solutus, Bacon had been involved in the examination of a
patent advanced by Russell and Murray themselves:
May 1608, Sr David Murray et al Grant. A graunt to Sr David Murray knight &
Tho:s Russell gent of the benefitt of the sole making of Brymston and danske
Copperous wthin the Realmes of England Scotland & Ireland (wch art hath not
hiterto ben brought into any trade or mistery wthin the saide kingdomes) for the
terme of 31 yeares. Subscribed by Sr Francis Bacon, by order from the late L.
Trer [Lord Treasurer] and Sr Julius Cesar procured by Sr Tho: Lake.53
The patent refers to the late Lord Treasurer, that is to say Sir Thomas Sackville (Lord
Buckhurst), who had died only a few days before, on 19 April 1608.
There is substantial evidence to prove Sackvilles connection with Thomas Russell.
Sackville was in fact owner of iron works and furnaces close to the village of Sheffield,

52

Alain Wijffels, Caesar, Sir Julius (bap. 1558, d. 1636), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(Oxford, 2004; online ed., 2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4328, accessed 8 Aug 2008].
53
National Archives, Signet Office, Docquets Books. March 1608-October 1610. SO 3/4, May 1608. A
copy of the patent is at the National Archives, Patent Rolls Mss., 6 Jas I, part 18, n. 10 (C 66/1768). See
also Antiquary, 12, 1885: 64.

32

in the Wealden area of Sussex, which he had inherited in 1566 from his father Sir
Richard.54 However, Thomas Russell was active in Sussex, too, as we know from his
friend, the iatrochemist Timothy Willis.55 We also know that, independently from the
patent for the production of brimstone and copperas, in the summer and winter of 1608
Russell was involved in the assaying and refining of a silver ore for the Royal Mint. This
activity was conducted in the village of Maresfield, in the Weald of Sussex, at only about
five miles from Sackvilles Sheffield forges, and in close proximity to Sackvilles
properties and manor of Imberhorne.
It then seems reasonable to assume that the Lord Treasurer Sackville knew Russell
because of his activities in the ironworks in the Weald, where Russell was most likely an
assayer and ironmaster. Sackvilles patronage of Russell can also help to explain his
associations with the highest-ranking courtiers, Mint and governmental officers of the
capital, and his contacts and familiarity with Prince Henrys favorite, David Murray, and

54

For the iron industry in the Weald area in Elizabethan times, see John J. Goring, Wealden Ironmasters
in the Age of Elizabeth, in Eric W. Ives, Robert J. Knecht and John J. Scarisbrick, eds., Wealth and Power
in Tudor England. London, Athlone Press (1978) 204-227.
55
I owe the information on Russells link with Willis to Margaret Pelling. Willis, in the introduction of his
Propositiones tentationum (London, 1615), referred to him as my mineral friend Thomas Russell from
Sussex (Minerali amico Thoma Russello Sudosexio). Of course, the term mineral referred to Russells
profession. Willis reference is reliably associable to Bacons Thomas Russell, as Willis refers to the same
assaying trials and metallurgical experiments documented in the State Papers for the year 1608. Willis
stated to have met Russell first when [Russell] was making a trial in the city of London of a silver ore
found in that part of great Britain, which is Scotland, and was engaging in the first trial of the metallic ores
to be examined (dum venam argentariam apud illam magnae Britanniae partem, quae est Scotia,
repertam, nuper in arce Londinensi experiretur, primumque probandarum venarum metallicarum
tyrocinium exerceret). This fact is further confirmed by Chancery records relating to a civil trial on patent
rights involving Russell, in which Willis witnessed to have met him for the first time in 1608. National
Archives, Court of Chancery. Examiners' Office: Town Depositions, C 24/408.

33

the Secretary of State Cecil.56 Finally, as the patent record shows, it is probable that
Bacon and Russell met as a result of Bacons examination and reviewing of the patent of
May 1608.

1.9 - Russell and Iatrochemistry

In the Commentarius, Bacon recorded his intention of getting from Russell a collection
of phainomena, of surgery, destillations, Minerall tryalls.57 This brief annotation is
interesting and suggestive. Bacons reference to a collection of phainomena seems to
indicate the early modern practice of collection and exchange of recipes, curiosities, and
artisanal secrets.58 This impression is confirmed by the type of phainomena Bacon
was expecting to obtain from Russell: surgery, destillations, minerall tryalls. I will
consider this final category last. The first two groups of facts and observations (this is the
meaning of the term phainomena in this context) bore a relation to the medical world of
the empirics and iatrochemists. By destillations Bacon was clearly referring to the
chemical process, which was a favorite procedure employed in the production of medical
remedies and recipes.59 The sense of phainomena of surgery is less clear. A possible

56

It is interesting to note the case of another ironmaster of the Weald, Richard Leech, who was also
generously patronized by Lord Buckhurst. As Goring relates, Leech, starting from very humble origins,
ended his days as lord of three Sussex manors and high sheriff of Sussex and Surrey. Leechs rise in the
world was evidently assisted by Lord Buckhurst, whose ironworks he occupied at Fletching and whose
generous patronage he acknowledged in his will. See Goring, Wealden Ironmasters, 214.
57
Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 63.
58
Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature Berkeley and London, University of California Press (1994); William
Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature. Princeton, Princeton University Press (1994).
59
Books of Secrets often included detailed accounts of distillations procedures. See for instance Eamon,
Science, 137, 146, 165-6.

34

interpretation has again to do with the literature of medicinal secrets. For instance, the
author of books of Secrets, surgeon and empiric Leonardo Fioravanti, in his Cirurgia,
under the general subject of surgery detailed a great number of recipes and empirical
remedies, both based on mineral and herbal ingredients, for the medication and cure of
ulcers, wounds and sores.60 Bacon himself, in Sylva Sylvarum, in a section titled
Experiments in consort touching prohibiting and preventing putrefaction, hinted at his
interest in these remedies and medicinal experiments, useful in a great part of physic
and surgery.61 An important connection of Russell with the world of physicians was
revealed by his good friendship with the iatrochemist Timothy Willis.62
These links with the world of empirics and iatrochemistry are significant. Was
Russell involved with that context, or perhaps an empiric himself? In particular, was he
the same Thomas Russell who authored the Diacatholicon Aureum, an iatrochemical text
published in 1602 commercializing a new purgative remedy, A generall powder of Gold,
purging all offensive humours in mans bodie? 63 This connection is tempting, as an
overlapping of interests between mining and medicine was not uncommon in early
modern England. However, at the moment, apart from Russells friendship with Willis

60

Leonardo Fioravanti, La Cirurgia (Venezia, 1570).

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works, 2: 453.
62
See John H. Appleby, Willis, Timothy (b. 1560, d. in or after 1620), Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (Oxford, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2007) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29589,
accessed 4 Sept 2007]; and Williss introduction of his Propositiones tentationum (1615) [note 56 above].
63
Thomas Russell, Diacatholicon Aureum (London, 1602).
61

35

and Bacons notes in the Commentarius, there is no strong evidence connecting Thomas
Russell the metallurgist to Thomas Russell the iatrochemist.64

1.10 - Minerall Tryalls

Finally, to what was Bacon referring in planning to get from Russell a collection of
minerall tryalls?65
First of all, the meaning of the term trial deserves some comments. Looking at the
Oxford English Dictionary, it is not surprising to find that at Bacons time (and still now,
for that matter) a first use of the term was that of an examination and determination of a
cause by a judicial tribunal.66 However, a different sense of the word was (and still is)
more closely related to Bacons usage in the passage in the Commentarius: the action of
testing or putting to the proof the fitness, truth, strength, or other quality of anything a
test, or probation.67 In a different but related connotation, a trial is equivalent to the
action, method, or treatment adopted in order to ascertain the result. In this case, a trial

64

Some old references associate the author of the Diacatholicon with a Thomas Russell graduating with a
MA from Cambridge in 1590 (subsequently incorporated in Oxford in 1593). See Charles H. Cooper and
Thompson Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses. Cambridge, Deighton, Bell, & co. (1858-1913); John Peile,
Biographical register of Christ's College, 1505-1905, and of the earlier foundation, God's House, 14481505. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1910). Peile goes as far as attributing to him an
ecclesiastic career in Lincolnshire. In general, it seems to me that no strong evidence is furnished for
associating Russell with these figures: Peile referred to Cooper, and Cooper to Robert Watt, Bibliotheca
Britannica Edinburgh, Constable (1824), which however only mentioned a "Thomas Russel" as the author
of the Diacatholicon in 1602, without further information. More recently, Stephen Gaukroger has also
claimed that Bacons Russell was the author of the Diacatholicon. See: Stephen Gaukroger, Francis Bacon
and the transformation of early-modern philosophy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2001) 162.
65
Or phainomena, of ... mineral tryalls, depending on how Bacons text should be interpreted.
66
Oxford English Dictionary, 1, a.
67
Ibid., 2, a.

36

is equivalent to an investigation by means of experience; experiment (and, as a matter

of fact, the Oxford English Dictionary cites Bacons minerall tryalls of the
Commentarius as an example of this last meaning).68 Thomas Coopers Thesaurus
Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, at the entry Experimentum, translated Plinys Agere
experimenta as To put in triall, and Quintillians Deprehendere experimentis as To
finde by experience, and triall.69
Reports of experiments on minerals and metals are numerous in Bacons works, and
can be found in texts such as Phnomena Universi, Historia Densi et Rari, Sylva
Sylvarum, and the Physiological Remains.70 However, there is a much more specific
sense in which the word trial can be interpreted in the context of Bacons text in the
Commentarius. As the Oxford English Dictionary specifies, in the sixteenth century and
at Bacons time, to try a metal meant to separate it from the ore or dross by melting,
to refine, purify by fire, and to remove (the dross or impurity) from metal by fire.71
Because of this metallurgic sense, trial came also to signify the process of assaying a
small part of a metal or a mineral ore, for the purpose of investigating the proportion of

68

Ibid., 4, a.
Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (London, 1584), in Lexicons of Early
Modern English, Ian Lancashire ed. (Toronto, ON, 2006). Online resource. Date consulted: 21 October
2008. URL: leme.library.utoronto.ca.
70
Phnomena Universi, in Bacon, Philosophical Studies, 12-26, 32-4, 54; Historia Densi et Rari, in
Francis Bacon, The Instauratio Magna: Last Writings. Edited by Graham Rees. Vol. 13 of The Oxford
Francis Bacon. Oxford, Clarendon Press (2000). 40-58, 92-4, 110-4, 158; Sylva Sylvarum, in Bacon,
Works, 2: 375-6, 437, 448-50, 595-6, 599, 619-20. Inquisitions Touching the Compounding of Metals, in
Physiological Remains, Bacon, Works, 3:799-805; and Articles of Questions Touching Minerals, in
Physiological Remains, Bacon, Works, 3:806-817. Examples drawn from metallurgy are also employed in
the Novum Organum: see Bacon, Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 246, 264, 280-2, 428.
71
Oxford English Dictionary, try, v, 3.
69

37

pure metal present in its bulk. It is interesting to note that this very technical meaning
also absorbed and echoed the more general sense of investigation and experiment: in
fact, the assay of an ore was a specific type of investigation, a test to ascertain (in Latin,
experiri) the chemical composition of a material. This fact is best signified in Agricolas
terminological choice in book seven of De Re Metallica, who in fact used the term
experimentum to refer to an assay.
It is in this sense of assay that metallurgists, goldsmiths, and governmental officers
at the Mint used the term trial.72 In 1607-8, after the discovery of a large silver ore
deposit in Hilderston, Scotland, a series of assays were made, both in Scotland and in
London, at the Royal Mint in the Tower, to evaluate the quality of the rocks that had been
extracted. Several assayers were consulted, and Thomas Russell was one of them. A very
detailed record survives, compiled by John Reynolds, assistant assay-master in the
Tower, of A tryall made of the sylver ore within the Tower by Mr Russell, executed at
the presence of the Warden of the Mint, Thomas Knyvett, and of his deputy, Edmund
Doubleday [see fig. 4].73

72

Walter Raleghs assaying accounts of 1595 in the report of his travel in Guiana are a perfect example of
this use. See Sir Walter Ralegh's Discoverie of Guiana, Joyce Lorimer (ed.) Aldershot, Ashgate for the
Hakluyt Society of London (2006) 12.
73
State Papers Domestic, SP 14/35, Aug. 13 1608.

38

Fig. 4: Detail of the account of Russells assay in the Tower, 13 of August 1608 (State Papers Domestic,
SP 14/35)

The record of the assay described the refining procedure in a thorough and
quantitative style, giving full and precise specifications of the instruments used, the
materials and fluxes employed, the metal wasted, and the proportion and value of the
silver extracted. Such accounts, produced by a governmental body for an economic
purpose, but bearing a striking similarity with more modern experimental reports, deserve
further study in terms of a history or better, an archaeology of early experimentation.
This was the type of experimentation in which Thomas Russell was involved during
1608, at the very time of Bacons contacts with him. Although we do not know for sure
that these were the sort of minerall tryalls that Bacon mentioned in the Commentarius,
as he could have simply meant the term tryall in its more general sense of
experiment, this is a likely possibility. Another question worth posing is whether
reports of assays like the ones just described influenced Bacons notions and conceptions
of experiment. There is some literature discussing the role that judicial trials played in the

39

formation of that idea, but none regarding that of mineral trials: this is strange as, after
all, assaying practices were inherently based on experimental practices.74
A few paragraphs after annotating his memorandum on Russell, Bacon took other
notes concerning the preparation of a History mechanique, collecting the experiments
and observations of all Mechanical Arts. Among the places or thinges to be inquyred,
Bacon listed
First the materialls, and their quantities and proportions; next the Instruments
and Engins requisite; then the use and adoperation of every Instrument; then the
woork it self and all the processe thereof with the tymes and seasons of doing
every part thereof.75
The accounts of Russells trials would have certainly well fitted Bacons standards.
More investigation in this direction is required.

74

I owe this suggestion to Bill Newman. On Bacon and judicial trials see Peter Pesic, Wrestling with
Proteus: Francis Bacon and the Torture of Nature, Isis 90 (1999) 90-2. More discussion of the impact of
ideas from the legal profession in Bacon can be found in Harvey Wheeler, The Invention of Modern
Empiricism: Juridical Foundations of Francis Bacons Philosophy of Science, Law Library Journal, 76
(1983) 78-120; Julian Martin, Francis Bacon, the State, and the Reform of Natural Philosophy. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press (1992).
75
Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 65-6.

40

2. Bacon and the State Promotion of Innovation: the Early Stuart Patent System

Francis Bacons longstanding involvement with the early Stuart patent system has never
been studied in detail. For about two decades -from the end of the reign of Elizabeth,
until his political disgrace in 1621- Bacon played an important part in the granting of
patents and privileges for new inventions. His activity took different forms, but became
more demanding in the period between 1607 and 1617, when he was a patent referee, in
his roles as Solicitor General (until 1613), and Attorney General (after 1613).
This chapter analyzes the features of Francis Bacons responsibilities as a patent
examiner. I will show that Bacon reviewed a large number of the patents of invention
proposed during Jamess reign. This work brought him into contact with a variegated
network of early Stuart projectors, entrepreneurs, and technical experimenters. I will look
at Bacons links with these individuals, and examine the nature of their projects and of
their inventions.
Initially introduced into England during Elizabeths reign, patents for new
manufactures soon became a common instrument of economic policy. During the reign of
James I, patents retained their central political role. Early modern English patents were
not exclusively used to promote and foster technical innovation: a privilege for the
practice of a manufacture could be intended as an act of royal patronage, in order to
reward a faithful courtier, without weighing on royal revenues; or as a way for
administrators to influence and regulate and direct a particular trade or industry.
Nevertheless, many patents for new manufactures were a true attempt to introduce new
41

industries or to reward specific inventors. While the focus of this chapter will be on this
latter type of patents, and the majority of privileges for new manufactures Bacon
reviewed regarded truly innovative technologies, instruments, or machines, it is very
important to keep in mind that a grant could be the result of one, or all, of these
heterogeneous motivations.
Moreover, Francis Bacons work on patents of invention needs to be put in the
context of his more general involvement with the financial and economic matters
pertaining to the Stuart state. These types of concerns were very usual among Jamess
governmental officers and the royal councilors. In the particular case of Bacon, he
explicitly attempted to promote himself as a trustworthy councilor, state administrator,
and royal advisor on matters of treasury and on issues of state expenditures and revenues.
This is an evident but often-overlooked aspect of Bacons career.76 As this chapter will
show, if we focus on this side of Bacons activity, we can observe him as a busy state
representative, attending to prosaic and ordinary responsibilities, and engaged in
exhausting administrative negotiations with merchants, entrepreneurs, and guild officers.

2.1 A benefite to Common Wealth and Kinge

The economic historian Joan Thirsk has provided a convincing account and explanation
of the reasons behind the inception and success of the system of privileges for new

76

At least among intellectual historians and historians of science. Bacon role as kings advisor is more
stressed by economic historians see for instance John Cramsie, Kingship and Crown Finance Under
James VI and I, 1603-1625. Royal Historical Society Studies in History Series. Woodbridge and Rochester,
Boydell Press (2002)143.

42

manufactures in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. These periods saw the sharp
increase of the demand of goods on the English market, toward what Thirsk called the
birth of a consumer society.77 However, this increase of demand implied the risk of an
inbalance of trade. The English economy was characterized by the export of unrefined
wool and goods, and relied on import for many manufactures, including luxury articles.
English policymakers of the time were well aware of this inbalance, and responded to this
situation in strict mercantilist terms, attempting to reduce the dependence of foreign trade
by increasing the production of articles manufactured in England. This strategy became
common and was often repeated. The introduction of new specialized manufactures was
an obvious answer to such concerns. In the long term, the government aimed at turning
the balance of trade in favor of the English economy, achieving substantial export of
English goods on the Continent.
William Cecil was a major promoter of these economic principles, and patents of
monopoly were the main instruments he used to promote and establish new
manufactures.78 As economic historian Luu summarizes,
[the patent system] was generally designed to secure the benefits of inventions
for the country. It was also intended to encourage the flow of superior
Continental technology to England, and to reward the inventors for their labour

77

Joan Thirsk, Economic policy and projects: The development of a consumer society in early modern
England. Oxford, Clarendon (1988).
78
Thirsk, Economic policy and projects, 33-34; Lien Bich Luu, Immigrants and the industries of London,
1500-1700. Aldershot, Ashgate (2005) 61-65.

43

and expense in order to encourage others, by giving them exclusive monopolies

for between six and twenty years79
Nevertheless, mercantilism and fostering of invention were accompanied by different
needs. One was inherently caused by the mechanism promoted by patents. As soon as
new manufactures became established and successful on the market, they started to affect
royal revenues, as customs on import decreased accordingly. Because of that, grants often
started to include clauses for which a percentage of the returns had to be paid to the
Exchequer.80 Moreover, as Thirsk stated,
In the 1580s possibly, and by the 1590s certainly, some of the patentees were no
longer inventors and skilled craftsmen, but courtiers, merchants, and speculators
who planned to hire the services of such craftsmen, when they themselves
shouldered the main financial risk.81
In fact, the involvement of speculators, courtiers, and governmental officers in
industry was already present in the 1560s, as the share compositions of the companies of
Mines Royal and Mineral and Battery Works well show: Elizabeth started the practice of
rewarding courtiers with rich monopolies, which often, more than new inventions,
regarded specific and lucrative trades. At the accession of James I in 1603, the system of
patents had become a mixed institutional instrument, operating not exclusively to
promote innovation, but also to provide patronage to courtiers, and revenues to the
crown. Thirsk called the period between 1580 and 1624 the Scandalous Phase of
Projects, and indeed the late years of Elizabeths reign, and the two decades of Jamess

79

Luu, Immigrants and the industries, 64.

Thirsk, Economic policy and projects, 57-58.
81
Thirsk, Economic policy and projects, 57.
80

44

saw increased and reiterated conflicts on monopolies. In the parliament of 1621, political
opponents fiercely attacked Francis Bacon on this subject. Two monopolies came
especially under scrutiny, Sir Giles Mompesson's patent for inns and alehouses, and a
patent for the monopoly on gold and silver thread. Both patents favored courtiers
belonging to the ring of George Villiers, the favorite of the king. Edward Villier,
Georges half-brother, was a patentee for the gold and silver thread monopoly, while
Mompesson was Edwards brother-in-law.
Bacon had great familiarity with Mompesson. On Friday I left London to hide
myself in Kew, Bacon recounted George Villiers in a letter of December 1619, and yet,
that the King may perceive that in my times of leisure I am not idle, I took down with me
Sir Giles Mompesson, and with him I have quietly conferred of that proposition which
was given me in charge by his Majesty, and after seconded by your Lordship. The
Kings proposition Bacon and Mompesson quietly discussed about is not further
described in the letter, but it clearly regarded means to replenish the always wanting royal
revenues. It was this sort of familiarity that became damaging for Bacon two years after,
once Mompesson was directly charged for his abuses in 1621. The Parliament took him
into custody, while new charges accumulated daily. Finally, on the 3rd of March,
Mompesson managed to elude the vigilance of his gaolers, and before the alarm was

45

raised was on his way to France.82 The following in an excerpt from a satirical poem on
Mompesson of March 1621, well describing the general feelings on monopolies:
[...] All you which Monopolies seeke for gaines,
And faire pretences turne to other straines;
Example take by Giles Mompessons fall,
Least honie sweet soone turne to bitter gall.
Which to prevent, see that you undertake
None other thinge, but such as sure may make
A benefite to common wealth and Kinge,
Which will you wealth and honour also bringe [...]83
It is remarkable that, even in a satirical piece against a hated monopolist, the
anonymous author reminded readers of proper projects and undertakings, which can be
recognized because they benefit both common wealth and Kinge. In the Parliament of
1624, the same constructive attitude will produce the passing of the Statute of
Monopolies, a cornerstone of English patent history. This text laid the foundations of
English patent law, carefully discriminating between ordinary monopolies, and
monopolies for new inventions and for the establishment of new manufactures.84
According to the Statute, a monopoly was a grant made to person or persons Bodies
Politique or Corporate whatsoever ... for the sole buyinge sellinge makinge workinge or

82

Sidney Lee, Mompesson, Sir Giles (1583/41651x63), rev. Sean Kelsey, Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography,
Oxford
University
Press,
2004;
online
edn,
Jan
2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18932, accessed 24 March 2010]
83
The poem is part of a satirical print describing Mompessons case, The Description of Giles Mompesson
Late Knight Censured by Parliament the 17th of March A o 1620. London : s.n., 1621. STC 6769.5.
[Engraving]
84
However, the text of the Statute considerably followed the royal proclamation of 1610, The Book of
Bounty.

46

usinge of any thinge. While revoking old monopolies and prohibiting new ones, the
Statute explicitly spared old privileges for new inventions:
Any Declaration before mentioned, shall not extend to any letter Patents and
Graunts of Priviledge for the tearme of one and twentie yearns or under,
heretofore made of the sole workinge or makinge of any manner of newe
Manufacture within this Realme, to the first and true Inventor or Inventors of
such Manufactures, which others att the tyme of the makinge of such Letters
Patentt and Graunte did not use, soe they be not contrary to the Lawe nor
mischievous to the State, by raisinge of the prices of Commodities at home, or
hurt of Trade, or generallie inconvenient.
The same proviso was also valid for new privileges for new inventions, the validity
of which was limited to a period of fourteen years (two times the apprenticeship period of
seven years). The Statute also excluded grants of monopolies made to the City of
London, or to any Cittie Borough or Towne Corporate within this Realme.
Analogously, the rights of Corporations, Companies or Fellowshipps of any Art Trade
Occupation or Mistery, or to any Companies or Societies of Merchants within this
Realme were all preserved. Other consistent exceptions regarded the patents for
printing, the making of saltpeter and gunpowder, ordinance, the production of alum, and
the making of glass and smalt.85 It is remarkable to see the large number and variety of
exceptions that the Parliament allowed. It is important to note that, as the following
sections will show, the totality of patents for new manufactures refereed by Bacon would
have been in accordance with the rules defined by the Statute.

85

Statutes of the Realm, 4 (1547-1624):1212-1214.

47

2.2 This Eating Canker of Want

Bacons work on patents is part of his more general involvement in matters of royal
revenues and treasury, which as records show became more relevant after 1612, and
culminated at the time of Bacons nomination as Lord Chancellor.
The improvement of royal income was a constant necessity of Jamess government.
Together with the throne, James inherited from Elizabeth a problematic financial
situation. Elizabeth and her lord treasurer, Lord Burghley, had been able to maintain the
state debt inside reasonable limits, through what has been called a policy of princely
parsimony and cutting of expenses.86 The advent of James brought more demands and
requests for the treasury. For one thing, James was a foreign king, who had to win the
favor of his new subjects and establish and reinforce bonds with English nobility. This
was often achieved through royal bounty. For a King not to be bountiful were a fault,
was a policy that the king fully endorsed.87 The considerations behind an increase of
royal benevolence were not only practical, but also belonged to a humanist tradition for
which royal bounty coincided with and confirmed notions of the godlike nature of the
king. James echoed such ideas in his Basilikon Doron, the mirror-of-princes text he
wrote for his son, Prince Henry.88 Apart from the necessity of royal bounty, James had
extra expenses due to his wifes court and his sons court and household at its

86

Cramsie, Kingship and Crown Finance, 29.

Robert Cecil, quoted in Linda Levy Peck, Court patronage and corruption in early Stuart England.
Boston and London, Unwin Hyman (1990)13.
88
Levy Peck, Court patronage and corruption, 14.
87

48

establishment in 1603, this last group counted 141 courtesans.89 These additional costs
were coupled with a traditional and chronic deficiency of the revenue system. As a
consequence, the king had often necessity to turn to parliament for subsidy, and to require
frequent loans from the City of London.
The initial years of Jamess reign were dominated by the project for the unification
of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland. However, the opposition of parliament
soon brought the union to a halt, and after 1607, James concentrated more strongly on
financial matters, in the attempt to cope with the omnipresent financial troubles.
Addressing the lords of the Privy Council in a letter of that year, James compared these
troubles to a Canker, a consuming disease for which a remedy needed to be found:
My Lords, The only Disease and Consumption which I can ever apprehend as
likeliest to endanger me is this eating Canker of Want which being removed I
could think myself as happie in all other respects as any other King or Monarch
that ever was since the Birth of Christ: In this disease I am the Patient and yee
have promised to be the Physicians and to use the best care uppon me that your
witte faithfulnes and diligence can reach unto.
The kings councilors could expect a sensible patient, willing to diet and accept all
reasonable cures:
As for my Part you may assure yourselves that I shall facilitate the Cure by all
the means possible for a poor patient both by observing as strait a dyett as ye can

89

James M. Sutton, Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (15941612), Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12961, accessed 31 March 2010]

49

in Honour and reason prescribe unto me as also by using seasonablie and in the
right forme such Remedies and Antidotes as ye are to applie to my disease.90
The king dictated the general lines, strongly pushing the councilors to find all
meanes of Addition and encrease of rent, as well ... some newe and lawful inventions
and projects, and, at the same time, to think uppon the beast meanes of substraction [sic]
and decrease of Charges, as well by reformation of Corruption and Abuses, and by
cutting off nedeles superfluities.
From this period on, two councilors particularly took charge of providing such
Remedies and Antidotes: Robert Cecil, the earl of Salisbury, and the new Lord
Treasurer from 1608; and Sir Julius Caesar, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer in
1606.91 Robert Cecil was instrumental in proposing the so-called Great Contract to the
Parliament: a bargain through which the Parliament would have provided 200,000 a
year for the king, in exchange for some compensatory benefits, like the ending of
purveyance and a modification of the much-disliked system of wardship.92 However,
this scheme ended up in nothing because of the strong parliamentarian opposition.

90

in John Strype, Brief annals of the Church and state under the reign of Queen Elizabeth [] London,
printed for Edward Symon, against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill (1731) 401.
91
Cramsie, Kingship and Crown Finance, 80; Frederick C. Dietz, English public finance, 1558-1641. New
York and London, The Century co. (1932) 145-146.
92
Through Purveyance, the royal household was entitled to use compulsion to obtain foodstuffs at
prices far beneath the going rate. Wardship was a feudal institute by which the king had a right on the
guardianship and custody of the person and lands of a minor with all profits accruing during his minority
(OED, wardship, 1a). The king often sold such right. The Great Contract proposed to restrict sales of
wardships to the family and friends [of the minor in question], at fixed rates, but Parliament asked for the
complete abolition of such right. From: Pauline Croft, Cecil, Robert, first earl of Salisbury (15631612),
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4980, accessed 31 March 2010].

50

After the death of Cecil in 1612, the role of Caesar, one of Bacons closest friends,
became especially relevant.93 The king did not immediately choose a new Lord Treasurer,
but decided to establish a treasury commission, under the guidance of Caesar. A
subcommittee was also established, with the goal of examining projects. Francis Bacon,
at that time Solicitor General, was one of the members of the subcommittee on projects,
together with Julius Caesar, Sir Henry Hobart, the Attorney General, and others. It is
interesting to note that several of the members of this committee Bacon, Caesar, Sir
Thomas Parry, Sir Walter Cope were also members of the commission for suits or, like
Bacon and Hobart, were directly involved in the patent system. Notwithstanding the
ironic and derogatory comments reported by the gossipy John Chamberlain,94 it makes
sense to imagine that they were in fact chosen for their familiarity with projects and
projectors. Their analysis was finally presented to the king in an extensive report, listing

93

Caesar became Master of the Rolls in 1614, but, as a privy councilor, maintained a strong influence on
economical matters and was often consulted by the king. On this issue, see Cramsie, Kingship and Crown
Finance, 142; and Lamar M. Hill, Bench and bureaucracy: the public career of Sir Julius Caesar, 15801636. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press (1988) 197-9.
94
There is a commission out till the end of this month to Sir Thomas Parry, Sir Julius Caesar, Baron
Sotherton, Mr. Attorney, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir George Carew, Sir George More, Sir Walter Cope, and two
or three more, to devise projects and means for money. The world thinks it a strange choice, since most of
them are noted for not husbanding and well governing their own estate. God keep them from base courses!
Yet the speech goes that they harp most upon debasing of money. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley
Carleton. August 11 1612. in The Court and Times of James the First; illustrated by authentic and
confidential letters, from various public and private collections. [Compiled by Thomas Birch] Edited, with
an introduction and notes, by the author of Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea [i.e. Robert Folkestone
Williams] 2 vols. London, Henry Colburn (1848) vol 1, 193-194. [Modern edition: Dudley Carleton to
John Chamberlain, 1603-1624: Jacobean letters (Maurice Lee, Jr. ed.) New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers
University Press (1972).]

51

various projects related to royal revenues, but also to activities like fishery, the starch
industry, and the reform of apprenticeship.95
From this period we also start to have records showing Bacons growing closeness to
the king in an attempt to present himself as a capable counselor on questions of finance.
In an interesting letter of September 1612, Bacon confirmed the king that
I have with all possible diligence, since your Majestys progress, attended the
service committed to the sub-commissioners touching the repair of your
Majestys means; and this I have done not only in meeting and conference and
debate with the rest, but also by my several and private meditation and inquiry.
Bacons explicit hopes were those of becoming a privileged interlocutor: beside the
joint account which we shall give to the Lords, I hope I shall be able to give your Majesty
somewhat ex proprio. He reminded the king of some of his previous suggestions on
wards and revenues from the rent of land: in particular, this last project required serious
consideration and judgment, as projects are like Aesops tongues, the best meat and
the worst, depending on how they are chosen or handled. Echoing the kings letter of
1607, Bacon very carefully fashioned himself as one of the trustful and reliable
physicians needed to find a remedy for the kings eating Canker of Want:
Your Majestys recovery must be by the medicines of the Galenists and
Arabians, and not of the Chemists or Paracelsians. For it will not be wrought by
any one fine extract or strong water, but by a skilful compound of a number of
ingredients, and those by just weight and proportion, and that of some simples
which perhaps of themselves or in over-great quantity were little better than
poisons, but mixed and broken and in just quantity are full of virtue.

95

Works, 11: 314-336.

52

Criticizing hasty remedies and special solutions, Bacon was in fact trying to
dissociate himself from the heredity of Robert Cecil, just deceased in May, and from his
effort to find a single solution to the kings financial problems, through the failed attempt
of the Great Contract of 1610. These courses and others the like I hope are gone with the
deviser of them; which have turned your Majesty to inestimable prejudice. Bacons
intentions to be part of the new group of kings counselors in matter of finance could
not be clearer.96
In April 1615, Bacon wrote a letter to the king that requires special attention. 97 It not
only shows Bacons continuing involvement in advising the king on matters of revenue,
but gives very interesting evidence on Bacons general attitude towards projects and
projectors. To the letter Bacon attached two papers, now lost. They regarded projects that
Bacon had anticipated to the king; they were sent because lately (perhaps out of too
much desire, which induceth too much belief,) I was bold to say that I thought it as easy
for your Majesty to come out of want as to go forth of your gallery. So that the king
would not take him for a dreamer or a projector, Bacon decided to provide some more
details and some grounds of my hopes. In the first paper, Bacon had put together a list
of what he called increasements sperate, which very likely were projects bearing
promise of revenue. Bacon was very confident in them: I beseech you to give me leave

96
97

Works, 11: 310-314.

Works, 12: 129-130.

53

to think that if any of the particulars fail; it will be rather for want of workmanship in
those that shall deal in them than want of materials in the things themselves.
In the other paper, Bacon informed the king, there were many discarding cards,
that is to say projects on which one could not count. Bacon was sending it
chiefly that your Majesty may be the less surprised by projectors, who pretend
sometimes great discoveries and inventions in things that have been
propounded, and perhaps after a better fashion, long since.
We do not know to which kind of projects Bacon is referring in this passage; but
Bacon was clearly aware that the king shared his skepticism toward many projectors.
Bacons critical tone and skeptical attitude remind one of the Novum Organum and of his
comments on projects from the mechanical arts:
In general and commonly in mechanical works [in Operibus Mechanicis] things
are taken for new discoveries [or inventions, pro novis Inventis] if someone
buffs up with greater subtlety discoveries made long since, or decks them out
more elegantly, or unites and put them together, or adapts them better to their
use, or also makes the mass or volume of the work greater or smaller than it
used to be, and so on98
Bacons influence as councilor after 1615 grew even more. Bacons career was
further advanced thanks to his friendship with George Villiers, the kings favorite. After
his nomination to the Privy Council (June 1616) he became Lord Keeper in March of
1617, and Lord Chancellor in January of 1618. His association with Villiers was already
well established by 1616. Bacon, then fifty-five years old, was thirty-one years older than

98

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 142-143. A similar passage is also present in Filum
Labyrinthi, sive Formula inquisitionis, in Works 3: 497; and Cogitata et Visa: see Benjamin Farrington,
The Philosophy of Francis Bacon. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press (1964) 74.

54

Villiers, and took the role of a mentor to the young favorite. It is in this period that
Villiers tried unsuccessfully to move Bacon to the chancellorship of the Exchequer.99
Two documents with Bacons advices addressed to Villiers are extant. They include
discussions of trade and economic activities. Bacons suggestions on these topics are
rather traditional, following guidelines for the development of agriculture, fishery,
mining, and for the establishment of English manufactures and the cutting of foreign
import, in order to improve the balance of trade. Remarkably, Bacon also suggested to
Villiers not to rely on monopolies: But especially care must be taken, that monopolies,
(which are the canker of all trades,) be by [no] means admitted under the pretence or the
specious colour of the public good;100 it is an irony of history that, five years later,
during the parliamentary crisis of 1621, the appropriateness of Bacons suggestion will be
proved the hard way, and at Bacons own expense.

2.3 Bacon as Patent Referee

Bacon became a patent referee when he was appointed Solicitor General on 25 June
1607. His work of referee continued and intensified after his appointment as Attorney
General, on 27 October 1613. These two institutional roles were central to the
administrative process of the granting of a new patent. The role of the Solicitor and of the
Attorney was principally that of supervising the patent from a legal point of view, in

99

Cramsie, Kingship and Crown Finance, 142; Ronald A. Rebholz, The life of Fulke Greville, first Lord
Brooke, Oxford, Clarendon Press (1971) 245.
100
Works, 13: 49.

55

order to avoid the conferment of a grant with unlawful effects or implications. For this
reason, in an initial stage petitions from patentees were addressed to the royal law
officers for approval. Only after the officers had considered and acknowledged the
patents lawfulness, a bill was drafted, which was in turn transmitted to the Signet Office,
the Office of Privy Seal, and the Chancery.101 The Signet Office registers or docquet
books kept track of the bills and one of the reasons to do so was in order to calculate the
fees due to the office clerks. The docquet was a summary of the bill, delineating its
content and listing the officers responsible for its authorization.102 Because of these
cumbersome registration procedures, we can discover that, in the decade between 1607
and 1617, Bacon reviewed and passed about half of the forty privileges for new
inventions that were approved in that period.103 The following two lists track the

101

On the bureaucratic procedure administering grants, see Geoffrey R. Elton, The Tudor Constitution.
Documents and commentary. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1965) 116: By custom, and by a
Council ordinance of 1444, all grants made by the Crown were supposed to follow a strict bureaucratic
routine. The prospective grantee put in his petition which would receive the kings approval expressed by
his signature; this signed bill was then a warrant to the signet office to make out a warrant to the privy seal
office, which in turn authorised the Chancery to issue the actual grant under the great seal for this alone
carried legal force.
102
When a king's bill was submitted to the sovereign for signature, it was accompanied by a summary of
its contents, known as a docquet, which was signed by the law officer or clerk of the signet responsible for
preparing the bill. The docquet was entered on the bill near its lower left-hand corner. The clerks of the
signet kept registers of these docquets for the purpose of calculating the fees that were due to them. See:
National Archives online Catalogue, Series SE 3 (Signet Office and Home Office: Docquet Books and
Letters Recommendatory) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/ ; last consulted April 26 2010.
The index of the Signet docquets books belongs to the series SE 4 at the National Archives. As the
Catalogue states, The first two volumes of the index for the years between 1584 and 1624 have been
printed by the British Record Society (Index Library, Vol. IV, London, 1890). See: W. P. W. Phillimore,
The Index Library. An Index to Bills of Privy Signet, commonly called Signet Bills, 1584 to 1596 and 1603
to 1624, with a Calendar of the Writs of Privy Seal, 1601to 1603. London, The British Record Society
(1890).
103
It is interesting to note that, while we have good information for the Elizabethan period, and for the
years after 1617, the privileges for inventions approved between 1603 and 1617 the most interesting ones
in relation to Bacon are not properly documented, with the exception of an old and partial account in the

56

privileges for new inventions that Bacon refereed respectively as Solicitor and Attorney
General:

Signet
Registration

Patentees

Invention/
Manufacture
Brimstone and
Copperas
Press ware, wood
plates, clay pipes
Musical
instruments
Making of copper
by dissolution
Silver gilding of
leather

May 1608

Sir David MurrayD *, Thomas Russell

Oct. 1608

Symon Sturtevant

Mar. 1609

Peter Edney, George Gill

Jan. 1610

Thomas Russell, Sir David MurrayD *

Oct. 1611

Philip Onslowe

Sept. 1612

Joseph Usher, Warner Rich, Godfrey de Vette

Water pumps

May 1613

Adam NewtonD, John Southcote, JohnWood

Steeping and
tillage of seeds

1. Bacons patents, 1607-1613 [D: included in ODNB; * : knight or peer]

Antiquary (see: Thomas F. Ordish, Early English Inventions. The Antiquary, 12 (1885); 1-6 (part I); 61-5
(part II); 113-8 (part III)) Many studies have relied on Woodcrofts Victorian index of English patents of
invention, which however starts with records from March 1617. As John Hewish explains, the reasons for
such initial date was only related to the availability of previously compiled indexes: writing at the end of
the 19th century ... E. V. Hulme stated that Woodcrofts task was assisted by the existence of a manuscript
calendar at the old Patent Office in Quality Court, where a record of grants dating from the year 1617
appears to have been kept with some regularity by the Clerks of the Letters Patent down to the year 1851
... Because the patents and specifications were selected for publication on the basis of his indexes, the first
published series runs from 1617 to 1852, misleading many into supposing that the earliest invention patent
was granted in 1617. John Hewish, Rooms Near Chancery Lane. The Patent Office Under The
Commissioners, 1852-1883. The British Library, London (2000); 35. Hulmes quote is from E.W. Hulme,
English Patent Law, its History, Literature, and Library. London, Library Bureau (1898) 56.

57

Signet
Registration

Patentees

Feb. 1614

Edmund Brunt

Mar. 1614

John Levingston

Mar. 1614

William Ellyott, Mathias Meysey [Meseye]

Jul. 1614
Aug. 1614

Lord Edmund SheffieldD *, Sir John Bourcheir*,

Thomas Russell
Charles Thynn, Thomas Moseley, John Moore, Thomas
Godstow

Invention/
Manufacture
Engine for
dressing of meal
Water pumps
(lease of
privilege)
Conversion of
iron into steel
Making of copper
Making of salt
Making of stone
pots
Making of glass
by sea coal & pit
coal
fortage and
Lyneage
Making of
farthing tokens
Conversion of
iron into steel

Sept. 1614

Thomas Browne, Tobie Steward, Nicholas Burleigh

Jan. 1615

Lord Philip HerbertD *, Sir Thomas Howard*, Sir Robert

MansellD *, Sir Edward ZouchD *

Dec. 1615

Symon Sturtevant, Abraham Williams

Jul. 1616

Edward Woodward, Thomas Garrett [Garatt]

Jul. 1616

William Ellyott, Mathias Meysey [Meseye]

Feb. 1617

John Ketchet

Water mills

Mar. 1617

Michaell Van Elderhuis [Michiel van Elderhuys]

Water pumps

Mar. 1617

Lord Edward Somerset

D*

Making of
saltpeter &
gunpowder

2. Bacons patents, 1613-1617 [D: included in ODNB; * : knight or peer]

58

Who were the patentees appearing in these lists? Many of them are little-known, or
completely unknown, figures. Of the thirty-five patentees, only seven have an entry or are
mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography (and three of them appear in a single
patent, the one for glass of June 1615).104 In terms of social ranking, the lists count five
knights and three peers.105
Some of these figures were explicitly courtiers. This is the case of Sir David
Murray, gentleman of the princes bedchamber in 1608, and from 1610 groom of the
stole, Adam Newton, tutor to the prince and his secretary from 1610, John Levingston,
groom of the kings bedchamber, Lord Philip Herbert, a favorite of James, and Lord
Edward Somerset, privy councilor and Lord Privy Seal from 1616. Sir Thomas Howard
was the second son of Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, a trusted privy councilor
and Lord Treasurer from 1614 and in 1615, at the time of the patent.106 Finally, Sir
Robert Mansell was Bacons brother-in-law, having married Bacons half-sister
Elizabeth. Mansell had been close to Prince Henry and, after the death of the prince in
1612, to Robert Carr and George Villiers, the kings favorites.
Various patentees were also close to the court or to high ranking governmental
figures. As shown in Chapter one, the metallurgist and mining projector Thomas Russell

104

Note that the fourth glass patentee is Sir Thomas Howard, second son of Thomas Howard, Earl of
Suffolk.
105
As a matter of fact, the figures mentioned in the ODNB are all knights or peers, with the exception of
Adam Newton, who will become baronet only on 2 April 1620. See: ODNB.
106
With the ascent of the new royal favorite, George Villiers, Suffolk suffered a swift downfall,
culminating with the trial for corruption to him and his wife in 1619, where they were both found guilty,
heavily fined, and briefly imprisoned.

59

was close to Sir David Murray and clearly associated to Prince Henrys court. The
inventor Simon Sturtevant enjoyed for a period the patronage of the king and of Robert
Cecil, while being acquainted with Sir Thomas Chaloner, Prince Henrys governor;107 his
co-patentee, Abraham Williams, was an under-secretary to the secretary of state
Winwood. Also, Robert Cecil patronized both of the two instrument makers appearing in
the patent registered at the signet in March of 1609, Peter Edney and George Gill. Peter
Edney was also a royal musician, and close to the court of Prince Henry, to whom he
provided musical instruments.108
Foreigners constitute another interesting group of patentees. This is the case for
Warner Rich and Godfrey de Vette, described as free denizens, John Ketchner, who was
described as a Germane in a letter of 28 March 1618 to the Lord Maior and to the
Aldermen of the City of London from Privy Council,109 and Michiel van Elderhuys, a
Dutch engineer from Delft.110

107

William H. Sherman, Patents and Prisons: Simon Sturtevant and the Death of the Renaissance
Inventor. Huntington Library Quarterly 72 (2009) 248-249; Peter Holman, An Addicion of Wyer
Stringes beside the Ordenary Stringes: the Origin of the Baryton, in J. Paynter, R. Orton, P. Seymour and
T. Howell (eds.). Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought. London and New York, Routledge (1992)
1098-1115.
108
Holman An Addicion of Wyer Stringes beside the Ordenary Stringes: the Origin of the Baryton,
1108. See also Appendix 2.
109
Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1617-19. Edited by J. V. Lyle. London. H. M. Stationary Office
(1929) 108.
110
On van Elderhuys, see: Resolutin Staten-Generaal Oude en Nieuwe Reeks 1576-1625
(www.inghist.nl/retroboeken/statengeneraal/ last accessed 29 April 2010), part 2 p. 47 (5 April 1613); part
4 p. 400 (6 March 1620), 609 (9 October 1620), 667 (7 Dicember 1620), 682 (29 Dicember 1620); part 5 p.
148 (12 May 1620); part 13 p. 691 (1606); and Resolutionen der Generale Staten Uit de XII. Eeuw. in
Archief voor kerkelijke en wereldsche Geschiedenissen inzonderheid van Utrecht. Vol. 5-6 (1846); 274 (5
April 1613).

60

I already described the case of Thomas Russells patent of 1608, for which we have
notes from Bacons own notebook of the summer of 1608, the Commentarius Solutus,
showing his direct involvement with the mining projector.111 This case is special, exactly
because we have firsthand testimony from Bacon, through his notebook, of his direct
contact with the entrepreneur. Unfortunately, we do not possess similar notebooks for any
other period of Bacons life this is not a surprising fact, if we consider Bacons high
political role, and the potentially embarrassing and compromising character of many of
Bacons notes and observations: because of this, it is plausible to think that Bacon got rid
of them (with the exception of Commentarius Solutus).
For this reason, the reconstruction of Bacons interactions with the patentees needs to
follow a different path, looking at indirect evidence Bacon left of his work as referee in
letters of both personal and institutional character, and at patents records themselves.
These documents allow us to have a more detailed picture of Bacons work; most of all,
they let us understand that, in his role as patent referee, Bacon was not just examining
documentation and drawing up documents; on the contrary, his role implied actual and
direct contacts with the patentees. The following sections will describe this evidence
more precisely.

111

See Chapter one.

61

2.4 Patent Conflicts: the Production of Glass By Sea Coal

First of all, sources show that the patent process often implied extensive negotiations with
the patentees. The patent for the production of glass by sea coal is a good example of
this fact, and well illustrates the mediatory function that Bacons role entailed.
Patents for the production of glass had a long history dating from Elizabethan times.
Foreign manufacturers from the Low Countries and France asked for licenses and state
support during Elizabeths reign. At the end of the sixteenth-century, the English glass
industry was organized around two main productions, crystal manufacture, located in
London, and the production of window and common glass, scattered in the rest of the
country. The first decade of the seventeenth-century saw the establishment of a crystal
monopoly in London under William Robson (or Robinson), who obtained a letter
patent for that production in 1606. At the same time, Isaac Bungar, a London merchant,
through an aggressive marketing strategy, was able to establish a de facto monopoly on
the London common glass market, without the need of a patent.
This state of affairs saw a complete reversal in the second decade of the century. The
critical factor affecting the industry was a major technological development, that is to say
the passage from wood-fueled furnaces to coal furnaces. The government strongly
endorsed and pushed for the passage to coal, as traditional wood furnaces produced a
serious wood shortage the iron industry being another major wood consumer. The move
to new furnaces provided real technical challenges, and several patents related to these

62

new requirements reflect such developments. A first one was issued in July 1610 to Sir
William Slingsby and others.112 Finally, in March 1611, a cartel of patentees lead by the
courtier Sir Edward Zouch was able to obtain a patent for the exclusive right to make
glass with sea- or pit-coal for twenty-one years.113
The grant of the patent for coal furnaces to Zouch and his group inaugurated a bitter
and ruthless legal battle between them and the main promoter of wood furnace glassmaking, William Robson.114 As a royal lawyer and councilor, Francis Bacon took am
active part in the attempt to settle the various disputes and to mediate between the
patentees. The most heated conflicts started in July 1613, when Zouch and his group,
against their patents requirements, started to produce crystal, Robsons own industry.
After Robsons complaints, the Privy Council invited the Solicitor and Attorney General
to call both parties before you, and to looke into their Letters Pattentes, and to consider
of the extent of their severall grauntes, and thereupon to certifie us your opinion.115 And,
after further controversy, on the 31st of August 1613, the Council stated that the parties
on both sides shall attend with thier learned councell, his Majesties Attourney and
Solicitor Generall. The royal lawyers were required to take notice of the cause with as
much expedicion as may stand with conveniency, and, upon true informacion of the state

112

Pat. Rolls 8 Jac. I, p. 12, m. 20, cited in Eleanor S. Godfrey, The development of English glassmaking,
1560-1640. Oxford, Clarendon Press (1975) 59.
113
Pat. Rolls 9 Jac. I, p. 29, m. 19 (25 March 1611); cited in Godfrey, The development of English
glassmaking, 59-60.
114
See Projectors, Legal Battles, and the Transition to Coal, in Godfrey, The development of English
glassmaking, 38-74.
115
Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1613-1614; 162-163.

63

thereof, to reporte to their Lordships their opinions of the same.116 Their report was
ready and at the end of October 1613 the Council issued an order ... that Bowess patent
held by Robson should stand in law, that Zouch must stop making glasses either in the
metal or the fashion prejudicial to Robson.117 Because of his court connections, a new
patent was granted to Zouch and others on March 1614, giving them exclusive rights to
cover every conceivable type of glass, and, at the same time, forbidding anyone to
produce glass by wood furnaces, and to import glass from abroad. As soon as the
privilege was granted, on March 14, Zouch raised a complaint against Robson, claiming
that, contrary to the patents provision, he had imported a greate quantity of glass
from forreyne partes. The glass had been confiscated by Zouch and his affiliates, but
Robson, in a violent and forcible maner, had taken it back. In the complaint, Zouch
asked the council that the parties could meet again in front of Bacon, by now Attorney
General, and the new Solicitor General.118 The following year, Sir Robert Mansell,
Francis Bacons brother in law, acquired Zouchs patent, a full monopoly on any type of
glass making. Bacon himself, as Attorney Generall, drafted the new document,119 which
gave Mansell full control of the glass industry, amid oppositions and parliamentary
investigations, until its revocation in 1642.120

116

Ibid., 192-193.
Godfrey, The development of English glassmaking, 67. A.P.C. 1613-1614; 250.
118
Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1613-1614; 376-377.
119
See patent list 2.
120
In May 1623 the Parliament revoked Mansells grant, but the Privy Council gave him a new patent on
terms almost identical to the first. Mansells patent was not among the manufactures banned by the Act of
Monopolies in 1624. See Andrew Thrush, Mansell, Sir Robert (1570/711652), Oxford Dictionary of
117

64

2.5 Mediating Activities: the Commission for Suits

Apart from the mediatory responsibilities he had in his role as Solicitor and Attorney
Generall, Bacons interactions with the patentees can also be examined further, looking at
the activity of the so-called Commission for Suits. I already mentioned in Chapter one
that James established this particular commission in order to deal with grants and suits
requiring special attention and enquiry. The guidelines for the Commissions activity are
delineated in Jamess Book of Bounty, a royal proclamation regarding suits published in
1610, but already prepared in November 1608.121 On November 16, 1608, the king
officially appointed a group of officers as Sub-Commissioners to consider on suits
presented to the King, and to report thereon to the Council or the principal
Commissioners. The former group was also given office to prepare a schedule of suits
fit to be granted or refused, which was subsequently added to the kings proclamation.122
A letter, dated 28 February 1609, found among the Cecil Papers, clarifies the exact
process of appointment. The king (via Cecil) notified that the commissioners he initially
nominated Thomas Fleming, Chief Justice of the Kings Bench, Edward Coke, Chief
Justice of Common Pleas, Laurence Tanfield, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and others
were not able to meet in regard of their other occupations. Because of that, the king

National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17992, accessed 11 May 2010]; Godfrey, The development of
English glassmaking, 75-135.
121
See Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, James I, XXXVII, Nov. 1608; 467.
122
Ibid.

65

made choice of you our Second Secretary [John Herbert], our Chancellor of our
Exchequer [Julius Caesar] and of our Duchy of Lancaster [Thomas Perry], and
associated to you our Serjeants, our Attorney [Henry Hobart] and Solicitor
General [Francis Bacon] and the Recorder of our City of London [Henry
Mountague], being likewise of our counsel learned, the Chamberlains of our
Exchequer [Walter Cope, George Moore, ], and a Clerk of our Council and of
our Signet
There is no doubt that this is the sub-commission to which the previously mentioned
document in the State Papers refers. At the same time, it is also clear that this is the group
that was constantly referred to in the following years as the commissioners for suits.
The goal of the commissioners was that of judging how suits may hurt our revenues,
stand with the common good of our subjects, or be agreeable to our laws. The king
suggested that the commissioners would meet at some convenient times once or twice in
the week, in a place where you or some of you may meet and where the suitors may
attend you. Following these meetings, when you have maturely considered of those
things [...] and resolved how far forth and in what sort they may in your judgment be
convenient to pass or not, you shall make report of your judgments in writing to the
Privy Council or to other kings councilors.123
As the Book of Bounty stated, monopolies were not receivable suits; however,
Projects of new invention were admissible, so they be not contrary to the Law, nor
mischievous to the State, by raising prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or

123

'Cecil Papers: February 1609', Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 21: 1609-1612
(1970), pp. 13-26. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=112439 Date accessed: 15
May 2010.

66

otherwise inconvenient.124 As a matter of fact, many of the records accounting the

activity of the Commission are for suites related to issues of trade and industry, and, as
such, referring to patents and patentees. In 1611 this was for instance the case of the
petition of Sir George Bruce for the manufacture of white salt,125 which was finally
granted after the commissioners enquired the Lord Mayor and several of the salters
operating in the City about their possible objections.126 This was not the case for one
William Thomas, who asked for privilege in the production of brushes through the sole
gathering and dressing of a kind of Heath growing in this kingdom. This time, the
London haberdashers and brushmakers vetoed the patent, finding the allegation of
Thomas altogether idle and untrue, rather tending to a Monopoly than to produce any
new invention.127 From the records, the Commission seems to have been active until
1614, with a gap until 1618, when its activities started again. The inactivity of the
commission was likely caused by the end of Sir Julius Caesars activity as Chancellor of
the Exchequer, and his move to the mastership of the rolls in 1614. It was Francis Bacon
who suggested to Buckingham in 1617 to set up the commission again.128 Finally, in a
letter of 1620 from Bacon to the king we can learn that it is true that Bacon ever
advise[d] the continuing and upholding the Commission of Suits; nevertheless, he was

124

Book of Bounty (1610); 21.

The patent regarded the making of white salt to supply Lynn, Boston, and Kingston-upon-Hull.
126
'Monopolies', Analytical index to the series of records known as the Remembrancia: 1579-1664 (1878),
pp. 213-227. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=59953 Date accessed: 15 May
2010.
127
['Monopolies', Analytical index to the series of records known as the Remembrancia: 1579-1664 (1878),
pp. 213-227. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=59953] Date accessed: 15 May
2010.
128
Works, 13: 251.
125

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now less keen in continuing the commission, having [it] been once down and now a
little up again, and its operations being very limited.129
However, two special cases involving Bacon and the commission stand out and
require a more detailed analysis. In 1612, the commissioners reviewed the invention of
the Ingyner Richard Barnwell (or Barnewell), a water pump. In another section, 130 I
will discuss the model that Barnewell presented to the commissioners: together with
other similar cases, this is evidence of Francis Bacons direct knowledge of the
inventions presented with the patents. A further interesting example is that of the inventor
Clement Dawbeney, which I will consider in the following section. This case shows well
as Bacons roles of commissioner and royal lawyer placed him center stage as a mediator
between inventors, entrepreneurs, and social parts and civic institutions.

2.6 Dawbeneys Invention

Clement Dawbeney (or Daubigny) was another inventor and entrepreneur who
certainly had several contacts with Francis Bacon. In 1612, Dawbeney put forward a
petition to patent a slitting mill, an engine for cutting iron into rods.131 The patent
included an inhibition to the import of Flemish iron.

129

Works, 14: 90.

See 2-7. Bacon and Early Patent Specifications.
131
This industry was imported in England from the Flanders in the 1590s. The Scottish mining
entrepreneur Sir Bevis Bulmer received a patent for a slitting mill in England in 1588, renewed in 1606.
See Rhys Jenkins, Links in the history of engineering and technology from Tudor times: the collected
papers of Rhys Jenkins. Cambridge, Printed for the Newcomen society at the University press (1936) 12130

68

The request of a ban on the import of iron raised a strong opposition among the City
merchants. An account from the Company of Ironmongers gives extensive details of the
ensuing meetings and negotiations. A first meeting of the Commissioners for Suits was
held at Sir Julius Caesars house, at the presence of the various parts:
This matter was referred by the King unto committees: viz. Sir Julius Caesar, Sir
Thomas Parry, Sir Henry Hubbard the Kings Attorney, and Sir Francis Bacon
the Kings Maties Solicitor, where the matter coming in conference before the
said Commissionrs att the house of Sir Julius Caesar on Saterday the sixt of
March, 1612, the wardens of ye ironmongers, the blacksmiths, carpenters, some
of the Trinitie house, and farmers of the customs, being there [pre]sent
The ironmongers deliberated against the concession of the patent and the ban of
foreign iron, claiming that the stop of import would have caused an increased pressure on
English ironworks, with a damaging impact on the already poor reserves of wood. In their
evaluation, this situation would have ended up producing higher prices and a scarcity of
iron on the market. Dawbeney had backers himself among shipwrights and nail makers,
who apparently thought that the iron brought from beyond seas was useless, brittle, and
unserviceable; for this reason, the commissioners referred the matter further to the Lord
Mayor for additional examination. A new meeting in front of the Mayor finally
adjudicated the matter, and the petition was returned to the Commissioners for Suits, who
stopped the clause in favor of Dawbeney on the ban of foreign iron.132

14. According to Jenkins, Dawbeneys patent of 1612 was an extension and modification of a previous
patent I was not able to identify.
132
See: Rhys Jenkins, Links in the history of engineering and technology from Tudor times, 14-15; John
Nicholl, Some account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers: compiled, from their own records and
other authentic sources of information. London, John Bowyer Nichols and Son (1851) 176-180; and:

69

Controversies over Dawbeneys manufacture must have continued, as in June 1616

the Privy Council asked Francis Bacon, in his quality of Attorney Generall, to arbitrate
again on Dawbeneys patent:
I have had before me the patentee that now is, and some of the nailers and
blacksmiths that complained against the same, whereupon it pleased your Lps to
call in the said Patent.
Apparently, the complaints originated from
One Burrell, master carpenter to the East India Company: who hath already
himself begun to set up the like engine in Ireland, and therefore endeavoured to
overthrow the said Patent, the better to rent his own iron to his further benefit
and advantage
However, during the negotiation, the blacksmiths and nailers admitted to Bacon that
Dawbeneys iron was as much good and serviceable or rather better than that of
other suppliers, and that now they considered the patent of as much use to the kingdom
in general, and likewise very beneficial to themselves in their trades. In Bacons
judgment, Dawbeneys patent could then stand without any further interruption.

2.7 Bacon and Early Patent Specifications

A further important example of the interactions between Bacon and the patentees regards
the specifications that patentees presented while advancing their requests.

'Monopolies', Analytical index to the series of records known as the Remembrancia: 1579-1664 (1878),
pp. 213-227. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=59953.

70

In a modern sense, a patent specification is a document, drawn up by the

applicant for a patent and submitted to the proper authority, giving an explicit description
of the nature, details, construction, and use of an invention.133 However, before the
eighteenth-century, the practice of providing a description of a new invention was far
from established in England, and became a normal procedure only starting from the
1730s. Moreover, even these early specifications were not accurate descriptions of the
invention or manufacture, and cannot be properly compared with their modern
equivalents.134
Given these facts, it is interesting to notice that a series of Stuart patents, all related
to Francis Bacon, on the contrary show the requirement for precise indications about the
invention being assigned the privilege. This peculiar group of patents was first studied by
D. Seaborne Davies in a paper published in 1934, on The Early History of the Patent
Specification.
The first of these documents is the patent of Richard Barnewell, defined in the grant
as an Ingyner. In June 1612, Barewell was assigned a privilege for
A new Ingyne or invencion for the raysinge of water unto that height and
drawing upp of that great quantitie of water with that little charge and force, as
hath not bene heretefore invented or founde out, Wch Ingyne he termeth by the
name of pumpes lying flatt under water, and is necessarye bothe where water is

133

OED, specification, 4.d.

David R. Seaborne Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification. The Law Quarterly Review
50 (1934) 86-109 (parts I and II); 260-274 (part III).
134

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wantinge, and also to voyd watr in drowned grounes Cole pitts and all other
manner of mynes, where the rysinge of water maye annoye135
The grant listed an important condition:
Provided always and our will and pleasure is that the said Richard Barnewell
doe bringe a modell of the said Ingyne of pumpes lyinge flatt under water, lately
presented to our Commissioners for Suits, to remayne in some place to be
appoynted by the Chauncellor of our Exchequer for the tyme beinge that yt
maye appeare from tyme to tyme what is by these presents graunted unto him.136
Then, likely in the spring of 1612, Barnewell produced a modell of his pump in front of
the Commissioners of Suits, and the same model was delivered in June 1612 to Sir Julius
Caesar, then Chancellor of the Exchequer and leading member of the commission.
The patent for water pumps of September 1612 to Usher, Rich, and de Vette, one of
the grants that Bacon reviewed as Solicitor General, is a further case of this type. Richs
and de Vettes patent137 was for an engine
driven and wrought withal by water or Waterworke, or by winde, or by man or
horse, for a quicke and more speedy way and meane, then herethefore hath bene
used, as well for the raysing, mounting, and bringing of water for the service of
whole Cities, Townes, private houses, and places, as for the emptying,
cleansing, and drayning of all overflowed, drowned or surrounded grounds, low
valleys, or any standing Pooles, Meeres, Marshes or Mines underground138
The grant stated that the patentees have undertaken within one moneth after the date
of our Letters Patents to deliver to our Chancellor of Englande a perfecte model or

135

P. R. 10 Jac. 1, p. 23.
P. R. 10 Jac. 1, p. 23, quoted in Seaborne Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification, 268.
137
In the patent, the patentees are identified as Joseph Usher of our Cittie of London Clothworker Warner
Rich and Godfrey de vette Denizens. It seems reasonable to assume that Rich and De Vette were the
actual inventors.
138
Royal proclamation, The Effect of certaine Letter Patents granted to Joseph Usher (1612).
136

72

descripcon to remaine and bee disposed as our saide Chauncellor shall thinke fitt.139 A
subsequent document stated that the patentees actually delivered to the Lord
Chancellour of England a perfect Modell that bringeth up water, which they left with the
Chancellor (Lord Ellesmere).140 As Seaborne Davies noticed,
As the grant is intended to cover subsequent additions to the invention as well
the original invention itself, the patentees are also directed to deliver models of
such additions. There is a strict prohibition expressed in the patent against others
imitating the patentees inventions whereof they shall exhibite a model as
aforeside.141
In February 1614, Edmund Brunt142 was assigned a privilege during the terme of 21
yeres of the benefit of a new invenc[i]on for dressing & boulting of meale according to a
modell wch is to be d[elivere]d to His Ma[jestie] Attorney G[e]n[er]all, that is to say
Francis Bacon. Bacon himself was the referee for this particular grant.143
A further important case is given by the patent of July 1614, granted to Lord
Edmund Sheffield, Sir John Bourcheir, and Thomas Russell. The patent was a grant for
the sole workeing and making of Copper by a new way of dissolving the ures in water or
liquor, which again saw Bacon as referee.144 The patent also stated that the technical
procedure and the manner thereof to be p[er]fected expressed and p[ar]ticulerlye sett
downe in writinge and delivered to our Attorney generall for the tyme beinge within the

139

P.R. 10 Jac I, p. 7, quoted in Seaborne Davies The Early History of the Patent Specification, 268.
Royal proclamation, The Effect of certaine Letter Patents granted to Joseph Usher (1612).
141
Seaborne Davies The Early History of the Patent Specification, 268.
142
I was not able to find any information on this person.
143
National Archives, Signet Office Docquet Book, SO 3/5, February 1614.
144
National Archives, Signet Office Docquet Book, SO 3/6, July 1614. As the patent states, the manufacture
was initially started by Thomas Russell Esquier Robert Johnson and Robert Best of London merchants,
but Lord Sheffield and John Bourcheir subsequently took the place of the two merchants.
140

73

space of one year nowe next ensuynge. Thomas Russell had received a previous patent
on the same process, also refereed by Bacon, in January 1610, 145 and there is no doubt
that he was the true technical expert inside the group of patentees: it is safe to say that
Russell himself was behind the technical document to be delivered to the Attorney. This
evidence then shows that, besides the minerall tryalls referred to in the Commentarius
Solutus, Francis Bacon received from Russell at least a further document, this time
containing a detailed exposition of the process for the extraction and refining of copper
by solution. Unfortunately we do not possess this document, but the patent itself provides
some information regarding the chemical and industrial process on which Russell was
working:
by puttinge of Iron Chalke or other thinges of like nature into those Waters or
liquor all the Copper which before was dissolved therein would be drawne
downe to the bottome of the vesselle or Cistrans where the said liquors were and
then was to be gathered and taken from the liquors All which was to be done
without anye meltinge fire whereby the same should be brought to be reallye
Copper deperated [sic, depurated] from all his Earthes allayes and meane
mynerall before anye meltinge fire weare used in the worke which afterwardes
shoulde by one fyre be molten downe unto massye copper and the liquor
remayninge after the Copper drawne out beinge boyld shoulde become good
copperons fitt for dyinge and other uses
According to the patentees, this procedure could be used especially in cases in which
the ore was wylde or stubborne in meltinge or pore in mettle. The process
described in the patent seems to be the one exploiting the solubility in water of copper

145

See patents list 1. National Archives, Signet Office Docquet Book, SO 3/4, Jan 1610.

74

sulfate, or blue vitriol.146 The same process was still discussed in almost exactly the
same terms in nineteenth-century copper metallurgical treatises, as reduction of copper
by the wet way147 (a modern term for this type of processes is solution mining). As the
patent stated, a by-product of the process was copperas (spelled copperons in the
grant), or iron sulfate (green vitriol). This fact is interesting, as Russells patent of 1608
regarded the mining and manufacture of sulfur and copperas. It is then plausible that the
second patent was derived by the activity of Russell on copperas.
Bacon referred to the same phenomenon in the Questions Touching Minerals, in a
brief discussion of reduction by consent:
It is also to be enquired of the two means of reduction, and first by fire, which is
but by a congregation of homogeneal parts.
The second is, by drawing them down by some body that hath consent with
them. As iron draweth down copper in water; gold draweth quicksilver in
vapour; whatsoever is of this kind, is very diligently to be enquired148
Finally, as Seaborne Davies noticed, also the patent on salt of August 1614, reviewed by
Francis Bacon and assigned to Charles Thynn and others, granted the rights for the

146

Copper sulfate is mainly found in mineral form as chalcanthite, or blue vitriol. It forms as a crystalline
deposit in copper mines, or can be found in solution in water originating form copper mines.
147
For instance, Robert H. Lamborn, A Rudimentary Treatise on the Metallurgy of Copper. London (1860)
180: As a general rule, this method of reduction consists in throwing down the copper from its solution, as
a sulphate, in water, by bringing the fluid in contact with pieces of wrought or cast-iron, which latter metal,
taking the sulphuric acid from the copper, goes into solution as a sulphate. The copper thus obtained, which
is a crystalline powder, more or less pure, as the solution may have been, is dried, fused, and refined, in the
usual manner.
148
Questions Touching Minerals, in Works 3: 817

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manufacture according to a description thereof left in the hands of Sir Francis Bacon,
our Attorney Generall.149
In the interpretation of D. Seaborne Davies, the models submitted in compliance
with these provisions merit the description of the first specifications. Such
requirements were not subsequently repeated, and true specifications were introduced
only in the eighteenth-century: what was the reason for these early attempts? For
Seaborne Davies it is
Very significant that these clauses are introduced into these five patents just at a
period when the recitals in patents of invention disclose a marked and increased
sensitiveness to the injury done to the original patentee by the grants of patents
to other person who merely made a slight addition to his own invention and
claimed the whole improved machine or process as a new invention
According to Seaborne Davies,
A novel clause is introduced in certain patents in 1608 reciting how it is
probable, after the appearance of the patentees art, that others will imitate it
without his privity, and, peradventure, having his plott-forme, will afterwards
add thereunto some further new invention for their own gain
The clause, frequently used in a considerable number of the patents of James I,
explicitly prohibited the imitation, directly or indirectly, of [the patentees] inventions,
or doing of any act or thing whereby or by means whereof the patentee shall or may
sustain any prejudice, loss, or detriment in the said invention.150 It is interesting to note
that some patents explicitly stated that additions to existing inventions could not

149
150

P.R. 12 Jac. I, p. 2, quoted in Seaborne Davies The Early History of the Patent Specification, 268.
Seaborne Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification, 269-270.

76

constitute a new invention. In a patent of 1614, this prohibition was extended further to
whatsoever new invention shall or may be hereafter, by any person or persons, added
thereunto.151 Seaborne Davies suggested the existence
[of a] connexion between this marked sensitiveness to the injury done to
patentees by subsequent grants to others of patents for mere additions to original
invention, and the introduction of the requirement of models and descriptions
at the very same period in the reign of James I.
Hence the models would prove conclusively whether a subsequent claim deserved the
favour of the Crown as being an invention in substance new. Moreover, for Seaborne
Davies, it may be no mere coincidence that Bacon was one of the Law Officers of the
Crown when these novel provisions were introduced.152
Seaborne Davies hints of a link between Bacon and the introduction of provisos
regarding the originality of inventions are very suggestive when considered in the context
of Bacons reflection on technical invention. As I will discuss in Chapter three, a major
and characteristic criticism that Bacon moved against mechanical artisans exactly
regarded their unoriginality, and their quickness in claiming the development of a new
technical invention, even in cases in which only slight changes were actually made to
existing inventions:
In general and commonly in mechanical works [in Operibus Mechanicis] things
are taken for new discoveries [or inventions, pro novis Inventis] if someone
buffs up with greater subtlety discoveries made long since, or decks them out
more elegantly, or unites and put them together, or adapts them better to their

151
152

Seaborne Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification, 270-271.

Seaborne Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification, 271.

77

use, or also makes the mass or volume of the work greater or smaller than it
used to be, and so on153
These were in fact the core variations of a technical experiment from which Bacon will
derive the notion of Experientia Literata.
Bacon was not the only law officer involved in the drafting of the clauses regarding
the originality of inventions, so we cannot assume that these clauses were fully of his
own devising. However, at the same time, it is interesting to note that this theme clearly
emerges as relevant in Bacons intellectual reflection on technical invention, serving as
further evidence of the transmission of concepts between the domain of political and
civic practice and that of theoretical ideas.

153

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 142-143. See also: Filum Labyrinthi, sive Formula
inquisitionis, Works 3:497; and Cogitata et Visa: see Farrington, The Philosophy of Francis Bacon, 74.

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3. Bacons Reform of Technical Innovation: Experientia Literata

3.1 Introduction
As I showed in the previous chapter, Bacon was involved in the reviewing of patents of
invention for roughly two decades, from the end of the reign of Elizabeth until his
political disgrace in 1621 (this involvement was particularly relevant during his time as a
Solicitor General and Attorney General, in the decade between 1607 and 1617). This was
also the time of Bacons philosophical maturity, in which many of his ideas took shape
and evolved into the form they assumed in his two major philosophical works, the Novum
Organum of 1620 and De Augmentis of 1623 (the Latin expanded translation of The
Advancement of Learning of 1605).
To what extent did these two domains of Bacons life the institutional and the
intellectual reflection on technological invention have an influence on each other? What
was the impact that the work on patents of invention had on Bacons philosophy? And,
conversely: how did Bacons philosophical ideas about invention and inventors influence
the more properly civic and institutional side of his reflection?
In this chapter, focusing on mechanical arts, works, experiments, and technical
inventions, I will reconsider a very traditional aspect of Bacons philosophy, that is to
say his reform of inventio: the Baconian method. My contention is that Bacons
intellectual reflection on this issue was significantly shaped by a concern for the state of
technological invention and innovation in Stuart England. As a consequence, Bacons
79

reform of scientific method also inherently developed as a reform of technological

innovation, and of the way in which technical inventions had to be achieved. At the same
time, important theoretical features and characteristics of the works of mechanical arts
were absorbed into Bacons system, helping to shape his more general ideas on
experiment. Attention to the practices of technical innovation also inspired a key notion
of Bacons ideas on experimentation, Literate Experience.

3.2 - An Issue of Terminology

The meaning of the term invention, and of Latin equivalent inventio, went through a
substantial change at the end of Renaissance. As Catherine Atkinson has explained, the
restriction of the term inventio to creative acts in the technical and artistic fields has
only gradually emerged since the seventeenth century. The word also identified
discoveries, wherein the element of creativity could be altogether absent, as in the case
of geographical discoveries.211 In addition, broadly speaking, the term also covered the
modern sense of the term discovery. This is reflected by the denotation of the Latin verb
invenire, the main meaning of which was translated as to find that one seeketh for.212
Hence, Bacon will use the term inventio while referring to the invention of the compass,

211

Catherine Atkinson, Inventing inventors in Renaissance Europe: Polydore Vergil's De inventoribus

rerum. Tbingen, Mohr Siebeck (2007) 15-16. Atkinson gives a good introduction on the issue of
invention in antiquity and Renaissance.
212
Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (London, 1584), in Lexicons of Early
Modern English, Ian Lancashire ed. (Toronto, ON, 2006). Online resource. Date consulted: 14 July 2009.
URL: leme.library.utoronto.ca.

80

but also consider Christopher Columbus as the inventor of the West Indies.213 This
linguistic fact is very relevant when looking at Bacons discussion of technological
inventions, in the modern sense of the term.
A further terminological complication is given by the fact that, in Bacons time,
inventio was also a technical term in philosophy and rhetoric. As I will show in the next
sections, Bacon strongly felt the necessity of reforming the role of inventio in
Renaissance dialectics, and promoted a special type of inventio that he called Inventio
Artium et Scientiarum (inventio of arts and sciences).
In the following sections, in order to avoid terminological ambiguities and
misunderstandings, I will generally use the Latin term inventio, or the capitalized English
term Invention, to refer to the wider Renaissance and Baconian sense of the term. When I
use it, I will also qualify more precisely the term invention, in order to avoid
ambiguities. I will not translate Bacons inventio as discovery, as Lisa Jardine does.214
As the following sections will show, these terminological issues have significant
conceptual implications.

213

See the passage Atque sicut India Occidentalis nunquam nobis inventa fuisset nisi prcessisset acus
nautic inventio, (De Augmentis, in Works, 1:617), translated in Spedding as And as the West Indies
would never have been discovered if the use of the mariners needle had not been discovered first (Works,
4:408). Note that, to preserve the symmetry of the Latin text, Spedding needs to translate the expression
acus nautic inventio freely.
214
See Lisa Jardine, Francis Bacon: discovery and the art of discourse. London, Cambridge University
Press (1974) 2,6. Because of this choice of translation, Jardine affirms that throughout his work Bacon
stresses the, to his mind basic, distinction between discovery, that is the investigation of the unknown by
way of his new logic, and invention, that is the selection of received assumptions about the natural world
as premises for argument of for display. These are not the terms that Bacon employed for describing those
tasks.

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3.3 Bacons Reform of Technical Invention

In this first part, I will analyze Bacons theoretical and philosophical treatment of
technical invention. As the following sections will clarify, Bacons general reform of
scientific method necessarily entailed a corresponding revision and reform of the
methods of technical invention.
This factor can be better understood by considering that Bacons philosophy of
science is also, and at the same time, a philosophy of technology. It is unfortunate that
few commentators have stressed this fact. In general, authors have tended to superimpose
on Bacon an anachronistic view in which scientific and technological aims do not
overlap.215 Technology is coessential with Bacons science. This point has been best
explained by Prez-Ramos: Bacons constructivist criterion of truth implies that the
theoretical comprehension of forms, Bacons ultimate philosophical desideratum, exactly
corresponds to the ability to reproduce a particular operation: technical know-how
which guarantees successful operation (opus) is made identical (res eadem) with the
discovery of the Form. According to Prez-Ramos, the operations of practical and
mechanical arts constitute the main ideological inspiration of Bacons thought, and in
this respect we are entitled to label Bacons philosophy as a philosophy of technics.216

215

A case of this sort is for instance given by Peter Urbach, who generally looks at Bacons philosophy of
science without taking into account the fundamental role of technology or of the mechanical arts. Peter
Urbach, Francis Bacon's philosophy of science: an account and a reappraisal. La Salle, Ill., Open Court
(1987).
216
Antonio Prez-Ramos, Francis Bacon's ideas of science and the maker's knowledge tradition. Oxford,
Clarendon Press (1988) 108, 113. See also Antonio Prez-Ramos, Francis Bacon and the Disputations of
the Learned. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 42 (1991) 577-588.

82

Because of that, Bacons discussion of technological invention must be considered as

an integral part of his discussion of method: As the following sections will show,
Bacons method also entails a theory of technological invention.

3.4 - Bacons reform as an Inventio Artium et Scientiarum

As a result of this dualism, Bacons reform is at the same time productive of knowledge
and of new operations. It is both a reform of science and of technology. This is
particularly important when we look at Bacons description of his new method.
Bacons problem is simple: to find ways to methodically produce and derive new arts
and sciences, to build a methodology for the invention and discovery of new arts.
In this respect, Bacons terminology in The Advancement of Learning and De
Augmentis is general and sometime loose: in the header of the section on Inventio he
refers to an Inventio Artium compared to one Argumentorum. In the first paragraph of the
same section Bacon considers an Inventio Artium et Scientiarum. In the following lines,
he refers again to discovery and advancement of the arts. In the next section, he states
that traditional Logic [Dialectica] says nothing ... about the invention of the arts,
whether mechanical or what are termed liberal, or about eliciting the works [Operibus] of
the one or the axioms [Axiomatibus] of the other.217

217

De Augmentis, in Works 1:617, Primo enim Dialectica nihil profitetur, imo ne cogitat quidem, de
Inveniendis Artibus, sive Mechanicis sive (quas vocant) Liberalibus ; aut etiam de illarum Operibus, harum
vero Axiomatibus eliciendis.(transl. Works 4:408).

83

Bacon here assimilates sciences to liberal arts,218 but he is primarily interested in

differentiating two main categories, that is to say axiomatic and operative disciplines.
It is made very clear that opera identifies the mechanical arts, while axiomata
belongs to the liberal arts, or sciences. Bacon, following a Renaissance tradition, uses the
term axioms to identify the established principles and propositions that are at the basis
of a particular science.219
What is clear from the above passages is that Bacons reform aims to find new
mechanical arts, as well as liberal arts and sciences. Bacon states very explicitly that his
new method of Invention is addressed to advance both sciences and technologies. This
intention is reconfirmed when Bacon begins his discussion of what he calls an Art of
Indication and Direction (Ars Indicii et Directionis): this art will bring to light all other
arts with their axioms and works.220 It is clear that Ars Indicii is in fact a simple
renaming of Ars Inveniendi.

218

In general, as for instance Ian Maclean summarizes, the early modern classification of disciplines
distinguished between speculative thinking (sciences) from goal-oriented disciplines (arts), setting the
former above the latter, and establishing a clear hierarchy inside both domains. In the university curricula,
ethics, politics, law, and medicine were the prominent practical disciplines, but the extent to which a
particular early modern discipline was defined as an art or a science was often matter of negotiation, and
consideration of status and intellectual prestige were often as relevant as more technical reasons. Ian
MacLean, Logic, signs, and nature in the Renaissance: the case of learned medicine. Cambridge and New
York, Cambridge University Press (2002) 145.
219
Paolo Rossi stressed the Ramist origin of this use (see Paolo Rossi, Francesco Bacone. Dalla magia alla
scienza. Bari, Laterza (1957); 3rd Italian ed., Bologna, Il Mulino (2004) 303-304; Engl. transl., London,
Routledge & Kegan Paul (1968) 145-146). Maclean discusses a similar use within the medical tradition, in
Cardano and Fernel (Maclean, Logic, signs, and nature,130). The Baconian use of the term opera has been
examined in depth by Prez-Ramos, Francis Bacon's ideas of science, 135-198 and Prez-Ramos Francis
Bacon and the Disputations of the Learned, 585-586.
220
Translation of De Augmentis, in Works, 4:412-413 (Latin original in Works, 1:622-623).

84

If up to this point in his discussion of inventio in De Augmentis Bacon has referred to

opera of the mechanical and operative arts, from now on he introduces experiments
(experimenta) . I will return later to this interesting fact. Bacon affirms that his Ars Indicii
is divided into two categories, for the indication either proceeds from one experiment to
another; or else from experiments to axioms; which axioms themselves suggest new
experiments. The one of these I will term Learned Experience [Experientia Literata], the
other Interpretation of Nature, or the New Organon.221
These synthetic definitions of Literate Experience and New Organon are important
for clarifying the categories Bacon is using in this discussion. Bacons organization of
Ars Indicii can be captured in the following scheme:

221

Translation of De Augmentis, in Works, 4:413 (Latin original in Works, 1:623). This edition translates
the expression Experientia Literata as Learned Experience. I will translate it as Literate Experience.

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The subdivision of Ars Indicii is hierarchical in its structure. For Bacon, his own
New Organon (or the Interpretation of Nature) is the true art of Invention, as it
establishes axioms of sciences and develops new works and experiments from them.
As Bacon stated in aphorism I:103 of the Novum Organum,
We should hope for far less from this [Literate Experience] than from the new
light of axioms educed from particulars by a fixed route and formula, axioms
which in their turn will point to and specify new particulars. For the route is not
laid on the flat but goes up and down- ascending first to axioms, and then
descending to works [opera]222
New particulars or experiments then bring new and more precise axioms. As
Bacon explains in aphorism 104 of book I of the Novum Organum, these are not the
most general axioms of sciences. These broad and wrong generalizations are what has
been done up to now, because of the natural tendency of intellect and its indoctrination
and training long since in syllogistic demonstrations. Instead, sciences should be
constructed starting from particulars, then moving to lower axioms, through intermediate
ones, and up to the more general ones, with the aid of the New Organon, as in a proper
ladder.223
On the contrary Literate Experience deals with the methods of experimenting
(modi experimentandi). It can hardly be esteemed an art or a part of philosophy, Bacon
says, and is a kind of sagacity. Literate Experience never reaches the level of science
and axioms but proceeds from one experiment to another: for all transition from

222
223

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 160-161 (book I, aphor. 103)
Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 161.

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experiments to axioms, or from axioms to experiments, belongs to that other part, relating
to the New Organon.224
We should keep in mind that Bacons discussion of Literate Experience and the New
Organon wants to give an answer to the problem of the invention of new mechanical
arts and sciences. If the Invention of sciences is taken care of by the New Organon with
the production of axioms, less clear is the issue of the Invention of new operative and
mechanical arts. Experiments can in fact derive from the axioms of sciences found
through the New Organon, but also through Literate Experience.

In the Novum

Organum, Bacon refers to such activity as a transfer [traductio]. For instance, in

aphorism I:70, Bacon states that the best demonstration is experience; but only if one
stick to the experiment itself. For if it is transferred [traducatur] to other ones which
seem similar, if this transfer [traductio] is not duly and systematically [rit & ordine]
done, the thing is misleading.225 From aphorism I:103 we can see that this traductio of
experiment is what Bacon calls Experientia Literata; after the experiments of the
mechanical arts will be collected in a history,
many new things, useful to our life and condition, can be discovered [multa
nova inveniri possint] by means of that very translation of experiment
[traductione Experimentorum] from one art to others, i.e. by that experience
which I have called literate.

224

Translation of De Augmentis, in Works, 4:413 (Latin original in Works, 1:623-624).

My translation. Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 110. This is the same concept that Bacon
will use in De Augmentis, when he will affirm that Literate Experience is a way to give some direction and
order in experimenting [nonnulla ... in experimentando directione et ordine]. De Augmentis, Works, 1:623
(transl. in Works, 4:413).
225

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Here, as he explicitly says, Bacon has in mind inventions of the mechanical arts
generating new technical inventions and mechanical arts. In these passages, however, the
exact methods of transfer and traductio are still left unclear, and we only know that the
transfer needs to be done duly and systematically, and not lightly. I will come to the
precise form of traductio later in this chapter.

3.5 - From Axioms and Experiments to Arts and Technical Inventions

A related question regards the precise nature of an experiment: what is an experiment,
in Bacons discussion, and what is the relationship between experimenta, opera, and the
technical inventions of the mechanical arts?
As I previously noted, the discussion of inventio in De Augmentis was initially
developed on the traditional Renaissance distinction between opera of the mechanical
arts and axiomata of the liberal arts and sciences. The following part of the discussion is
based on the distinction and opposition between experimenta, products of both Literate
Experience and New Organon, and axiomata, only brought about through the New
Organon.
It is my contention that experimenta and opera do not essentially differ in nature, but
with these two terms Bacon can refer to an identical technical process or procedure, in
different stages of its effectuation. To clarify this point, I will use an example coming
from Bacons description of Literate Experience in fact, Bacons first example in that
section. Looking at the production of paper, Bacon notices that the particular process
behind that technology has been only tried in linen but not in other materials. Bacon
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then suggests trying such process with silk, and defines this trial as an experimentum. In
this sense, in Bacons usage, an experimentum is a process that still needs to be or is
going to be tried, while an opus is an established process, and not necessarily a technical
invention from a mechanical art.226 In particular, experiments that have already been
successfully tried, that is to say have produced a noticeable or expected result, are
usually referred to as inventa, or inventiones. Bacon also generically refers to elements of
all these categories with the term particularia (particulars).227
The association of opera, experimenta, and inventa as different aspects of a common
technological process is useful for drawing some interesting conclusions regarding the
connection between the invention of arts and experiments. Bacons discussion of Literate
Experience and New Organon implies that the production of new experiments can give
rise to new mechanical arts, and that a new technical invention is in fact a type of
experiment. This identification is very clear in Bacons discussion of Literate Experience:
many of the experiments discussed in the various forms of Literate Experience are
nothing less than new technological inventions. As shown before, the exclusive domain
of Literate Experience is that of experiments and inventions; however new works and
inventions also proceed from the New Organon and its axioms: moreover, they do so in a
better and more methodical way. In this sense, the New Organon is not only a legitimate

226

It is worth keeping in mind that, while in this context Bacon is referring to technical procedures of the
mechanical arts, the term Opus as the more general connotation of experimental result. See Prez-Ramos,
Francis Bacon's ideas of science, 149.
227
Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 158-162.

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source for the production of new experiments of the arts, but also the privileged and
authentic one, which Bacon calls Natural Magic.

3.6 - The New Organon, or a Utopian Reform of Technical Invention

Unfortunately, in his works Bacon never exhaustively explained the move from axioms
of the New Organon to works and experiments. In aphorism 21 of book 2 of Novum
Organum, Bacon listed a seventh part of the text titled Bringing things down to Practice
(Deductio ad Praxin), ostensibly planned to discuss the operative part of the New
Organon, but he never completed this section. However, some hints regarding this
activity can be derived from other sources. A peculiar example can be found in the
discussion of the origin of colors in bird feathers in the Sylva Sylvarum. There Bacon
states that
We have spoken before, in the fifth instance, of the cause of orient colours in
birds; which is by the fineness of the strainer; we will now endeavour to reduce
the same axiom to a work. For this writing of our Sylva Sylvarum is (to speak
properly) not natural history, but a high kind of natural magic. For it is not a
description only of nature, but a breaking of nature into great and strange
works.228
In this passage Bacon refers to the axiom or true cause of colors, and to the
reduction of the axiom to work. This reduction is then tried in an experiment,
which gives the title to the section, Experiment solitary touching the producing of
feathers and hairs of divers colours. Bacon describes the results of the experiments as

228

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works 2: 378.

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very likely: this is because, as his secretary and publisher Rawley affirms in the letter
to the reader, the causes and axioms used in the Sylva are still not the true axioms that
the New Organon will discover, but only some that are far more certain than those that
have been provided by other authors so far (in the first example above, for instance
Bacon dismisses Aristotles explanation of the color of feathers).229 In short, Sylva
Sylvarum, like Novum Organum, is only for the purpose of demonstration, and an
approximate version of the true procedures Bacon has in mind. A different example is
given by Bacons discussion of the Experiment solitary touching the making of gold:
Bacon states that
by occasion of handling the axioms touching maturation, we will direct a trial
touching the maturing of metals, and thereby turning some of them into gold :
for we conceive indeed that a perfect good concoction or digestion or maturation
of some metals will produce gold.
Bacon then lists his most certain and true six axioms of maturations, from which
he then derives a direction of trial, that is to say a set of instructions on how to conduct
the experiment itself (Bacon concedes that they may perhaps by further meditation be
improved in the future).230
Thus, in the New Organon, axioms necessarily lead to works and operations. In the
future, when the realization of Bacons philosophy will be complete, mechanical arts
(like sciences) will be produced methodically, and the problem of Invention will finally

229
230

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works, 2:378-379, 340-341, 336-337.

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works 2:448:450.

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be solved. For now, experiments and technologies can only be derived tentatively, and
through the help of Literate Experience.

3.7 - Literate Experience, or a Pragmatic Reform of Technical Invention

As seen before, Literate Experience can never aspire to the Invention of axioms, and is
hierarchically inferior to the New Organon. It is not a method proper, but a kind of
sagacity, a kind of hunting by scent (odoratio quaedam venatica).231 The only field of
operation of Literate Experience is experiment. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in
mind that Bacon extended the term to cover technical inventions of the mechanical arts,
and many points made in the discussion of Literate Experience clearly refer to issues of
technical invention. Bacons description of technical inventions is then central to
understanding many features of his theory of experiment.
First of all, inventa constitute the starting point from which more experiments of
Literate Experience can be derived. Also, several of their characteristics help Bacon to
define important qualities of experiments more generally intended. Moreover, it is from
the practices of the inventors of the mechanical arts that Bacon extrapolates his
methodology of Literate Experience.
I will consider the earlier point first. As is well known, Bacon is clear on the fact that
experiments should not just be performed with utility in mind: we should actually favor

231

De Augmentis, in Works, 1: 623 (transl. Works, 4:413); De Augmentis, in Works, 1:633 (transl. Works,
4:421).

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experiments of no use in themselves but which only contribute to the discovery of

causes [and Axioms, inventionem causarum & Axiomatum], which experiments I have
grown used to calling Light-bearing as against Fruit-bearing ones. Nevertheless, the
obvious but important reason why technical inventions constitute the initial domain of
experimentation is given by their abundance and ready availability.
Moreover, inventions of the mechanical arts possess important characteristics that
Bacon will generalize to all sorts of experiments: they intervene on and alter nature,
revealing its inner processes and secrets; and they can be duly examined, verified,
counted, weighed and measured. These qualities are unique, and not shared with the sort
of facts that are usually collected in traditional natural histories. The second of the two
characteristics I mentioned is particularly important, because it explains the origin of the
qualification literate that is assigned to this type of experience. Bacon is referring there
not simply to experiments, but to the production of experimental data. He is hinting that
these data are quantitative, and results of measures.233
The reference to data production brings Bacon to the issue of data recording and
organization:

233

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 156-159. Bacon anticipated the necessity of a History
Mechanical already in The Advancement of Learning (in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 178); in
the Commentarius Solutus of 1608 Bacon hinted at a History mechanique, producing a collection of the
experiments and observations of all Mechanical Arts. In that text, Bacon mentioned as appropriate
subjects of analysis first the materialls, and their quantities and proportions; next the Instruments and
Engins requisite; then the use and adoperation of every Instrument; then the woork it self and all the
processe thereof with the tymes and seasons of doing every part thereof. Commentarius Solutus, in Works,
11: 65-6.

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So far mental effort has had a much more important part to play in discovering
[in inueniendo] than has writing, and indeed experience has yet to be made
literate. And no discovery should be sanctioned save that it be put in writing
[Atqui nulla nisi de Scripto inuentio probanda est]. Only when that becomes
standard practise, with experience at last becoming literate, should we hope for
better things234
The experiments of Literate Experience are then ready to be recorded in Histories,
and marshalled and drilled by appropriate tables of discovery [tabulas inveniendi]. This
is the first stage out of which the New Organon can finally emerge. These initial steps are
summarized in aphorism I:103 of Novum Organum, together with the necessity to move
on to the discovery of axioms:
For I do not deny that when all the experiments of all the arts have been
collected and arranged [collecta & digesta], and come within one mans
knowledge and judgment, many new things, useful to our life and condition, can
be discovered [multa nova inveniri possint] by means of that very translation of
experiment [traductione Experimentorum] from one art to others, i.e. by that
experience which I have called literate; but we should hope for far less from this
than from the new light of axioms educed from particulars by a fixed route and
formula, axioms which in their turn will point to and specify new particulars.
For this route is not laid on the flat but goes up and down ascending first to
axioms, and then descending to works
The collection of histories of invention can be expanded through Literate Experience
in new experimental histories, but has to be followed by the eduction of Axioms through
the New Organon.

234

This is the Rees and Wakely translation. I purposely reported the Latin original text, because it shows
that here Bacon makes use of the critical term inventio. Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11:
158-159.

94

I will now consider my last point, that is to say the suggestion that Bacon derived the
principles of Experientia Literata from the practices that inventors of the mechanical arts
employ themselves.
If we limit ourselves to examining Bacons main discussion of inventio in The
Advancement of Learning and De Augmentis, this fact does not seem evident. There
Bacon implies that technical inventions originate almost always by chance and by a sort
of unguided perseverance:
they who have written about the first inventors of things or the origins of
sciences have celebrated chance rather than art ... for here no other method of
invention is proposed than that which the brute beasts are capable of and
frequently use; which is an extreme solicitude about some one thing, and
perpetual practising of it, such as the necessity of self-preservation imposes on
such animals235
Nevertheless, in a different section of The Advancement of Learning, Bacon already
hinted at different strategies of technical invention:
Many operations have been invented, sometimes by a casual incidence and
occurrence, sometimes by a purposed experiment; and of those which have been
found out by an intentional experiment, some have been found out by varying or
extending the same experiment, some by transferring and compounding divers
experiments the one into the other, which kind of invention an empiric can
manage236

235

De Augmentis, in Works, 1:617-619 (transl. in Works, 4:408-409).

Advancement of Learning, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.), 201. In De Augmentis, Bacon will
follow similar lines: For all inventions of works which are known to men have either come by chance and
so been handed down from one to another, or they have been purposely sought for. But those which have
been found by intentional experiment have been either worked out by the light of causes and axioms, or
detected by extending or transferring or putting together former inventions; which is a matter of ingenuity
and sagacity rather than philosophy. And this kind, which I noways despise, I will presently touch on by the
way, when I come to treat of learned experience among the parts of logic. De Augmentis, in Works, 1:572
236

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The Novum Organum follows along similar lines. For instance, in aphorism I:73
Bacon suggests that, together with chance, inventors of the mechanical arts have used
some variation of their experiments:
Now the hard work of the chemists has produced something, but as if by
accident and in passing, or by some variation (such as mechanics make) of their
experiments [per experimentorum quandam variationem] and not by any art or
theory.237
Aphorism I:88 is more explicit on the sort of variations Bacon has in mind:
In general and commonly in mechanical works [in Operibus Mechanicis] things
are taken for new discoveries [or inventions, pro novis Inventis] if someone
buffs up with greater subtlety discoveries made long since, or decks them out
more elegantly, or unites and put them together, or adapts them better to their
use, or also makes the mass or volume of the work greater or smaller than it
used to be, and so on238
This list is very intriguing, as several of these activities pop up again in De Augmentis in
the precise description of Literate Experience developed there. In De Augmentis, Bacon
lists eight different modes of experimentation (Modus Experimentandi), summarized in
the picture below together with the examples he provides for each mode:

(transl. in Works, 4:366). It is noticeable that Bacon includes here inventions derived from causes and
axioms. It is nevertheless clear that he associates mechanical arts with a non-philosophical kind of
invention.
237
Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 116-117.
238
Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 142-143. A similar passage is also present in Filum
Labyrinthi, sive Formula inquisitionis, in Works 3:497; and Cogitata et Visa: see Farrington, The
Philosophy of Francis Bacon, 74.

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These lists show several similarities. For instance, looking at the so-called
Production of Experiment in De Augmentis, Bacon describes its second type
(Extension) as the urging of some effect more subtle from a given experiment. The
Conjunction of Experiment is described as a link or chain of experiments: when
things which would be ineffectual singly are effectual in conjunction. And finally, the
third type of Variation of Experiment regards experiments tried both in greater and
lesser quantities. In his examples, Bacon exclusively refers to physical magnitudes like
mass and weight: the correspondence with the procedure he attributed to mechanical
workers in aphorism I:88 of Novum Organum making the mass or volume of the work
greater or smaller is evident.
As I mentioned in section 2.3, in the Novum Organum Bacon defined Literate
Experience as the traductio and transfer of an experiment to another one, without further
clarifying this notion. In the discussion of De Augmentis, this terminology is used again
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in the discussion of the Application of experiment. There Bacon claims that

Application is nothing else than the ingenious transfer [of one experiment] to some other
useful experiment (nihil aliud est, quam ingeniosa traductio ejus ad experimentum aliud
aliquod utile).239 In this entry, the terminology is strictly the one introduced in Novum
Organum, and two instances of useful experiments there described are always
transferred through a traductio from a previous experiment.240 The process described in
the Application of experiment is the one of ingenious and inventive discoveries (for
instance, one of the two examples of this section is the eurka of Archimedes,
Archimedess experiment on specific gravities).
It seems likely then that Bacons idea of Literate Experience in the Novum Organum
corresponded to the traductio, or Application of experiment (Applicatio Experimenti)
of De Augmentis, the ingenious and creative devising of a useful experiment from a
given one. Bacon expanded this idea including some of the categories initially attributed,
with some deprecation, to craftsmen and technicians in aphorism I:88 of Novum
Organum.

3.8 - From Literate Experience to Collaborative Innovation

There is one description of Literate Experience that still needs to be addressed: the one
given by Bacon in The Advancement of Learning. This text is particularly interesting,

239

My translation. De Augmentis, in Works, 1:631.

Ab hoc traductitur experimentum utile; utile fuerit experimentum hoc traducere (De Augmentis, in
Works, 1:631).
240

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because it is Bacons first formulation of the idea of Literate Experience. The passage is
worth reporting in some extension:
But if my judgment be of any weight, the use of History Mechanical is of all
others the most radical and fundamental towards natural philosophy; such
natural philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of subtile, sublime, or
delectable speculation, but such as shall be operative to the endowment and
benefit of mans life. For it will not only minister and suggest for the present
many ingenious practices in all trades, by a connexion and transferring of the
observations of one art to the use of another, when the experiences of several
mysteries shall fall under the consideration of one mans mind; but further it will
give a more true and real illumination concerning causes and axioms than is
hitherto attained.241
This brief text contains many of the features that the more developed versions of
Experientia Literata will have in Bacons later reflection, including the stress on the role
of practical arts, mysteries and trades. However, this description is interesting because
it is the very early version of a particular and important mode of Literate Experience
(the second type of Translation of experiment described in De Augmentis): the transfer
of an experiment from a mechanical art to a different mechanical art. In De Augmentis,
Bacon will describe this idea in these terms:
Of these things it may be said generally, that the best chance of bringing down
as from heaven a shower of inventions at once useful and new, is to bring within
the knowledge of one man, or of a few who may sharpen one another by
conference [se invicem colloquiis] the experiments of a number of mechanical
arts; that by this translation (as I call it) of experiments the arts may mutually
cherish and as it were kindle one another by mixture of rays. For though the
rational method of inquiry by the Organon promises far greater things in the end,
yet this sagacity proceeding by Learned [Literate] Experience will in the

241

Advancement of Learning, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 178.

99

meantime present mankind with a number of inventions which lie near at hand,
and scatter them like the donatives that used to be thrown among the people242
The New Organon may represent the final, and utopian, goal of the reform of
technical invention, but Literate Experience is the pragmatic way to anticipate some of
those results, for the benefit and endowment of mans life. Bacon emphasizes that the
achievements of the various arts need to fall under the consideration of one mans
mind, or that of a group of persons who can share their arts, collaborate, and produce
new and focused results. This is a rare occurrence, Bacon affirms, because nature meets
everybody everywhere; but particular arts are only known to their own artists.243 Here
Bacon is hinting at the idea of a college of mechanical inventors, willing to produce
innovations by sharing with each other the results of their respective arts. To what extent
collaborations among craftsmen like those envisioned by Bacon are compatible with
systems of guilds like those present in early modern societies and particularly in England
is an important issue, which I will consider and investigate later on.
Chapter four is dedicated to Bacons plans for institutionalizing shared Experientia
Literata in collaborative efforts between inventors: this analysis requires the study of the
institutions for the promotion of knowledge and innovation that Bacon devised over time.

242

De Augmentis, in Works, 1:628-9 (transl. in Works 4:417).

Natura enim ubique omnibus occurrit; at artes singulae artificibus tantum propriis cognitae sunt De
Augmentis, in Works, 1:628 (transl. in Works 4:417).
243

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4. Bacon and the Institutions of Innovation

As I have shown, the reform of technical invention occupies a central place in Bacons
philosophical reflection. However, Bacons plans of reform were not limited to
philosophical ideas, but soon moved to more practical considerations regarding the
establishment of institutions and foundations for the promotion of useful knowledge and
technical innovation. Bacons formulation of Literate Experience had at its core the
notion that innovation can only be achieved through collaboration among technicians and
inventors. These theoretical assumptions naturally brought forth plans for the
establishment of a state-funded college and academy for inventors.
Bacons schemes were likely inspired by continental systems of patronage. I will
consider the development of Bacons ideas on the institutionalization of knowledge, from
the early sketches of the Device for the Grays Inn Revels of 1595, to the early
descriptions of a college for inventors. As I have shown, Bacon saw the crucial necessity
of a reform of technical invention already by the time of the composition of The
Advancement of Learning (1605). In the same period, Bacon hinted to practical plans for
the establishment of a college for inventors in the notebook Commentarius Solutus of
July 1608. These early ideas are related to the technological utopia of Salomons House
in the New Atlantis (1626).

101

I will try to situate these projects in the context of analogous European experiences,
such as the rise of the first proto-academies and royal colleges of arts in Paris, between
the 1570s and the first decade of the seventeenth century. In particular, I will show that at
the time of Bacons first formulation of the idea of a college of inventors, Henri IV of
France was very actively fostering and promoting collaboration among skilled artisans
and inventors under royal patronage, and outside the strict control of the guild system. It
is my contention that Bacon ideas presented important analogies with these continental
developments.

4.1 - Early Works (1590s)

A utilitarian component is already present in Bacons very early texts. For instance, this
is the case with Bacons letter to Lord Burghley of the early 1590s, a sort of
programmatic presentation of Bacons ambitions and plans. In this text, Bacon already
made use of one of his favorite distinctions: on one side, the frivolous disputations of
the schools and the auricular traditions of the alchemists; on the other, the industrious
and grounded conclusions that he wanted to produce and introduce. It is interesting to
note that this early ideas of reform already included a reference to profitable inventions
and discoveries.270 Bacons uncle would have certainly been favorable to such rhetoric,
as he was a major supporter of inventions and promoter of the patent system.271

270

Letter to Lord Burghley, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.), 20.
Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. New Haven
and London, Yale University Press (2007) 150-157, 179-180.
271

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In the composition Of Tribute, belonging to the same period of the letter to Burghley,
Bacon emphasized again these practical ends; in the section titled The Praise of
Knowledge, he asked: shall [a man] not be able thereby to produce worthy effects, and
to endow the life of man with infinite new commodities? Mechanical arts, even though
imperfect, are, according to Bacon, more fruitful than traditional philosophies: the
industry of artificers makes some small improvements of things invented; and chance
sometimes in experimenting maketh us stumble upon somewhat which is new; but all the
disputations of the learned never brought to light one effect of nature before unknown.
Philosophies, in all time past, never generated a single poor invention. 272
These early statements are expressed in general terms, and without any reference to
institutions of knowledge. However, in A Device for the Grays Inn Revels, an
entertainment presented in January 1595 at Grays Inn in front of Lord Burghley and
other privy councilors, Bacon began to characterize his ideas more concretely. In the
composition, the imaginary Counsellor advising the Study of Philosophy, suggests to
the king four principal works and monuments of yourself, namely: a library, collecting
whatsoever the wit of man hath heretofore committed to books of worth; a wonderful
garden containing whatsoever plant, and all rare beasts and lakes for like variety of
fishes, being a in a small compass a model of universal nature made private; a huge
cabinet or museum and collection of rare and exquisite works of art or engine,
and of curious and extraordinary natural objects; and finally a chemical laboratory, so

272

Of Tribute, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 34.

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furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels to be fit for a philosophers
stone.273
Many commentators of these passages have considered this early description as an
anticipation of Salomons House in the New Atlantis.274 There are of course similarities,
as Salomons House includes many if not all of the Counsellors suggested works.275
Also, Da Costa Kaufmann has suggested that the presence of an alchemical laboratory
shows that Bacon is moving away from what Da Costa Kaufmann calls a simple culture
of curiosity: Bacons final references to the alchemical workshop indicate that the
collections and institutions associated with them are directed more generally to a
utilitarian purpose.276 A move from simple collecting purposes toward operative and
applied aims is the most evident characteristic of Salomons House, which does not host
collections or cabinets in any traditional sense; in Bensalem, operation is always
hierarchically superior to mere collection. In this sense, the proposal that the Cousellors
monuments to the Prince anticipate Salomons house can only be evaluated in

273

Ibid., 54-55.
see for instance James C. Davis, Utopia and the ideal society: a study of English utopian writing 15161700. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1981) 122-123; Paula Findlen, Anatomy Theaters,
Botanical Gardens, and Natural History Collections, in Katharine Park and Lorraine J. Daston (eds.) The
Cambridge History of Early Modern Science. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press (2006) 272289; Eric H. Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England. Baltimore and London, Johns
Hopkins University Press (2004) 197; Stephen Gaukroger, Francis Bacon and the Transformation of EarlyModern Philosophy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2001) 72-73.
275
So, for instance, in New Atlantis , Bacon lists gardens and orchards (The Major Works, Brian Vickers
(ed.), 482), menageries (Ibid., 482-3), furnaces (Ibid., 484), galleries of inventions (Ibid., 487), collections
of mathematical instruments (Ibid., 486), collections of minerals (Ibid., 485).
276
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The Mastery of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the
Renaissance. Princeton, Princeton University Press (1993) 185.
274

104

connection with Da Costa Kaufmanns suggestion of a shift toward the operative and
applied.
Nevertheless, the description of the second Counsellor seems very much ingrained in
contemporary practice, and lacks almost all of the visionary features present in
Salomons House. As for instance Paula Findlen has noticed, Bacons works and
monuments of the Device echoed current European trends for the establishment of
spaces for the study of nature, like collections, botanic gardens, and laboratories. 277 A
fundamental characteristic of Bacons narrative seems to be given by the idea of princely
and royal patronage, and the scale of the establishments Bacon has in mind seems to hint
at the resources of an absolute monarch. However, royal patronage of knowledge of the
scale described by Bacons Device was certainly unimaginable in England. As a matter of
fact, as Arthur MacGregor has shown, British collections of Bacons time lacked the
scale and ambition of their European counterparts, and, most of all, there was a general
absence of princely interest in the curious: the tastes of the earliest noble collectors in
Britain were tuned to the fine arts rather than to rarities and curiosities of nature.
Moreover, Bacons depiction did not stop at the cabinet of natural and artificial
curiosities, but included botanical gardens, libraries, menageries, chemical workshops

277

For instance, in 1595, the University of Pisa added a distillery and foundry to its botanical garden,
already established from 1545; soon after, the same university erected at the entrance of the same garden a
gallery to house natural objects and a cabinet of curiosities. Analogous spaces were present in many
European cities, like Padua, Bologna, or Leiden. Findlen, Anatomy Theaters, 285.

105

and laboratories: for this reason it seems very plausible to say that Bacons models were
continental.278
In this context, Elika Fukov seems right when she connects Bacons description
to emperor Rudolf IIs natural and artificial collections in Prague.279 As a matter of fact,
the various elements of the description the library, the botanic garden and menagerie,
the cabinets of natural and artificial curiosities, and the alchemical laboratories were all
part of Rudolfs possessions, and probably no other ruling sovereign of Europe could
equal this wealth of resources. Fukovs intuition could be confirmed by a further
element she did not underline: Bacons Counsellor adds that when the prince will follow
his advice, he will become a Trismegistus, the only miracle and wonder of the world.
This reference to Hermes Trismegistus could be again interpreted as a reference to the
hermetic prince par excellence, Rudolf II; this would also explain why the princes
laboratory is described as fit for a philosophers stone.
In this respect, it is worth keeping in mind the rhetorical features of Bacons
theatrical device, an aspect that is rarely underlined by commentators. Because of the
argumentative style of the piece, the conclusions of the philosophical counselor
advising the prince are described with some ambiguity and irony: this is why the third

278

Arthur MacGregor, The Cabinet of Curiosities in Seventeenth-Century Britain, in Oliver Impey and
Arthur MacGregor (eds), The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and
Seventeenth-Century Europe. Oxford, Clarendon Press (1985) 201. On the differences between English and
continental styles of patronage, see Stephen Pumfrey and Frances Dawbarn. Science and Patronage in
England, 1570-1625: A Preliminary Study. History of Science. 42 (2004) 137-188
279
Elika Fukov, et al. (eds.), Rudolf II and Prague: the imperial court and residential city as the
cultural and spiritual heart of Central Europe. Prague, London, Milan, Thames and Hudson (1997).

106

counselor will counter the argument of the philosopher by claiming that the "immoderate
hopes and promises ... of mystical philosophy" often produce "ridiculous frustrations and
disappointments." So, the second counselor is not just representing the character of a
'philosopher', but that of a mystical philosopher: given the Hermetic context of the
speech, it is hard not to think of John Dee here: a type of Counsellor whom Bacon
might not have entirely appreciated.

4.2 - Bacon in France: Jacques Gohorys Lycium philosophal, and Nicholas

Houels Maison de Charit Chrtienne
Bacons stay in Paris and France between September 1576 and February 1579 may also
have had a role in shaping his ideas on the royal patronage of knowledge-based
institutions. In particular, the period of Bacons visit saw the first embryonic attempt to
establish a royal botanic garden and apothecary in Paris, as a part of the chartered
institution of Nicholas Houel, the Maison de Charit Chrtienne.
There is surprisingly little research on the role that Bacons journey to France could
have had in the formation of his ideas on natural philosophical issues. In the past, authors
like Farrington and Rossi have suggested that the young Bacon could have attended
Bernard Palissys public lectures on natural history and mechanical arts.280 This
suggestion has been variously adopted, but for instance Jardine and Stewart, and

280

See Paolo Rossi, Francesco Bacone. Dalla magia alla scienza. Bari, Laterza (1957); 3rd Italian ed.:
Bologna, Il Mulino (2004) 92 and note 26 (Engl. transl.: London, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1968)). These
lectures were held in Palissys museum of minerals and stones, Palissy, Discours admirables, 1580, 208ff.

107

Peltonen, doubt that Bacons journey was more than the occasion to get familiar with the
French language, statecraft, and continental law.281 A recent attempt at looking at the
Parisian cultural environment to which Bacon could have been exposed has been tried by
Luisa Dolza, who mainly focused on the figure of Jacques Besson, a Swiss protestant
inventor and mathematician, author of the first example of Theater of machines, or
illustrated book on technical inventions.282 In the 1570s, Besson was an active member of
at least two Parisian proto-academies, recently established in more or less official form.
A particularly important one was the Lycium philosophal of the diplomat, literate and
Paracelsian alchemist Jaques Gohory.283
Gohorys Lycium was organized with a garden of rare plants, fountains, labyrinths
and most of all a laboratory of alchemical experiments. It is also interesting to note that
Gohory, in his free translation of the eleventh book of Spanish romance Amadis de
Gaule, constructed a literary representation of cabinets of curiosities, botanic gardens,
and laboratories having some similarity with Bacons passages of the Device (see

281

Peltonen states that Bacon's stay in France ... was not so much an educative grand tour. While he
studied language, statecraft, and the civil law most of his time was presumably spent in performing routine
diplomatic tasks. See Markku Peltonen, Bacon, Francis, Viscount St Alban (15611626). Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, September 2004. Also see: Lisa Jardine, and
Alan Stewart. Hostage to fortune: the troubled life of Francis Bacon. London, Gollancz (1998).
282
See Luisa Dolza, Industrious Observations, Grounded Conclusions, and Profitable Inventions and
Discoveries; the Best State of That Province: Technology and Culture during Francis Bacons Stay in
France, in Claus Zittel, Gisela Engel, Romano Nanni, and Nicole C. Karafyllis (eds.), Philosophies of
Technology: Francis Bacon and his Contemporaries (2 vols) (2008); vol 1, 3-20.
283
On Gohory, see Daniel P. Walker, Spiritual and demonic magic from Ficino to Campanella. London,
Warburg Institute (1958); Allen G. Debus, The French Paracelsians: the chemical challenge to medical
and scientific tradition in early modern France. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1991); Rosanna
Gorris Camos, LHysope et la rose: le Lycium philosophal de Jacques Gohory, in Marc Deramaix,
Perrine Galand-Hallyn, Ginette Vagenheim, Jean Vignes (eds.), Les Acadmies dans l'Europe Humaniste:
idaux et pratiques. Actes du Colloque international de Paris, 10-13 juin 2003. Geneva, Librairie Droz
(2008) 549-590.

108

Appendix 3).284 However, it is important to keep in mind that Gohorys Lycium was not
unique, but an example of a larger and lively group of Parisian proto-academies. An
interesting way to look at the groups with a natural philosophical inclination is that of
considering those that were organized around a botanical garden, like the Lycium; it
seems that many of these were concentrated in the neighborhood of Faubourg SaintMarcel, which had an interesting community of learned scholars:
Vers 1572, Gohorry possde un jardin amnag sur lactuel emplacement du
labyrinthe du Jardin des Plantes au faubourg Saint-Marcel de Paris. A proximit,
le jardin de La Brosse, mathmaticien du roi, est rput garni de plantes rares
et exquises . Aussi, une communaut de savants se forme et se runit dans cette
partie de la capitale, ce Lyceum est le prlude lAcadmie des Sciences.
Non loin de l est implante lAcadmie de Posie et de Musique de JeanAntoine de Baf.285
Gohory died in 1576, the year in which Bacon arrived in Paris. It is not clear if
Gohorys Lycium continued to exist in some form after his death. In that year, however,
the apothecary and courtier Nicolas Houel established the first French botanic garden
having royal patronage in the same neighborhood of Faubourg Saint-Marcel.286 The
garden, built in imitation of the one of the city of Padua, was part of Houels Maison
de Charit Chrtienne, a charitable foundation where orphans were trained as

284

Bacon himself referred to Amadis in several parts of his work. The translation of the eleventh book was
produced in 1560, but a new edition appeared in 1576: Bacons awareness of Gohorys descriptions is then
a likely possibility.
285
Laurent Paya, Du Jardin des Simples de la Maison de la charit chrtienne au Jardin des Apothicaires
(1578-1624), Paris, 2008. Unpublished paper, (http://cour-de-france.fr/article590.html), 1-2.
286
D. P. Walker and Yates suggest that Houels garden might have had some connection with Gohorys.
See Walker Spiritual and Demonic Magic 100; Frances Yates, Astrea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth
Century. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul (1975) 190.

109

apothecaries.287 Apart from the apothecary garden, the Maison comprehended a chapel, a
school of pharmacy, a hospital for the poor, and a pharmaceutical laboratory.288
The diplomat and poet Jean de La Jesse is a possible link between Houel and
Bacon. Jesse was a familist, and secretary of the duc dAlenon. There is evidence of
contacts between him and Bacon, to whom he dedicated a sonnet, now extant among
Anthony Bacons papers.289 However, La Jesse was also close to Houel, as shown by a
1573s book by Houel containing a long prefatory poem from La Jesse; as a matter of
fact, in this text La Jesse seems to anticipate the conception of Houels botanic
garden.290
Houel was very well introduced at the French court, and as Frances
Yates notices, an unusual kind of apothecary, a bourgeois virtuoso who had long been in
contact with Catherine de Medici, for whom he had designed important artistic

287

On Houel, see: Guiffrey, Jules. Nicolas Houel, apothicaire parisien, fondateur de la Maison de la
Charit chrtienne et premier auteur de la tenture dArtmise. Memoires de la Societe de l'Histoire de
Paris et de l'Ile-de-France. 25 (1898) 178-270; Yates, Astrea, 187-93; Auclair, Valrie. Un logis pour
lme des rois. Nicolas Houel (ca. 1520- ca. 1587) et les dessins de procession la Maison de la Charit
Chrtienne pour la famille royale. In Isabelle de Conihout, Jean-Franois Maillard and Guy Poirier (eds.).
Henri III mcne des arts, des sciences et des letters. Presses de lUniversit Paris Sorbonne (2006); Paya,
Du Jardin des Simples de la Maison de la charit chrtienne au Jardin des Apothicaires.
288
Nicholas Houel, Dclaration de lInstitution de la Maison de la Charit Chrestine, Establie es
Fauxbourgs Sainct-Marcel Par L'authorit Du Roy et sa Court De Parlement 1578. Paris, Cheuillot
(1580). In: Biencourt, Charles-Marie-Christian de. Institutions et rglements de charit au seizime et dixseptime sicle, Mlanges publis par la Socit des bibliophiles franais, Paris, Socit des bibliophiles
franais (1903) 12-23.
289
Jardine and Stewart, Hostage to fortune, 51. There is further evidence of some proximity between the
entourage of dAlenon and Bacon. Nicholas Hilliard, the painter and miniaturist who was in contact with
the English embassy in Paris and acquaintance of Bacon, was also attached to the court of Alenon. In this
period, Hilliard painted miniatures of both the young Bacon and the French nobleman. See Erna Auerbach,
Nicholas Hilliard. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1961).
290
Nicolas Houel, Traite de la Theriaque et Mithridat, 1573.

110

projects.291 From 1576 to 1578 Houel was active with petitions and requests to the King
and Parliament.292 From documentary evidence, it is possible to know that the Maison
was already in place, with the garden in an advanced phase of realization, in April 1579
(when flooding damaged them).293 We know that Bacon was in Paris until his fathers
death, in February of 1579. These facts, together with Bacons acquaintance with Houels
friend La Jesse, indicate the likely possibility that Bacon was aware of Houels efforts to
establish a charitable foundation, apothecary and botanic garden under royal patronage.

4.3 From the College for Inventors to Salomons House

Bacons Device of 1595 already showed attention for technical realizations, as two of the
counselors monuments suggested to the Prince were a museum, which also contained
marvelous machines, and a chemical laboratory furnished with mills, instruments,
furnaces and vessels.
However, the notes on inventors in Commentarius Solutus, the notebook of July
1608, show a decisive change of direction in Bacons thoughts about institutions of
knowledge. Among other notes regarding a reform of universities, Bacon describes with
some detail the foundation of a college for Inventors:

291

Yates, Astrea, 188-89.

Paya, Du Jardin des Simples de la Maison de la charit chrtienne au Jardin des Apothicaires, 2.
293
Le dluge et inondation des eaux advenues s dits faubourgs a grandement endommag ladite maison
de charit et spcialment ladite apothicairie et jardin des simples qui tait bien commenc et fort avanc;
Houel, Dclaration, 21.
292

111

[...] Foundac. of a college for Inventors. 2 Galeries wth statuas for Inventors past
and spaces or Bases for Inventors to come
And a Library and an Inginary.
th
Qu. of the Order and Discipline, to be mixt w some poynts popular to invite
many to contribute and joyne.
Qu. of the rules and prscripts of their studyes and inquyries.
Allowance for travailing; Allowance for experimts. Intelligence and
correspondence wth ye universities abroad.
Qu. of the Maner and prscripts touching Secrecy, tradition, and publication.
Qu. of Remooves and Expulsions in case wthin a tyme some Invention woorthy
be not produced. And likewise qu. of the honors and Rewards for Inventions.
Vaults, fornaces, Tarraces for Insolacion; woork houses of all sorts [...]
Some of the features of the college in the Commentarius can remind us of the
princely monuments that Bacon imagined in the Device: for instance, the chemical
laboratory of the Device is replaced by workhouses of all sorts of the Commentarius;
and a library and inginary, which are interestingly paired in the later text: the
inginary here is akin to the goodly huge cabinet collecting whatsoever the hand of
man by exquisite art or engine hath made rare in stuff, form, or motion. If the library is a
collection of books, the inginary is a collection of engines, still not too different from
the museum of machines in the Device.
Nevertheless, the attention now shifts from the ornamental character of the various
princely collections of the Device, to more concrete and practical goals. The core of
Bacons concerns is of course the promotion of technical invention. Bacons college
addresses the issues he indicated only a few years before, in the Advancement of
Learning of 1605. In his discussion of Literate Experience (see section 3.7), Bacon
envisaged a connexion and transferring of the observations of one art to the use of

112

another, with the experiences of several mysteries falling under the consideration of
one mans mind.294 The college brings together inventors, according to the program of
Literate Experience. Inventors are relieved of economic burdens; allowances are
provided for travel and the production of experiments. Honors and Rewards for
Inventions include the chance of having a statue erected in a pantheon of the greatest
inventors of all times.
If Bacon imagines rewards and incentives to attract fellows to the college, at the
same time he thinks of many rules and prescripts, regarding the allowed activities and
investigations, and the punishments Remooves and Expulsions in case the inventors
are not productive enough. A different set of rules and prescriptions regards the questions
of Secrecy, tradition, and publication. Thus, the publication of new inventions is not
taken for granted. This is of course a very important issue, because impacts on the very
reasons behind the constitution of the college, that is to say the possibility to promote
collaboration and transfer of information among inventors. Bacon seems to imply that the
program of Literate Experience ends and is confined within the walls of the college.
In the New Atlantis (1626), Bacons description of Salomons House clearly echoes
some of the concerns of the Commentarius and features of the College for inventors. For
instance, Salomons House presents two galleries, used for ceremonial observances and
rites, one occupied by patterns and samples of all manner of the more rare and excellent

294

See section 3.7. Advancement of Learning, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 178.

113

inventions, the other including the statuas of all principal inventors.295 Among others,
the House contains statues of Columbus, that discovered the West Indies; of Roger
Bacon, your monk that was the inventor of ordnance and gunpowder; of the inventors
of ships, music, letters, printing, observations of astronomy, metallurgy, the production
of silk, wine, of the inventor of corn and bread and of sugars. The Father adds that
these inventors are actually better known, by more certain tradition, to the inhabitants
of Bensalem, than to the European visitors. Besides the celebration of these past
inventors, Salomons House honors its own figures:
Then we have divers inventors of our own, of excellent works; which since you
have not seen, it were too long to make description of them; and besides, in the
right understanding of those descriptions you might easily err. For upon every
invention of value, we erect a statua to the inventor, and give him a liberal and
honourable reward.
As mentioned, it is worth keeping in mind that, in the world of New Atlantis, these
public spaces are reserved to ceremonies and rites. The Father of Salomons House adds
that, daily, the fellows say certain hymns and services, as a form of laud and thanks to
God for his marvelous works; and also say prayers, imploring his aid and blessing for
the illumination of our labours, and the turning of them into good and holy uses. Then, it
is not surprising that the statues of inventors are built using materials that, according to
the Bible,296 David reserved for the building of his son Salomons Temple: These

295

New Atlantis, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 487.

See for instance the King Jamess Bible, I Chronicles 22;14: Now beholde, in my trouble I haue
prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of
296

114

statuas are some of brass; some of marble and touch-stone; some of cedar and other
special woos gilt and adorned: some of iron; some of silver; some of gold.297
Salomons House also presents a detailed institutional structure. Bacon describes the
institution as an Order or Society, the noblest foundacion that ever was upon the
earth; and the lanthorn of this kingdom.298 The House comprehends thirty-six fellows,
occupied in several employments and offices. Below this upper echelon, we have also,
as you must think, novices and apprentices, that the succession of the former employed
men do not fail; besides a great number of servants and attendants, men and women.
First of all, it is important to notice that experiments is the recurring term
appearing in each description of the various offices of Salomons House. As for instance
Richard Serjeantson has noticed, there seems little doubt that the employments and
offices of the fellows of Salomons House are the institutional embodiment of the art of
discovery laid out in Bacons theoretical works. Serjeantson delineates the links
between some of the fellows activities and Bacons notions. Serjeantson also notes that
the three Depredators, who collect the experiments which are in all books, seem to be
engaged in gathering what in the Latin Advancement Bacon calls learned experience
(experientia literata).299 As a matter of fact, it is my view that not only these officers are

siluer, and of brasse and yron without weight: (for it is in abundance) timber also and stone haue I prepared,
and thou mayest adde thereto.
297
New Atlantis, in The Major Works, Brian Vickers (ed.) 488.
298
New Atlantis, Ibid. 471.
299
Richard Serjeantson, Natural Knowledge in the New Atlantis. In Bronwen Price (ed.), Francis
Bacons New Atlantis. New Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester, Manchester University Press (2002) 82105; 96.

115

engaged in Literate Experience, but that actually the major part of the activities of
Salomons House can be referred to that notion.
The first three offices regard the collection of previously presented experiments.
Apart from the three Depredators, there are twelve Merchants of Lights, who operate like
a sort of intelligencers of knowledge, visiting foreign countries and, under the names of
other nations bring us the books, and abstracts, and patterns of all other parts. Also,
the three Mystery-men (where mystery in this case should be read as craft or art)
collect the experiments of all mechanical arts; and also of liberal sciences; and also of
practices which are not brought into arts. In general, a use of Baconian Literate
Experience is that of the production of new experiments starting from already known
ones, which need to be combined, inverted, transferred and adapted according to the rules
that Bacon called modes of experimentation (modus experimentandi). It is then clear
that these three initial offices, occupying half of the thirty-six fellows of Salomons
House, are preparatory of this very initial stage of Bacons project.
The following officers, also three in number, the Pioners or Miners, are those who
try new experiments, such as themselves think good. Pioners is of course also the
term that already appeared in the metaphor of The Advancement of Learning that I
discussed in Chapter one: there, the Pionners represented the natural philosophers
devoted to operation, and production of effects (contrasted with the Smythes, who
investigated causes of natural phenomena). Most of all, it is remarkable that Bacon
explains that Pioners can try new experiments such as themselves think good. Pioners
are free to choose and develop whatever way they want, to achieve new experiments.
116

They are guided only by their whim and intuition. In this sense, more than that of the
Depredators, their work fully identifies the central moment of Baconian Literate
Experience, which, according to Bacon, cannot be properly structured in a methodology,
but is in fact more of a mental attitude and acuteness, a kind of sagacity.300
Also the Compilers, three fellows who draw the experiments of the former four into
titles and tables, to give the better light for the drawing of observations and axioms out of
them, are in fact involved with a second aspect of Literate Experience, the preparation of
tables of instances which compose Bacons experimental histories.
While the remaining four groups and twelve fellows are not linked to Literate
Experience, they can still be associated to Bacons philosophical project. As Serjeantson
notices,
The Dowry-men or Benefactors seem to relate to the task, which Bacon never
fully explained in the unfinished Novum Organum, of Leading forth to
Practice, or to that which relates to men. The Lamps, who direct new
experiments developed from the ones already conducted, are deducing or
deriving new experiments from the axioms generated by their fellows.301
Three Inoculators execute the experiments so directed, and report them. Finally,
Bacon lists three Interpreters of Nature, who raise the former discoveries by
experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphorism. Together with the
Lamps and the Inoculators, this last group corresponds to the New Organon, the
higher phase of the Baconian system, where axioms are derived through experiments, and

300
301

See Chapter three.

Serjeantson, Natural Knowledge, 96-97.

117

new experiments are generated in turn from new axioms. In conclusion, it is then clear
that the model of Salomons House follows very faithfully the structure of Bacons own
philosophical system.
As I mentioned before, the college of Commentarius concretely addressed a central
issue of Literate Experience, the transfer and sharing of knowledge between inventors
and experimenters. The case of Salomons House is similar, as the transfer and flux of
knowledge, organized around Bacons system, is continuous. No single group keeps
knowledge of experiments private, but continuously receives and passes it to and from
the other ones. In fact, while structured in separated offices, the House works as a perfect
whole. It is important to remember, however, that openness of knowledge is guaranteed
only to insiders, as strict and remarkable rules for the publication of inventions and
experiences are implemented, and members of the House take an oath of secrecy, for
the concealing of those [inventions and experiments] which we think fit to keep secret:
though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state, and some not.302

4.4 - Colleges for Inventors in Europe: the Case of Henri IV

Was there any model for Bacons college for inventors? Is it possible to identify similar
institutions with which Bacon could have been familiar at his time?
In her insightful article on the source of inspiration of Salomons house and Bacons
debt to the Jacobean inventors, Rosalie Colie affirmed that no academy, real or

302

Works, 3: 165.

118

imaginary, existed to provide Bacon with models for the ideal representation of a
college of inventors and projectors described in Commentarius Solutus. In her article,
Colie also referred to Tycho Brahes Uraniborg, and the already mentioned academy of
Rudolph II in Prague as among the best examples of early modern European scientific
laboratories.303
Anthony Grafton has recently pointed to a different type of collaborative efforts,
looking at the example of contemporary collaborative projects concerned with the study
of the past, not of nature.304 Grafton mainly refers to libraries, like the one of Sir Robert
Cotton, which amounted to a collaborative institute for the study of English antiquities,
or the Bodleian Library in Oxford, an early meeting place for local and international
scholars. In particular, the Bodleian hosted Thomas Jamess collaborative project for the
collection of texts and manuscripts of the church fathers.305 Grafton, however, describes a
further different case, that of Matthias Flaciuss project for a history of the church,
developed in Magdeburg in the second half of the sixteenth century. This example is
interesting, because the members of Flaciuss team worked in a shared space at the
large-scale Institutum Historicum in Magdeburg. Moreover, Flaciuss description of his
own project, in which he delineates the hierarchical organization and functions of the
various departments in the Institutum, is strikingly similar to Bacons account of the

303

Rosalie L. Colie, Cornelius Drebbel and Salomon de Caus: Two Jacobean Models for Salomon's
House, Huntington Library Quarterly, 18 (1955) 246-247.
304
Anthony Grafton, Where Was Salomons House? Ecclesiastical History and the Intellectual Origins of
Bacons New Atlantis, in Worlds Made by Words. Scholarship and Community in the Modern West.
Cambridge (Ma), Harvard University Press (2009) 98-113.
305
Ibid., 111-112.

119

structure of Salomons House. Given Bacons strong interests in ecclesiastical histories,

Graftons suggestion of a link between the two accounts is very intriguing.306
A further, interesting case is given by Antonio Barrera-Osorio, and his important
account of the institutions for the collection of information and knowledge production in
the sixteenth-century Spanish empire, during the colonization of the New World. 307 A
consistent portion of Barrera-Osorios account is dedicated to the colonies; however, I
will now focus my attention on his description of the institutions for the production of
natural knowledge that the monarchy established in Spain.308 The major establishment
that Barrera-Osorio describes is the Casa de la Contratacin (House of Trade) in Seville:
as Barrera-Osorio summarizes,
the Casa de la Contratacin, originally founded to for the regulation of tradewith
the Atlantic islands, expanded its functions to include a veritable chamber of
knowledge regarding navigation, cosmography, and geography. At the casa, the
crown institutionalized practices for gathering and organizing information,
educational activities for the dissemination of new information, and certification
mechanisms for verifying the quality of expert personnel. All of these activities
relied on empirical practices and collective procedures. These empirical and
collective practices created a community of experts relevant to the empire.309
The Casa de la Contratacin established connections between pilots, cartographers,
merchants and naturalists. Its main areas of activity regarded cartography and the
instruction of pilots, but, with time, the officers of the Casa supervised the production of

306

Ibid., 105-111.
Antonio Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature. The Spanish American Empire and the Early scientific
Revolution. Austin, University of Texas Press (2006).
308
Barrera-Osorio also gives interesting details regarding the system of patents established by the Spanish
monarchy; see Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature, 58-65.
309
Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature, 129.
307

120

navigational instruments, which the crown, through royal legislation, imposed as

standards for Spanish pilots. These instruments were developed in a collaborative effort
between pilots, mathematicians, and cartographers.310 As Barrera-Osorio states, the
example of the Casa de la Contratacin had some impact in England, where the naval
administrator Stephen Borough tried unsuccessfully to establish a similar institution.311 It
is then likely that Bacon was well aware of the Casa de la Contratacin, and that it could
have played a part in forming the notion of Salomons house.
In the remaining part of this section, I want to suggest a further late Renaissance
phenomenon that may have well represented a model for Bacons idea of a college for
inventors: namely, that of the groups of court artisans uniting and operating under the
sponsorship and patronage of absolute princes, outside the control of guilds and
craftsmen brotherhoods. As Luca Mola suggests, artisans worked at courts already from
classic times and the Middle Ages, but this occurrence assumed peculiar forms from the
second half of the sixteenth century.312 In particular, in Florence, under the first three
Medici dukes, a large number of different craftsmen from other parts of Italy and Europe

310

Ibid., 43-55.
Ibid. 5. Also see R. C. D. Baldwin, Borough, Stephen (15251584), Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography,
Oxford
University
Press,
2004;
online
edn,
Jan
2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2914, accessed 6 May 2011]: While Lord Admiral Fiennes de
Clinton and the privy council considered how to reorganize the navy following the loss of Calais in 1558
and Le Havre in 1562, Borough petitioned Queen Elizabeth to replicate the organization of the Casa de
Contratacon in Seville. Dated 1562, Borough's first draft set out both the form of his own experience and
the need for change (BL, Lansdowne MS 116, fols. 37). This was followed by a later draft for the grant of
the office of pilot-major to Borough, dated January 1564. Borough's clear appreciation of the value of the
Casa's practice comes through.
312
Luca Mola, States and Crafts: Relocating Technical Skills in Renaissance Italy, in Evelyn Welch and
Michelle OMalley (eds.). The Material Renaissance. Manchester, Manchester University Press (2007)
133-153; 144-145.
311

121

were put together in a single location so that they might exchange information among
themselves. Initially lodged in the Palazzo Vecchio, the artisans were moved by
Francesco I to a larger site, that of the Casino di San Marco, and then to the Uffizi in
1587 by Francescos brother, Ferdinando. From the payrolls of this period it is possible
to see that the workshops included an impressive array of very different professionals,
from painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and clockmakers, to engineers, cosmographers,
distillers, gardeners and confectioners.313
A very interesting example of this type of court patronage for artisans can be found
in Paris, under the aegis of Henri IV at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Likely
inspired by the Medicean experience through queen Maria de Medici, daughter of
Francesco I, Henri lodged artisans and inventors in the newly renovated Grande Galerie
of the royal palace, the Louvre.314 Under this scheme, between 1607 and 1608 artisans
were provided with lodging and workshops in the lower part of the Grande Galerie. The
goal of Henri was ambitious, and he presented the place as a nursery of workers ... from
which ... many will emerge who will spread throughout the realms and will know how to
serve the public well.315 According to Hillary Ballon,
The crown wanted to remedy a shortage of skilled artisans, which it blamed on
guild masters who blocked apprentices from obtaining their matrise and from
establishing independent practices. Henri IV exempted the Grande Galerie

313

Ibid., 145.
See: Mola, States and Crafts, 145; Mark Greengrass, France in the age of Henri IV: The struggle for
stability. London and New York, Longman (1984) 178-179; Hilary Ballon The Paris of Henri IV:
Architecture and Urbanism. New York, N.Y., Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge, Mass., MIT
Press (1991) 47-49.
315
Royal edict, quoted in Ballon, The Paris of Henri IV, 47.
314

122

residents from guild regulations; each could hire two apprentices plus his
children, and they would automatically receive the matrise after five years of
service.
As Ballon suggests, one of the kings aims was that of weakening and compromising
the control that guilds kept on the organization and training of craftsmen. The French
parliament, in support of the guilds, tried to delay the approval the kings letter patents,
which were initially submitted in June 1607, but finally approved in December 1608.316
The range of artisans lodging at the Louvre was large, including painters, engineers and
mathematicians, instrument makers, and architects.317 It is interesting to note that the
project of the Grande Galerie also included the establishment of a museum of machines
and inventions, which in the end did not take place.318
The works for the renovation and extension of the royal palace started in 1603, and
the first artisans started to lodge at the Louvre from the end of 1607. Francis Bacon was
very likely informed about the developments taking place in Paris. For instance, in a
letter of April 1605 to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, Bacon clearly mentioned the building
of galleries ... the planting of elms along highways, and the like manufactures, [and the
outward ornaments wherein France now is busy.]319 A possible source of information
was his friend and correspondent Tobie Matthew, who was several times in Paris between

316

Ibid., 47-49.
Ibid., 48; Gustave Fagniez, L'conomie sociale de la France sous Henri IV, 1589-1610. Paris, Hachette
(1897) 102.
318
See Fagniez, , L'conomie sociale, 102-103: Henri IV eut aussi l'ide d'tablir au Louvre un muse de
machines, d'inventions mcaniques, de modles industriels; il demanda Sully un projet pour l'installation
de ce muse, mais cette ide ne fut pas ralise ....
319
Works, 10:251 (the text in square brackets is Bacons subsequent insertion and editing of the letter).
317

123

1604 and 1607; to Matthew we owe a lively description of the new buildings and palaces
been erected, about 1605, including the extension of Louvre.320 The extent to which this
project was known in England can also be given by Sir George Carews account. Carew,
ambassador to the court of Henri IV between 1605 and 1609, wrote a Relation of the
State of France to the king soon after his return. In it, Carew described Henri IV as
careful to set up all kind of manufactures. In Paris alone and at his new buildings at
the Louvre, Carew stated, he hath erected many of the most rich and substantial
manufactures, and by great wages drawn thither men skilful and expert in the same,
accommodating, and fitting them also with mansions, and habitations, as one, who means
to tie them there fast. Through enterprises like these, the ambassadors concluded, Paris
is grown to that riches, as a man of good quality and good understanding affirmed unto
me, that there were above five hundred families in the same which were served all in
silver vessels.321

4.5 Bacons College and the Craft Guilds

Among other features, the case of Henri IV and the Louvre is interesting because it
emphasizes an issue that Bacons reflection on technological innovators seems to entail:

320

This town is growing much fairer than yow have seen it. The Key between the bridge and the Pallace is
almost finished. The longe Gallery is within forty paces as farr as it shall go in length [...] Letter to Dudley
Carton, State Papers, Foreign, 1605. Quoted in Arnold H. Mathew, and Annette Calthrop. The Life of Sir
Tobie Matthew Bacons Alter Ego. London, Elkin Mathews (1907) 43-44.
321
George Carew, A relation of the state of France, in T. Birch (ed.) An historical view of the
negotiations between the courts of England, France, and Brussels, from the year 1592 to 1617 (1749) 433434.

124

the idea that a group of excelling artisans and inventors can be formed, outside the
control and supervision of the guild and corporation system, but under the direct
sponsorship of royal patronage.
As I briefly mentioned before, Bacons model of shared technological knowledge
originating from Literate Experience, and the practical implementation of this idea in the
college for inventors of the Commentarius, do not seem to provide much space and a role
for guilds and corporations. For instance, in the Commentarius, Bacon does not address at
all the relationship between the inventors of his college and the larger body of artisans
and technicians operating outside it. The college operates in complete independence, with
its own regulations and organization.
It is interesting to note that, when considering issues of secrecy, tradition, and
publication in his college, Bacon was hinting at themes that were also central to the
ways in which guilds operated and structured themselves. In general, the guild system
organized the transfer of knowledge among artisans through a rigid system of
apprenticeship training. At the same time, guild regulations inhibited the sharing of
information on technical procedures and new inventions to outsiders not belonging to the
guild in question.
Craft guilds and their interaction with the economies of early modern societies are
currently receiving renewed attention from economic historians. In past scholarship, the
role of guilds in that context was usually depicted very negatively. Scholars usually
agreed in considering guilds as technologically conservative institutions, unable to foster
technical innovation, and generally obstructing the economic development of medieval
125

and early modern states. This traditional negative picture is currently strongly criticized
by a younger generation of economic historians.322 Nevertheless, even authors who have
revised the role of guilds in medieval and early modern economies in more positive terms
have agreed that innovation was far from the central goal of the guild system. As the very
influential historian of the guild system Stephan Epstein has recently maintained,
innovation in the guild system was a largely involuntary occurrence. According to
Epstein,
craft innovation was the outcome of small-scale and incremental practical
experiment and random variation. Crafts had no wish to publicise innovation;
most guild secrets appear in the records only after they had been illicitly
transferred. Inasmuch as corporate supervision had any effect, it tried to ensure
that an individuals discovery was kept within the guild membership.
Moreover, innovations in the craft system had no authors. As Epstein put it, to
identify the origin of an innovation ... is rather like finding the inventor of a joke.
According to Epstein, more than the patent system, and in the lack of proper state
support, the most significant pre-modern incentive for invention was ... the capacity to
capture the rents provided by a technical secret; and the most effective source of these
rents was the craft guild. For Epstein, discoveries and technological inventions were
most likely to be an unforeseen consequence of everyday practice rather than of

322

See for instance the collection of essays in S. R. Epstein and Maarten Prak (eds.), Guilds, Innovation,
and the European Economy, 1400-1800. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2008); and J. Lucassen,
T. De Moor, and J. Luiten van Zanden (eds.), The return of the guilds, supplement 16 of International
Review of Social History, 53 (2008).

126

systematic experimentation, and also an undesirable side effect of artisan and

journeyman migration.323
In summary, according to Epstein, technical innovation inside the guild system was
largely unintentional, anonymous, and based on the possibility of establishing secrecy, in
order to achieve an economical advantage from it. As a consequence, collaboration
between different crafts was simply not part of the order of things.
This account is consistent with Bacons analysis of technical innovation delineated in
the first part of this chapter. It is also easy to see how Bacons reform clearly moved
away from this general approach. Far from being accidental, in Bacons college
innovation was the principal goal and objective. Accordingly, the doctrine of Literate
Experience delineated methodic strategies to achieve and produce these unexpected
results. Literate Experience itself originated theoretically on the idea of transfer of
technological information between artisans and inventors involved in different crafts, and
on the implicit tenet of the sharing of craft secrets among the various masters. Moreover
inventors of Bacons college, far from being anonymous, were publicly celebrated, and
received honor and rewards.

323

S. R. Epstein, Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship, and Technological Change in Pre-industrial Europe, in

Epstein and Prak, Guilds, Innovation, and the European Economy, 52-80.

127

5. Experiments, Assaying, Experientia Literata: Bacons Experimental Histories

In Chapter three, I showed that what I called the operational role of the concept of
Literate Experience was inspired by Bacons experiences with actual inventors and
technologists while a patent referee.
In this chapter, I will consider a further case of the impact of this technological
context on Bacons philosophical ideas, looking at two important and related issues:
Bacons attempt to devise and use early forms of standardized experimental reports; and
his attempt to introduce and stress quantification and measurement in experimental
practice. Both these themes are an essential part of what can be called the descriptive role
of Literate Experience. Authors who have previously studied Literate Experience in
Bacon have not sufficiently stressed the importance of Bacons early attempts to the
standardization of experimental reports, or the place of quantification in such efforts.
To investigate these themes, I will start considering this last, descriptive role of
Literate Experience, and show how quantification and weighing of experience had a
central place in producing what Bacon called the "literate" stage of experimentation. I
will further reveal a fact not usually acknowledged in literature, that is to say that the
tenets for quantification and standardization defined as early as 1608 in a passage of his
Commentarius became the basis for Bacons more general program of experimental
history. This point is generally valid for Bacons entire research program of experimental
histories, but is particularly evident for his enquiry of dense and rare. This investigation
was Bacons first choice of and attempt toward the composition of an experimental
128

history, and shows well the way in which Bacon imagined that the tenets for
standardization and quantification would operate in practical and more concrete terms.
In the second part of this chapter, I will look at possible sources of inspiration for
these ideas. First of all, I will show that it is possible to trace the experimental
quantitative procedures that Bacon employed in Historia densi et rari to the context of
goldsmiths practices. More generally, Bacons experimental program on specific
gravities bears important similarities with one described by Jean Bodin in Universae
naturae theatrum (1596). As a matter of fact, Bacons trials can be considered as a
generalization of Bodins experiments. However, it is interesting to note that Bodin
mostly employed the determination of specific gravities not in a natural philosophical
context, but in monetary treatises, while discussing the issue of counterfeiting and the
precise identification of true and false money. In England, Gerard Malynes drew on the
same idea in 1604. These examples show that the determination of specific gravities of
metals was commonly perceived as relevant to money testing, a typical goldsmiths
activity.
A final claim I will make is that the "trials" and technical experiments of the artisanal
professions and the mechanical arts represent a likely source of inspiration for the
historical narratives of experiments inside Bacons experimental histories.324 In
particular, I will look at the conceptual differences between this type of technical report

324

Here I am specifically referring to the historical narratives of experiments of the histories: that is to say,
I am not claiming that reports of technical trials were also models for other sections of the experimental
histories, like the observations, queries, etc., even though the template provided by the Commentarius was
of paramount importance (see next section).

129

and the tradition of recipe books and books of secrets. In general, this tradition has been
often considered a likely source of inspiration for Bacons ideas on experiment. However,
I will put forward the suggestion that Bacons notion of experiment significantly diverged
from the one exemplified by the secrets tradition. In his groundbreaking book on the
subject, William Eamon has perceptively discussed the conceptual characteristics of
recipes as a form of technical record;325 I will elaborate my ideas starting from Eamons
analysis, showing that Bacons reports in his experimental histories conceptually move
away from the examples of technical recipes, and also from experimental description like
the ones of Agricolas De re metallica, while they are instead consistent with reports of
technical trials like the ones Francis Bacon obtained from Thomas Russell in the Summer
of 1608.
I will start this investigation, however, by analyzing the Baconian histories, and
showing how they can be studied to understand how Bacon intended the role of Literate
Experience in concrete terms.

5.1 Recording Experience

As already mentioned in Chapter two, Bacon explicitly stressed that the proper recording
of experience is a fundamental and crucial moment of the experimental process. As a
matter of fact, for Bacon the true act of experimentation ends only when experience is
written down in accounts:

325

Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature, 131ff.

130

So far mental effort has had a much more important part to play in discovering
[in inueniendo] than has writing, and indeed experience has yet to be made
literate. And no discovery should be sanctioned save that it be put in writing
[Atqui nulla nisi de Scripto inuentio probanda est]. Only when that becomes
standard practise, with experience at last becoming literate, should we hope for
better things326
It is in fact this recording process that creates Literate Experience proper. Only when this
recording activity is ended, can experience become the proper source for the higher
philosophical stages of Bacons New Organon.
Then, together with what can be called an operational side, through which new
experiments and inventions can be devised through sagacious operations, a descriptive
role of Literate Experience can be identified: through this function, Bacon devises and
establishes proper standards and rules for the correct description of experiments. In fact
this stage, in which experience is reported and organized, corresponds to the phase of
composition and of natural and experimental histories.
Already in 1608 in the personal notes of Commentarius Solutus, Bacon laid down
strict requirements on how to record information regarding the experiments of the
mechanical arts. Bacon had in mind systematic accounts in which to report important
aspects of a particular technical process, including errors of execution and suggestions for
the improvement of operations:
To procure an History mechanique to be compiled with care and diligence (and
to professe it that is of the experimts and observations of all Mechanicall Arts.
The places or thinges to be inquyred are; first the materialls, and their quantities

326

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 158-159.

131

and proportions; Next the Instrumts and Engins requesite; then the use and
adoperation of every Instrumt; then the woork it self and all the processe thereof
wth the tymes and seasons of doing every part thereof. Then the Errors wch may
be comytted, and agayn those things wch conduce to make the woorke in more
perfection. Then all observacions, Axiomes, directions. Lastly all things
collaterall incidt or intervenient.327
It is worth remembering that Bacon related this project to the one for the
establishment of a college for inventors of the mechanical arts, a true laboratory and
workshop in which Literate Experience was developed. This brief passage is conceptually
very important: in general, scholars have not noticed that Bacon used this early sketch,
initially prepared for a History mechanique or history of the experiments and
observation of all mechanical arts, as a basis from which he more generally organized
and structured the concrete structure of his natural and experimental histories. If one
follows the development of Bacons program for the composition of such histories, this
fact very clearly emerges. Bacons first attempt at a natural history, the Phnomena
universi of 1610-1611, already shows an arrangement and organization that clearly is
inspired by the observations of the Commentarius. The Phnomena, which is the nucleus
out of which the Historia Densi et Rari will finally emerge, includes detailed accounts of
practices, the Histori, which give precise and quantitative information on the
apparatus and the experimental process under consideration. Following the sketch of the
Commentarius, together with the Histori Bacon included Monita, or suggestions for

327

Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 65-6.

132

the improvement of the experiments, and general observations (Observationes) with

preliminary conclusions on causes.328
The De fluxu et refluxu maris of 1611 added to these elements the Mandata, or
directions and prescriptions for future enquiries and experiments. Bacon will finally
publish his protocol for the compilation of an experimental history in the Historia
naturalis et experimentalis of 1622. In the Norma Histori prsentis (where norma
can be translated as rule, or standard) he defines and publicizes a set of procedures of
composition that in fact he already started to introduce in the Commentarius of 1608.
According to the Norma, together with the various topics under discussion, the recorder
needs to list articles of inquiry, or queries about the subject under investigation.
However, histories and descriptions of experiments take entirely the first place: if
these descriptions display an enumeration or series of particular things, they are
organized in tables; otherwise they are taken by themselves. These are followed by
Mandata, or directions for new experiments regarding the subject under inquiry.
Modus experimenti, or a description of the way to conduct the experiment itself, is
added when the experiment is particularly difficult and prone to error: this is because
such an account can prompt others to work out better ways. In addition, Bacon supplies
and intersperse[s] advice and cautions about the fallacies of things, and the errors and
snags which may crop up in the course of inquiring and discovering.

328

See Philosophical Studies c. 1611c. 1619. Edited by Graham Rees. Vol. 6 of The Oxford Francis
Bacon. Oxford, Clarendon Press (1996), Introduction, xxvii. I will discuss Phnomena universi and
Historia Densi et Rari more fully in a following section.

133

Finally, Bacon leaves space for personal observations and interpretations,

speculations, and provisional rules and axioms, that is to say for theoretical conclusions
and principles that can already be derived from a specific history; however, this is done
sparingly, more to hint at what might be the case than to present it cut and dried. To
stimulate human industry, among such observations Bacon inserts two new categories,
respectively the Vellicationes de Practica, or incentives to practice (these are added
for mens attention and memory, as I well know that such is their stupidity that
sometimes they do not see what is in front of their noses); and Res impossibiles, or
things deemed impossible or at least so far undiscovered.329
It is then remarkable that the structure and organization of experimental reports in
Bacons experimental histories develop and are structured starting from the early
discussion of the Commentarius, which is in fact a protocol for the reports of the
experiments and inventions of the mechanical arts.
I will now consider the central and primary part of the reports, that is to say, the
Histori and descriptions of the actual experiments. It is interesting to note that, in the
Latin texts of the Instauratio, in order to refer to the thorough recording of histories,
Bacon repeatedly uses the term perscribere, a verb that, in a dictionary of Bacons time,
is translated as to write through, or to an end: to write at length or at large: to register or
to enroll.330 In the Distributio Operis, Bacon restates his goal:

329
330

Norma Histori prsentis, in Oxford Francis Bacon 12: 12-17.

Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Lingu Roman et Britannic (1584).

134

[to] record in detail [perscribimus] (as far as I have been able to investigate
them, and as far as they contribute to my aim) all the experiments of the
mechanical arts, of the operative department of the liberal arts, and the many
practices which have not yet coalesced into a proper art.331
Bacon adds that
In every new or slightly more subtle experiment, though (it seems to me) certain
and proved, I still subjoin a clear account of the way I performed it, so that, after
revealing its every detail, people can see if any latent fault clings to it, and push
themselves to find (if any there be) more reliable or accurate proofs.332
In this context, the use of the verb perscribere is doubly significant. First of all, it
is a term that has antecedents in the classical tradition of history writing, and was used for
instance by Livy in his preface to the History of Rome, with the precise sense of a
thorough record, a report written exactly and in its entirety, without the addition of
personal interpretations.333 Secondly, the other connotation of the term to enroll
suggests institutional and official reports.
In general, as he explains in Novum Organum, Bacon rejects previous natural
histories as their reports are not detailed and thorough enough. Further statements better
qualify the type of completeness and thoroughness that Bacon has in mind. In these
histories we find nothing duly examined, verified, counted, weighed and

331

Distributio Operis, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 39.

Distributio Operis, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 41.
333
See for instance Barbara J. Godorecci, After Machiavelli: re-writing and the hermeneutic attitude.
West Lafayette, IN. Purdue University Press (1993) 93.
332

135

measured.334 In Parasceve ad historiam naturalem, et experimentalem, Bacon compares

these accounts with the proper way of collecting information:
I demand that every thing to do with natural phenomena, be they bodies or
virtues, should (as far as possible) be set down, counted, weighed, measured,
and defined [numerata, appensa, dimensa, determinata]. For we are after
works, not speculations [Opera enim meditamur, non Speculationes], and
indeed a good marriage of Physics and Mathematics begets Practice
[Practicam].
It is then clear that, in this respect, what distinguishes Baconian histories is the level
of precision and accuracy to be reached. A fundamental way to achieve such detail is by
means of quantification. When possible, Bacons histories should be quantitative, and
aim at measurements. Among the countless instances to be duly investigate[d] in
detail and thoroughly record[ed] are astronomical measurements, geographical
extensions, comparative weights and densities of metals. For instance, in the History of
Heavenly Bodies, we study the precise returns and distances of the Planets, with a
practical application in navigation; in the History of the Earth and Sea, the extent of
Rand;335 in the History of Air, how much impression air will put up without strong
resistance; in the History of Metals, how far one may outweigh another. 336 When

334

Nil debitis modis exquisitum, nil verificatum, nil numeratum, nil appensum, nil dimensum in Naturalis
Historia reperitur; Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 156-157.
335
The word Rand means a strip of land.
336
innumera id genus perquirenda, & perscribenda; Bacon here uses the verb perscribere again.
Parasceve, Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 465-7.

136

such precise measurements are not achievable, at least we need to provide rough
estimates and comparisons.337
This quantitative experimental program is always connected to an operative
dimension, and to the possibility of producing opera and originating Practice.
Accuracy and quantification are necessary conditions to reach such aims, and past
histories are useless and fail in this respect because they lack such qualities.

5.2 Weighing Experience

Bacons aim is then that of weighing and measuring experience. This is a very important
point, because Bacons setting down of experience in writing is not a generic process
of textual recording. Not all experiential textual records are acceptable, but only the ones
in which experience is counted, weighed, measured, and delimited. It is only this further
stage of weighing and measuring that makes experience literate.
It is interesting to follow Bacons use of the Latin expression pensitanda
Experientia, which he adopts to describe this idea. Pensitare, as a verb, can be
translated as to weigh, ponder, and consider often and diligently.338 In his work Bacon
uses the full range of connotations for the expression, from the metaphorical ones up to
the literal, physical sense. So, for instance, in the dedicatory epistle of the Instauratio,
Bacon invites king James to rival Salomon himself, and give start to a wide-ranging

337
338

Parasceve, Oxford Francis Bacon 11: OFB XI, 465.

Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Lingu Roman et Britannic (1584).

137

project for the collecting and perfecting of a true and rigorous natural and experimental
history,
So that at last, after so many ages of the world, philosophy and the sciences may
be no longer an airy and floating fabric but a solid construction resting on the
firm foundations of well weighed experience of every kind [Experienti
omnigen, bene pensitat]339
The weighing of experience is then the qualifying activity of proper natural history.
In general, as Bacon states in Novum Organum, philosophy rests on too narrow a basis
of experience and natural history, putting together few observations neither securely
established nor carefully examined and weighed.340 Subtlety is vain, if not grounded on
weighing experience and thence building axioms.341 The metaphor of weighing
becomes most strong in a passage from aphorism 20 of book II, which Spedding renders,
emphasizing the allusions to assaying:
And yet since truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion, I think
it expedient that the understanding should have permission, after the three
Tables of First Presentation (such as I have exhibited) have been made and
weighed [factas et pensitatas], to make an essay [tentandi opus] of the
Interpretation of Nature in the affirmative way; on the strength both of the
instances given in the tables, and of any others it may meet with elsewhere.

339

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 8-9.

neque certo comperta, nec diligenter examinata & pensitata; Novum Organum, aph. 62, book I. Oxford
Francis Bacon 11: 98-99.
341
in pensitanda Experientia & inde constituendis Axiomatibus. Rees translates this passage as the right
and proper or, at any rate, prime time for subtlety comes when we evaluate experience and build axioms on
it; Novum Organum, aph. 121, book I. Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 182-183. In Spedding, the same passage
is rendered as the true and proper or at any rate the chief time for subtlety is in weighing experience and in
founding axioms thereon; Works, IV;108.
340

138

Which kind of essay I call the Indulgence of the Understanding, or the

Commencement of Interpretation, or the First Vintage342
Now Bacons Interpretation of Nature, or the New Organon, is described as a form of
assay, which needs to be preceded by the accurate and precise measurement of the
instances and observations from the histories, properly measured and organized in
tables.343
Not surprisingly, the rhetoric of a careful weighing of experience resurfaces in the
discussion of the Mathematical Instances, or Instances of Measure, in book II of Novum
Organum, where the verb pensitare acquires a more concrete nuance. These instances,
Bacon states, are related to the effective achievement of operation and work. In general,
operation lets you down by inaccurate determination or measurement of the powers
and actions of bodies [propter male determinatas & mensuratas Corporum vires &
actiones]. As powers and actions are
circumscribed and measured either by point in space, moment of time,
concentration of quantity, or ascendency of virtue unless these four have
been well and carefully weighed up [fuerint probe & diligenter pensitata], the
sciences will perhaps be pretty as speculation [speculatione pulchr], but
fall flat in practice [opere inactiv].344
As in the discussion in Parasceve, Bacon connects proper measurement of physical
quantities to efficacy of operations, contrasting such activity with ineffectual speculation.

342

Novum Organum, in Works, 1; 252.

Bacon employs this metaphor in other parts of his work, and I will discuss it more extensively in a
different section of this chapter.
344
Novum Organum, aph. 44, book II. Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 366-367.
343

139

A final example of the use of the verb pensitare belongs to more explicit
experimental practice. In Historia densi et rari, the term appears in the investigation of
expansion and pneumatic matter, and implies actual measurements of weights.
Now it seemed to me the most certain test [certissima ... probatio] would be
that if any tangible body (its bulk having been taken and measured beforehand)
could be altogether turned into a pneumatic one, after which the bulk of the
pneumatic would likewise be noted down, so that the multiplication of
dimension that had taken place could be clearly demonstrated by comparing the
values before and after [by weighing both ratios, pensitatis utriusque
rationibus]
Bacons description of the experiment is in fact quantitative. A small glass phial is
filled with half an ounce of spirit of wine, a bladder holding eight wine pints fixed
round the phials mouth, and tightly tied to it. When the phial is placed over hot coals
in a brazier, part of the spirit of wine evaporates and inflates the bladder. After removing
the phial from the coals and puncturing the bladder, the weight of the evaporated liquid
can be evaluated per lances (with the scales), by weighing the spirit still in the phial.
Now by weight the loss amounted to not more than six pennyweights, so that the
six pennyweights spirit of wine, which in a body did not (as I recall) fill a
fortieth of a pint, filled a space amounting to eight pints when turned into
breath345
Experientia pensitata, the weighing of experience, is then the driving metaphor of
Bacons efforts towards the achievement of quantitative histories and Experientia

345

Historia densi et rari, in Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 66-69. For other Baconian versions of this
experiment, see Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 277, note B6v-B7r.

140

Literata. It is in the Historia densi et rari that the metaphorical and literal connotations of
the expressions are more strongly connected and revealed.

5.3 Weighing Dense and Rare: from Vulcan to Minerva

The investigation of dense and rare was Bacons first subject of choice for the
development of an original natural history.346 The initial result of this enquiry was the
Phnomena universi, composed in the period of 1610-1611. The Phnomena universi
expanded subsequently in the Historia densi et rari. Bacon never published this text,
even though, in the Historia naturalis et experimentalis of 1622, he included it among the
titles of the histories he pledged to compose in the next six months, the first of a full
project of histories one for each month that the goodness of God prolongs my
life.347
These texts are the best testimonies of Francis Bacons extensive efforts to develop
records of quantitative experimentation and of the Literate Experience research program.
The prefaces of Phnomena universi and Historia densi et rari show a clear connection
between this experimental project and the notion of Experientia Literata. In the
Phnomena, Bacon states that with the development of his history he aims at leaving
behind the hobgoblins of belief and blindness of experiments, to enter into a more
reliable and sound partnership with things by, as it were, a certain literate experience.

346

On the reasons of this choice, see G. Reess introduction to Phnomena universi, Oxford Francis Bacon
6: xxv-xxvi.
347
Historia naturalis et experimentalis, in Oxford Francis Bacon 12: 4-7.

141

Mechanical arts are Bacons major inspiration, because in their operations judgment is
concentrated, and we see natures modes and processes, not just its effects: artificial
processes allow the investigator to unveil the usually hidden natural activities. Bacons
experiments on this subject are quantitative, because there is no doubt in my mind that
this business of dense and rare is capable of being reduced to calculation [calculos pati
possit], to indefinite proportions perhaps in some things, but to ones precise and certain
in others, and known to nature.348
In the Historia densi et rari, the metaphor of the weighing of experience concretely
turns into the actual experimental activity of weighing substances, through which the
business of dense and rare is reduced to numbers and measurements. I already
described Bacons experimentations on the expansion of pneumatic matter. The trial on
pneumatic matter is in fact the last of a series of four quantitative experiments. The report
of the first one, which opens the Historia, is introduced by a long table, with
measurements of weights for equal volumes of different substances. The measures and a
dry description of the way in which the experiment used for the above Table was
conducted complete this first History. The second History includes two short tables,
with measurements of two types: the first one, regarding the Bulk of Matter in the same
space or Dimension, in the same Bodies whole and finely divided; and the second one,
A Table of the Bulk of Matter in the same space or Dimension, in Bodies crude and
distilled.

348

Phnomena universi, in Oxford Francis Bacon 6: 3-11.

142

This series of experiments is introduced without specific justifications regarding

their more general goal and purpose. It is only in a subsequent section, called Direction
(Mandatum), that the aims of and links between the experiments are clarified:
The two tables above are pretty meagre. The only precise table of bodies and
their openings would be one which displayed the weight of the individual bodies
whole first, then of their crude powders, next of their ashes, limes and rusts; next
of their amalgamations, then of their vitrifications (in those bodies capable of
vitrification), then of their distillations (once the weight of the water they are
dissolved in was taken away), and of all other alterations of the same bodies; so
that in this manner a judgment might be formed of the openings of bodies and
very close-knit connections on the nature in its whole state349
As Rees noticed, Bacon here proposes a further and very extensive programme of
quantitative investigation.350 Most of all, Bacon describes the goal of his measurements
as a general, quantitative exploration of the different states of aggregation of matter. Only
through this investigation, which is of course happening at the macroscopic level, by
means of measurements and weighing, it is possible to give provisional assessments and
judgments regarding the close-knit connections, and the actual microscopic structure of
substances. This overall goal is further clarified in Novum Organum, where the
discussion of dense and rare is developed in the context of Summonsing Instances, or
Evoking Instances, which reduce [deducunt] the imperceptible to the perceptible.351
As a matter of fact, Bacon also directly uses the expression Reductive Instances
[Instantias Deductorias], with the same meaning. In this discussion, it is very clear

349

Historia densi et rari, in Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 59.

Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 275.
351
Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 347.
350

143

that the quantitative investigation on the expansion and coition of matter in bodies is in
fact a way to reduce the the most radical and primary difference of schematisms,
which per se would be imperceptible and intangible.352

As Bacon explains, the

concentration of matter and its proportions are made perceptible by weight [deducuntur
ad Sensibile per Pondus].353
Weighing matter is then a way to obtain indirect evidence on its schematisms and
microscopic properties. This form of indirect investigation is very significant, and it can
be used as an example of Bacons idea of what Literate Experience can achieve in
practice. It is worth remembering that for Bacon the Application of Experiment, one of
the modes of experimentation, and types of Literate Experience, was exemplified by
another case of skillful and indirect investigation by means of weighing, that of
Archimedes:
Application of Experiment is nothing but the ingenious translation of it to some
other useful experiment. For instance; all bodies have their own dimensions and
gravities; gold has more weight, but less dimension than silver; water than wine.
From this is derived a useful experiment; for by taking the bulk and the weight
you may know how much silver has been mixed with gold, or how much water
with wine; which was the eureka of Archimedes.354
Archimedes sagacious type of Literate Experience is mentioned in the Historia densi et
rari, too, this time among the Incentives to Practice:

352

Ibid. 351.
Ibid. 353.
354
De Augmentis, in Works, 4: 419 (transl.).
353

144

1. All mixture of bodies can be laid bare and discovered by means of the table of
weights. For if you want to know how much water is mixed with the wine, or
lead with the gold, and so on for the rest, then, once you have weighed the
composite body, look up the table for the weights of the simple bodies, and the
average values of the composite compared with the simple bodies will give you
the proportions of the mixture. I imagine that this is Archimedes eureka, but in
any event this is how the matter stands.355
Bacons indirect investigation follows the same methodological path, as it is possible
to transfer and translate the experiments and measurements on the specific gravities of
bodies to a much more complex question and experiment, regarding the investigation of
the inner and hidden schematisms of matter. As such, it is a concrete example of
Baconian Literate Experience, a sagacious adaptation of an experimental technique to
obtain clues and hints on the real target of the Baconian hunt, the hidden properties of
matter.
At the same time, like its Archimedean counterpart, the weighing of dense and rare
also represents a stage of a metaphorical assay of nature, in which the characteristics of
bodies are investigated without the destructive use of fire, but only through reason and
sagacity. This idea was very important for Bacon, who actually thought of his new
Induction as a form of rational assay. For instance, in the Novum Organum, Bacon
affirms that
We must make a separation and dissolution of bodies not by fire indeed but by
reason and true Induction with experiments to reinforce them; and by comparing
them with other bodies, and reducing them to simple natures and their forms,
which in a compound body come together and become intertwined.

355

Historia densi et rari, in Oxford Francis Bacon, 11: 53,55.

145

Separation not by fire but by reason and true Induction is then the move from
Vulcan to Minerva,356 from true fire to the mind, which is a kind of divine fire.357
Also, as I mentioned before, aphorism 20 of Book II further elaborates the metaphor. The
Interpretation of Nature is there represented as a form of assay, based on the careful,
quantitative weighing of the instances and tables produced through the histories, the
result of which is the First Vintage, and the discovery of axioms.358

5.4 On Bacons Method for the Determination of Specific Gravities

If Archimedean suggestions inform Bacons indirect investigations on the quantity of
matter in substances, it is also important to establish that his experimental methods
strongly differed from the ones employed by early modern authors belonging to the
mathematical Archimedean tradition. As a matter of fact, for the Victorian editors of his
works, Bacons attempt to measure specific gravities without making use of hydrostatic
principles was very puzzling. In his introduction to the Historia densi et rari, Robert
Leslie Ellis, comparing Bacons method of weighing to the ones of Giambattista della
Porta and Marino Ghetaldi, defined it as the most unmanageable of all. Describing
Bacons technique, he insisted that it was highly unskillful: nothing can be more
inartificial than the process employed. Bacon

356

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon, 11: 213.

Ibid., 255.
358
Novum Organum, in Works, 1: 252 (Speddings translation).
357

146

formed a hollow prism, of which the height is a little greater than the side and
the base the base being a square, and just equal to a side of a cube of gold
weighing one ounce. Any substance to be compared with gold is to be formed
into a cube of dimensions equal to the ounce cube of gold, which is ascertained
by its just fitting into the prism: the weight of the prism being known both when
it is empty, and when it carries a cube of the given substance, that of the latter is
also known, and its gravity compared to that of gold is thence determined.
The method, Ellis concluded, requires it to be possible to give a cubical form to the
substance to be examined; a condition in many cases wholly impracticable, and which in
all cases will give rise to many sources of error.359 Most of all, Ellis suggested that
Bacon was unaware of the hydrostatic method, of the real problem proposed to
Archimedes, and of the idea that specific weights were to be compared by weighing in
air and water.360
If Ellis concerns appear historiographically dated, the question of the possible
traditions out of which Bacons experimental strategies originated is instead very
significant. A first obvious observation is that Bacons experimental research project, in
the Phnomena and the Historia densi et rari, seems to follow quantitative
methodologies employed by goldsmiths.
This is explicitly the case regarding units of measurement. While describing his first
experiment on Tangible Bodies, Bacon clarifies that the weights I have used belong to
the system employed by the goldsmiths, so that a pound has 12 ounces, an ounce 20

359
360

Robert Leslie Ellis, introduction to the Historia densi et rari, in Works, 2: 233.
Ibid., 232-233.

147

pennyweights, and a pennyweight 24 grains,361 the Troy weights employed to weigh

precious metals. Bacon uses an ounce of gold as his standard, and determines the weight
of an equivalent volume of a substance. All materials are placed in identical vessels, and
then weighed.
So I carried out the trial in exactly this manner: one of the vessels was placed
empty with the ounce of gold in one scale, the other vessel with the body in it in
the other scale, and the difference of weight of the body was taken down.
The weight of a substance is then compared to gold, in order to determine the
proportion of matter. For instance, in the particular case of myrrh, since the gold cube
weighs one ounce and the cube of myrrh one pennyweight, it is evident that the bulk of
the myrrh compared with the bulk of the body of gold is as twenty to one. In general, it
is worth remembering that one pennyweight corresponds to 1.56 grams, and that Bacon
took measures with sensitivities up to the grain, that is to say twenty-four parts of a
pennyweight, or 65 milligrams. It is then clear that Bacon was using scales with very
good sensitivity, like those used by goldsmiths for the weighing of coins.362
Because of these considerations, it is reasonable to assume that Bacons
experimental techniques were modeled on those of goldsmiths weighing coins or
precious substances. Still, it would be helpful to find examples of techniques for the
measurement of specific weights close to the ones that Bacon employed in a monetary
context, not making use of the hydrostatic principle.

361

Historia densi et rari, in Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 45.

On coin scales, see Bruno Kish, Scales and Weights. A Historical Outline. New Haven and London.
Yale University Press. (1965) 129-139.
362

148

As a matter of fact, it is possible to find at least one example of such a type. This
case, which I will discuss in the next section, regards a group of measurements of the
specific gravity of metals initially conducted by the French alchemist and experimenter
Franois de Foix de Candale (likely sometime in the decade between 1568 and 1578),
and publicized by the polymath and political theorist Jean Bodin in a series of works and
texts on political and monetary matters, in the second half of the sixteenth century. The
results of these measurements were partially published again in England in 1604, in a
work by the merchant and author Gerard Malynes. As is evident, Bodin and Malynes
were very familiar to Bacon, who could have easily been aware of such experiments, and
used them as a source of inspiration, instead of the hydrostatic tradition emphasized by
Ellis and Spedding.363 In any case, these works demonstrate that it is possible to identify
interesting and important examples of use of specific gravity not in a natural
philosophical context, but in relation to economy and to monetary matters.

5.5 Specific Gravities: the Monetary Context and the Issue of Coin Counterfeiting
It useful to start this brief digression by considering Jean Bodins Universae naturae
theatrum (1596). Ann Blair has reminded us that in this work Bodin rarely reported
quantitative facts, usually collecting qualitative and descriptive information. However,
she notes, in only one instance

363

For the Archimedean tradition of authors working on specific gravity, se for instance Domenico
Bertoloni Meli, Thinking with Objects: The Transformation of Mechanics in the Seventeenth Century.
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press (2006) 44-45.

149

does Bodin engage in a more systematic kind of investigation and in one that
involves measurement: he gives a list of the proportions between the weights of
different metals and then of a number of other substances, from earth to oil and
wine and water, from which, he concludes, it can easily be judged the
intermediate weights of all natural things364
As Ann Blair states, the alchemist Foix de Candale was Bodins source. After
reporting his results, Bodin affirmed that this
was first demonstrated by Franois de Foix de Candale, the Archimedes of
France, who, taking equal lenghts of the six metals drawn into a wire
weighed them in a very fine balance, and since mercury could not be made into
a wire, he impressed a lump [frustulum] of gold or silver on the bone of a
squid, then removing the gold piece [auro detracto], poured an equal amount
of mercury in it, which he then poured into one side of the balance to find its
weight365
Bodin then adds that we ourselves collected the weight of salt, earth, salt water,
fresh water, wine, ash, and oil, which have not been included in the books of any other
writer until now. Bodin does not explain the techniques he employed to derive this
second group of measurements but it makes sense to imagine that he followed a method
similar to the one employed by Foix de Candale for mercury. In a different page, Bodin
lists weights and proportions found by Foix de Candale, and also gives the results of his
own measurements. According to Blair, Foix de Candales and Bodins accounts on
specific weights had a rather limited circulation in French natural philosophical circles:

364

Ann Blair, The Theater of Nature. Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science. Princeton, Princeton University
Press (1997) 100-101; Jean Bodin, Universae naturae theatrum (1596) 259-261.
365
Underlined words are my changes to Blairs translation, which makes use of the term coin in both
instances: Blair, Theater of Nature, 101. Bodin, Theatrum, 261. On Foix de Candales experiments on
specific gravities, see also Jeanne E. Harrie, Franois de Foix de Candale and the Hermetic Tradition in
Sixteenth Century France. University of California, Riverside. Ph.D. Dissertation. (1975) 180-182.

150

Excerpted from the rest of the [Theatrum], this passage became one of the
sources used in the tables of specific weights compiled and circulated in the
early seventeenth century, notably through Mersenne. The authors of these
tables, like the fortifications engineer Pierre Petit and the royal physician Louis
Savot, cited Bodin alongside Tartaglia, Candala, and others as their predecessors
in this research. It is perhaps through this circulation rather than from a direct
reading of the Theatrum that Kepler became aware of the passage, the results of
which he criticized cogently.
It is very interesting to note that Bodin publicized Foix de Candales results on the
specific gravities of metals in a very different context. I will now show that Foix de
Candales measurements appear in Jean Bodins works on politics, economics, and
monetary matters. The works reporting these data antedate the Theatrum, and are
connected with a very popular controversy of that time, the so called Bodin-Malestroit
debate on the causes of price increases in France in the 1560s. The texts I am referring to
are the third chapter of the sixth book of the Six livres de la Rpublique of 1576 (which
had an English translation in 1606, the Six Bookes of a Commonweale); and the second
edition of La response aux paradoxes de Monsieur de Malestroit, published in 1578,
which in fact included the chapter from the Six livres as an addition to a first edition of
1568. Furthermore, Bodins and De Foixs results were partially reported, without
acknowledgment, by Gerard Malynes, in his Englands View, in the Unmasking of Two
Paradoxes, published in 1604.
A detailed analysis of Bodins intentions in these texts is clearly beside the scope of
this work, but it is worth mentioning that a central subject of these works is the issue of
false money. As a matter of fact, a modern commentator, Jrme Blanc, in contrast with

151

scholars who saw Bodins work on this subject as the origin of the quantity theory of
money,366 proposes to identify it as the fundamental issue behind these texts:
In fact, the central issue Bodin emphasizes is far less the abundance of gold and
silver than what we call here false money. False money was commonly
rejected at Bodins time. Lacking definition, it concealed monetary
manipulations by the Prince behind the rejection of counterfeit coins and coins
of bad quality. Clarifying the false money accusation allows one to understand
the very core of Bodins monetary thought: he aimed at building a sound and
stable monetary system, that is, a system excluding all sort of false money.367
It makes sense, therefore, that Bodins use of specific gravities in these texts is
strongly related to the questions of counterfeiting and debasement of money. In the
second edition of La response, following an argument already developed two years
before in his Six livres, Bodin proposes to stop the stamping of thin coins with a hammer,
because the many abuses of this practice. Instead, according to Bodin, it would be a
good idea to have all coins cast in the form of a medallion, as was common in ancient
times: the mould makes all medallions of the same metal equal in size, weight, breadth
and form. This would make life difficult for counterfeiters:
If a counterfeiter wanted to mix copper with gold more than the alloy of twentythree carats, the volume of copper being, in equal weight, two an eighth times
bigger than gold, or two and an eighth times lighter than gold of an equal mass,
the medallion would be much larger and would thus make the falsification
apparent.

366

The idea that the amount of money actually circulating in a state affects the level of prices, and in
particular, an abundance of gold and silver produces an increase in prices.
367
Jrme Blanc, Beyond the quantity theory. A reappraisal of Jean Bodins monetary ideas. In A
Giacomin and M. C. Marcuzzo (eds.) Money and markets: a doctrinal approach. Abingdon (UK),
Routledge (2007) 136.

152

In this context, Bodin develops a section wherein he reports the measures on the
specific gravities of metals that will reappear in the Theatrum of 1596, as I have learned
from Franois de Foix, the great Archimedes of our time, who first established the true
proportions of the metals in weight and volume.368 In La response and the Six livres
Bodin mistakenly exchanges the figures for lead and silver; moreover, the numerical
values for the weights are often wrongly copied from one version of the text to another
(including the English translation of Six livres); however, taking into account that the
weights of silver and lead are clearly exchanged by mistake, these are the measures of
Foix de Candele, as reported in the initial work, the Six livres de la Rpublique of 1576 :
Gold

1550

Quicksilver

1158

Lead

998

Silver

929

Copper

729

Iron

634

Tin

600

(Weights expressed in Ferlins)

368

J. Bodin. Response to the Paradoxes of Malestroit. (1578) Translated and edited by H. Tudor and R.W.
Wilson. Introduction by D.P. OBrien. Notes by J.C. M. Starkey. Thoemmes Press. Bristol, UK (1997) 121.

153

From these values, Bodin extrapolates numerical proportions for the ratios between
the various metals, which are faithfully reported from one version of this passage to
another:
gold/copper = 17/8
gold/silver = 9/5
copper/silver = 11/13
lead/silver = 15/14
tin/silver = 9/13
silver/iron = 4/3
gold/quicksilver = 4/3

Such proportions are actually good approximations of the previous numerical values
only in the case of the gold/copper, lead/silver, and gold/quicksilver ratios, while they
differ more or less significantly in the other cases. It is interesting to note that, in 1604, in
a work titled England's view in the unmasking of two paradoxes, with a replication unto
the answer of Maister J. Bodine, Gerard Malynes reproduced almost verbatim Bodins
argument on the usefulness of specific weights in the fight against counterfeiting, and
copied the proportions appearing in Bodins works, without reference to Foix de Candale.
Coming back to Bacon, this discussion shows that the description of Foix de
Candales experiments in Bodins Theatrum might have been an important source of
inspiration, because it is a significant case of determination of specific gravities without
the use of the hydrostatic principle, but by simple gravimetric techniques. Moreover,
154

Bodins use of specific gravities of metals in his discussion of counterfeiting is also

suggestive. For Bodin (and Malynes, who appropriated Bodins argument) the issue at
stake was the precise identification of coins. Univocally establishing the size, weight, and
form of coins would eliminate counterfeiting, the accurate measurement of the specific
gravities of metals being a guarantee of this fact. In a sense, Bodin applied a case of
Archimedean sagacity to a monetary context.

5.6 Experimental Histories: Trials versus Recipes

From whence did Bacon derive his ideas on how organize experimental histories? At this
stage of the discussion, it is worth recalling Francis Bacons own notes on how to
structure technical reports of processes from the mechanical arts: in the Commentarius,
Bacon suggested that a proper history of these processes needed to investigate a series of
specific subjects:
The places or thinges to be inquyred are; first the materialls, and their quantities
and proportions; Next the Instrumts and Engins requesite; then the use and
adoperation of every Instrumt; then the woork it self and all the processe thereof
wth the tymes and seasons of doing every part thereof. Then the Errors wch may
be comytted, and agayn those things wch conduce to make the woorke in more
perfection.369
It is very important to stress that Bacon devised this very characteristic and clearly
defined template for his histories with mechanical arts and technical processes in mind.
However, the identification of this technical context still needs further clarifications.

369

Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 65-6.

155

In the past, relevant aspects of Bacons experimental program have been linked to
the tradition of how-to books of secrets and technical recipes,370 or to the learned treatises
on mechanical arts, and particularly to Agricolas popular text De re metallica (1556),
which Bacon certainly knew.371 Basing my conclusions on the epistemological features of
Bacons experimental accounts in his histories, and specifically focusing on such
historical narratives of experiments, I would like to suggest a different type of tradition: I
have in mind the reports of specific technical trials, like the ones that describe Thomas
Russells assaying trials of 1608, at the time of Bacons composition of the notes of the
Commentarius.
In order to justify my claim, I will first need to examine these other traditions in
more detail. In particular, William Eamon has perceptively discussed the epistemological
consequences of the use of the recipe format, characteristic of the books of secrets. It is
worth going back to Eamons discussion, as it is very relevant for the points I intend to
raise on Bacons specific approach to experimental reporting.
As Eamon reminds us, the conventional format for recording technical processes in
the early modern how-to books was the recipe, formally a list of ingredients, along with a
set of instructions describing how they were to be employed. Eamon suggests that
important linguistic and semiotic differences exist between recipe formats and other
means of conveying technical information, such as the descriptive-historical method

370
371

in different forms, this is the case of William Eamon and Carolyn Merchant.
Bacon mentions De re metallica in De Augmentis. See: Works 1:572 (transl. Works 4: 366).

156

employed by Pliny and by Renaissance technological authors like Biringuccio and

Agricola. For Eamon, a historical account of a technical process is self-contained, and
exists independently of the process itself. If the historical account is a virtual substitute
for the process, a recipe is instead a call to action: recipe is the Latin imperative for
take a recipe is a prescription for an experiment, a trying out .372
Eamons distinctions are very important, and can help to understand Bacons
preference for historical accounts of technical processes. It seems initially important,
however, to stress that technical descriptions like those appearing in Agricolas De re
metallica do in fact bear a strong epistemic similarity to the recipes of the books of
secrets tradition. Let us for instance consider book VII of De re metallica, on the topic of
assaying. Agricola initially stresses that he intends to produce descriptions of methods
[rationes] of assaying ores373 Further on, he states that he will explain [explicabo]
all these methods [rationem] with the utmost care that I can.374 In the following text,
his reports are systematic explanations of technical processes of assaying, in which
particular preparations or procedures are described in orderly fashion, as in a textbook. In
fact, the tone of the text could be characterized as pedagogic and instructional. As such, it
presents many instances of procedural directions and instructions: in other words, many
instances of technical recipes. Very often, Agricola uses exactly the stylistic element

372

Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature, 131.

Sextus liber descripsit ferramenta, vasa, machinas, hic venarum experiendarum rationes describet.
Georgius Agricola, De re metallica, Basel (1556) 174. English transl.: Herbert C. Hoover and Lou H.
Hoover (eds), London, The Mining magazine (1912); New York, Dover Publiations (1950) 219.
374
Quorum omnium rationem qum potero, diligentissim explicabo De re metallica, 175. Transl.
Hoover, 219.
373

157

proper of the recipe, the verb in the Latin imperative mood. For instance, when he deals
with gold ores not easily melted by fire, he imparts:
Mix one part of this ore, when it had been roasted, crushed, and washed, with
three parts of some powder compound which melts ore, and six parts of lead. Put
the charge into the triangular crucible, place it in the iron hoop to which the
double bellows reaches, and heat first in a slow fire, and afterward gradually in a
fierce fire, till it melts and flows like water 375
Apart from proper recipes, descriptions in the text also take the form of expert
explanations of processes:
Those who wish to know quickly what portion of silver the copper ore contains,
roast the ore, crush and wash it, then mix a little yellow litharge with one
centumpondium of the concentrates, and put the mixture into a scorifier,
which they place under the muffle in a hot furnace for the space of half a hour

These accounts are in fact descriptions of methods established in the form of

traditional and accepted procedures of an art assaying in this particular case. As such,
they are strictly related to the ones in the form of technical recipes, and they are in fact a
different stylistic way in which technical instructions are presented in the text.
This digression on De re metallica and the style of technological recipes is necessary
because in his histories Bacon clearly distinguishes his approach from the one of these
traditions. In the case of Agricola, Sophie Weeks has aptly noticed that Benjamin

375

Huius ven ust, comminut, lavat partem unam cum alicuius pulveris compositi, qui venas
liquefacit, partibus tribus & plumbi partibus sex commisceto: atque misturam inijcito in catillum
triangularem: quem in circulum ferreum, ad quem follies duplicatis pertinet, imponito: atque primm lento
igni coquito, deinde sensim acriori usque dum liquescat, & aqu instar fluat. De re metallica, 190. Transl.
Hoover, 243.

158

Farringtons causal connection between De re metallica and Bacons program of

Experientia Literata is incorrect because, for Bacon, this work is in fact an example of a
philosophical treatment of the mechanical arts, while Literate Experience does not aim to
or achieve any proper philosophical status.376 Nevertheless, even with this distinction
established, one could still consider the possibility that Bacons historical accounts of
experiments owe a debt to Agricola, or to the books of secrets tradition, as plausible
sources of the Baconian templates of experimental reports.
In fact, it is my contention that this is not the case. The style of Francis Bacons
accounts of experiments strongly differs from the instructional style I delineated in the
previous paragraphs. Bacon is not describing established methods or procedures, but new
experiments. In general, Bacon identifies the experiments described in the Histories with
the term probatio. A probatio is a trial, or a test, and most of all an individual experiment
the result of which is unprecedented and unknown, until the trail and test are conducted.
This is fundamental epistemic difference from the case of Agricola, or from the books of
secrets. Bacons accounts are at least in the rhetorical intentions of the author
descriptions of unique and specific events: the experiment on weights of substances tried
by Bacon in a particular experimental setting and at a particular time; and not the

376

Farrington maintains that Agricolas De re metallica is the perfect example of what Francis Bacon
later called experientia literata, or dumb practice which has been to school and learned to express itself in
writing. But according to Bacon, Agricola handles that mechanic which is connected with physical
causes. Agricolas work is philosophical mechanics part of the interpretation of nature. Sophie Weeks,
The Role of Mechanics in Francis Bacons Great Instauration, in Claus Zittel, Gisela Engel, Romano
Nanni, and Nicole C. Karafyllis (eds.), Philosophies of Technology: Francis Bacon and his
Contemporaries (2 vols) (2008); vol 1, 166.

159

descriptions of an established method that needs only to be replicated. Bacon is fully

aware of the idiosyncrasy involved in the specific case he is giving an account of. For
instance, his Advices (Monita) indicate that the individual samples [ea individua]
with which my experiment deals may neither represent exactly the nature of their species
[naturam speciei exacte referre] nor happen altogether to agree with the experiments of
others in their smallest details.377 Moreover, because of their lack of canonicity,
experiments can and ought to be improved. Referring again to his results on weights,
Bacon adds that
I completed this table many years ago, and (as I recall) took a great deal of
trouble over it. But, I do not doubt that a much more accurate one could be put
together, namely one with more observations made on a more generous scale,
which is something that contributes greatly to exact calculation; and this should
emphatically be done, for it is fundamental for the whole business378
Thus, if technical recipes describe templates set in canonical form through the
experience of the artisan, Bacons histories deals with individual and contingent attempts
at experimentation and testing of unknown natural properties. In contrast to technical
recipes, Bacons experimental practice is represented by unique experiments, the results
of which are unknown and open.
Where could Bacon find examples of technical reports sharing both these
characteristics uniqueness of the technical experiment and openness of its results? The

377
378

Historia densi et rari, in Oxford Francis Bacon 13: 46-7.

Ibid., 48-9.

160

official accounts of assay trials that Bacon was able to know first-hand from his
connection with Thomas Russell are cases in point.
First of all, for its own nature, an assay trial report described a unique and specific
experiment. The goal of the trial was that of assessing a specific, defined mineral ore.
Moreover, both the assayer and his employers well knew that a specific assay was only a
partial, provisional assessment of the ore: its results needed to be compared with other
assays for different samples of the same rock, possibly executed by different assayers in
other tests. In this respect, assay trials reports differed completely from the descriptions
of established technological assaying methods and procedures like the ones I mentioned
from Agricolas De re metallica. While based on such methods, they had no instructional
character, but were relations of unique experiments.
Finally, their results were of course open and not known in advance, because, like
Bacons experiments, they were specific tests of an unknown natural property (the
composition of a particular ore). The technicians who executed these tests currently
referred to them with two English terms, trials, and proofs, terms that in fact are the
translations of the Latin word that Bacon normally employed to identify the experiments
of his histories, probationes. Because of the characteristics I just described, they
represent the best candidates as sources of inspiration for Bacons idea of experiment as
probatio.

161

Conclusions

The research developed in this dissertation explores a number of questions all centered on
the figure of Francis Bacon. An initial investigation of Bacons contacts among
projectors and entrepreneurs close to the Stuart court and of his concrete involvement in
the patent system, prompted a reconsideration of his intellectual reflection on the
promotion of innovation and technology. This enquiry expanded to consider the way in
which these themes were more generally relevant for Bacons philosophy of technology
and the development of his notion of experiment. Because of this approach, some of the
issues I considered are more strictly Baconian, that is to say, they contribute to specific
discussions taking place inside Baconian scholarship. Other themes treated regard instead
questions and ideas that are more generally related with the state of science in early
Stuart England, and with the rise of experimentation in seventeenth century England and
Europe, especially in connection with the Baconian tradition. Among these latter subjects
some, like the considerations on the role of quantification in Bacons experimental
histories, and the interaction between mechanical arts and natural philosophy, are
generally relevant and important for the historiography of seventeenth-century science
and philosophy. For the sake of clarity, I decided not to address these general issues
within the various chapters of the dissertation, but instead to leave such discussion to the
concluding section of this work. Thus, in the following, I will specifically address how
the results of this investigation affect received views and current literature on the various
topics thus far treated.
162

A Gentlemanly Outsider?
In the first chapter of this dissertation, I used sources like the records of patents of
invention, and Francis Bacons personal notebook of 1608, the Commentarius Solutus, to
outline the nature of Bacons links with the metallurgist and entrepreneur Thomas
Russell. However, the true sense of the connection between them can only be understood
within a broader context, that of Bacons institutional involvement in the patent system,
and his interests in entrepreneurial matters. From this larger perspective, it is possible to
look at the interactions between Bacon and Russell as a typical occurrence within the
economic and institutional life of early Stuart London. For one thing, Bacons
entrepreneurial interests in mining were clearly not unusual among elements of his social
class: on the contrary, as the lists of members of the Companies of Mines Royal and
Mineral and Battery Works show, they were shared among a consistent group of
Jacobean gentlemen.379 Bacons consultations with Russell convey to us the picture of a
typical component of this milieu. Eric Ash has recently discussed the role of the expert
mediator, a figure bridging the gap between a particular technical field of expertise, and
the patrons and central administrators supervising it.380 Russells interactions with Bacon

379

See: Maxwell B. Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies: The History of the Company of Mineral and Battery
Works from 1565 to 1604. Edinburgh and London, Oliver and Boyd (1961). Theodore K. Rabb, Enterprise
and empire: merchant and gentry investment in the expansion of England, 1575-1630. Cambridge, Mass.,
Harvard University Press (1967).
380

Eric H. Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England. Baltimore and London, Johns
Hopkins University Press (2004) 8-9.

163

conveniently fit this picture. This is not surprising, because, as Ash has properly pointed
out, Bacon was deeply immersed in a society where experts were beginning to
proliferate and prosper. He certainly walked the same streets as they, knew many of the
same people at court, and had a great respect for the valuable knowledge they
possessed.381
If we consider, however, the current literature on Francis Bacon, these conclusions
are unusual, as a majority of commentators maintain that Bacon had no true interaction
with technical practitioners. In general, with few exceptions, little work has been done in
the past to look at Bacons connections with Stuart artisans and entrepreneurs. 382 In part
this attitude stemmed from the view that, to quote Mary Hesse, Bacons scientific
concerns were almost entirely literary.383 Even scholars who more strongly stress the
central role and significance of Bacons philosophical revaluation of mechanical arts,
such as Paolo Rossi and Benjamin Farrington, have implicitly reinforced a similar
position, looking exclusively at Bacons debts to authors of technical treatises, such as
Biringuccio, Agricola, or Palissy.384 For instance, considering a mining similitude in

381

Ibid., 212.
Charles Webster represents one of these exceptions: see his comments on the issue of Bacon, the patent
system, and mining industry. See section The Burden of Perpetual Patents, in The Great Instauration.
Science, Medicine and Reform 1626-1660. London, Duckworth (1975) 343-55. I will consider this
discussion in a following section.
383
[Bacons] knowledge of and contribution to the natural sciences were almost entirely literary. Mary B.
Hesse, Francis Bacon, in C. C. Gillespie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York, Scribner
(1970) vol. 1, 373.
384
See Paolo Rossi, Francesco Bacone. Dalla magia alla scienza. Bari, Laterza (1957); 3rd Italian ed.:
Bologna, Il Mulino (2004); Engl. transl.: London, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1968) 92-97. Benjamin
Farrington, Francis Bacon Philosopher of Industrial Science. London, Lawrence and Wishart (1951) and
The Philosophy of Francis Bacon. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press (1964).
382

164

Cogitata et Visa, Farrington commented that this image was likely to have sprung out of
the pages of Agricola rather than actual experience of mines. 385 More recently, in an
otherwise important analysis of science in Elizabethan London, Deborah Harkness has
depicted Bacon as a gentlemanly outsider, with no contacts in the bustling world of
Londons artisans, technicians, and entrepreneurs.386
The scholars who have maintained these claims in the past have not carefully
considered the state of affairs reflected in sources which give a better sense of Bacons
daily practices. In this respect, his 1608 notebook Commentarius Solutus is exemplary.
This manuscript clearly demonstrates Bacons extensive and wide use of note taking. In
the Commentarius, apart from the annotations present in the notebook itself, Bacon made
plans for the composition and preparation of several other series of notes, comprising
original writings, reading records, parliamentary memoranda, plus five volumes assigned
to accounts on personal matters.387 Nevertheless, among Baconian sources, the
Commentarius is an exception, and we do not actually possess any other private account
of Bacons contacts, personal matters, and affairs. I will address the implications of
sources again below.
A similar case can be made regarding patent records. As mentioned, during the reign
of James I, Bacon was deeply involved in the patent system. Moreover, this activity was

385

See Farrington, Philosophy, 34.

Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. New Haven
and London, Yale University Press (2007).
387
See: Commentarius Solutus, in Works, 11: 59-62; Brian Vickers, in Francis Bacon, The Major Works,
Brian Vickers ed. (Oxford and New York, 2002), xlii-iv.
386

165

part of a more general involvement in the financial and economic administration of the
early Stuart monarchy, as Bacon was constantly involved in activities and commissions
that regarded matters of treasury, state expenditures and royal revenues. 388 In general, no
thorough analysis of Bacons longstanding involvement with the patent system has been
produced thus far to improve our knowledge of the network of experimenters and
entrepreneurs with whom he was in contact, or of his commitment to concrete
experimental practice.

Early Stuart Patents: A Gap in the Evidence

One reason for the neglect of this side of Bacons activity is the sorry state of our
knowledge on the early Stuart privileges and patents of invention, an essential aspect of
this research. As I mentioned in Chapter two, it is important to stress that no proper
study has ever analyzed or even fully listed the privileges for inventions passed by the
royal lawyers in the years between 1603 and 1617, the critical period relevant to
understanding Francis Bacons role in the system. A partial exception, which I used in an
initial stage of my work, is an overlooked article on Early English Inventions by
Thomas Fairman Ordish dating back to 1885.389 However, while useful, Fairman

388

This particular aspect of Francis Bacons work is usually overlooked by intellectual historians and
historians of science, while it is often mentioned by economic historians, like in the case of Cramsie. See
John Cramsie, Kingship and Crown Finance Under James VI and I, 1603-1625. Royal Historical Society
Studies in History Series. Woodbridge and Rochester, Boydell Press (2002) 128, 136, 142-143, 159-164,
166-168.
389
Thomas Fairman Ordish. Early English Inventions. The Antiquary, vol. XII (1885); pp. 1-6 (part I);
61-5 (part II); 113-8 (part III).

166

Ordishs list of patentees is not complete, and sometimes not very consistent.390 In any
case, it is surprising that no author since has addressed the study of this specific group of
privileges of invention. Modern works on English patents in the seventeenth-century have
relied on Bennet Woodcrofts Victorian Indexes of English patents of invention, which
begin with records for the year 1617, for no particular reason apart from the convenience
of the Victorian compilers.391 Other authors have concentrated their attention on the
Elizabethan period, which is in fact well documented because of early studies on Lord
Burghleys patent system.392 This lack of historical study makes the period between 1603
and 1617 an uncharted territory in terms of patents of invention.
This is unfortunate for various reasons. Apart from the specific case of Francis
Bacon, which I will consider below, the analysis of privileges reveals an interesting
group of courtiers, inventors and projectors, worthy of investigation from a variety of
approaches. An obvious perspective is given by patronage studies, considering the fact
that in Elizabethan and early Stuart England the role of patents of invention as an

390

Ordish is also vague regarding his sources.

This is well explained by John Hewish: writing at the end of the 19th century ... E. V. Hulme stated that
Woodcrofts task was assisted by the existence of a manuscript calendar at the old Patent Office in Quality
Court, where a record of grants dating from the year 1617 appears to have been kept with some regularity
by the Clerks of the Letters Patent down to the year 1851 ... Because the patents and specifications were
selected for publication on the basis of his indexes, the first published series runs from 1617 to 1852,
misleading many into supposing that the earliest invention patent was granted in 1617. John Hewish,
Rooms Near Chancery Lane. The Patent Office Under The Commissioners, 1852-1883. The British
Library, London (2000); 35. Hulmes quote is from E.W. Hulme, English Patent Law, its History,
Literature, and Library. Library Bureau, London (1898) 56.
392
Joan Thirsk, Economic policy and projects: The development of a consumer society in early modern
England. Oxford, Clarendon (1988); Felicity Heal and Clive Holmes, The economic patronage of William
Cecil, in Pauline Croft (ed.), Patronage, culture and power: The early Cecils. New Haven and London
Yale University Press (2002) 199229; Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel house: Elizabethan London and
the scientific revolution. New Haven and London Yale University Press (2007).
391

167

instrument of economic policy and as a system of courtly reward significantly

overlapped.393 A different point of view is that of economic history. Past historians have
often followed Joan Thirsk, labeling monopolies in early Stuart England as the
scandalous phase of that economic policy. However, as Linda Levy Peck aptly
suggested, scandal has obscured the long-term importance of these projects for trade,
industry, profit-seeking, and changing views of the economy.394 In general, Levy Peck
challenged the idea of the regressive character of the economic policies in early Stuart
England, showing how the Jacobean regime saw an unprecedented rise in the
consumption of luxury goods and the development of an early consumer society, with the
consequent development of many specialized industries, as in the case of silk. Certainly,
a better analysis of the economic activities centered on Jacobean privileges of invention
would contribute significantly to this discussion.395
Coming more specifically to the case of Francis Bacon, Charles Websters brief
discussion in The Great Instauration is possibly the only treatment thus far of Bacons
involvement in the patent system by a historian of science.396 Following Webster, also in
the overstatement of Bacons role, some recent treatments briefly assume Bacons
involvement in the system, but do not further develop this point. For instance, Pumfrey

393

An initial study of patronage in Elizabethan and early Stuart England is Stephen Pumfrey and Frances
Dawbarn. Science and Patronage in England, 1570-1625: A Preliminary Study. History of Science. 42
(2004) 137-188.
394
Linda Levy Peck, Consuming Splendor: Society and Culture in Seventeenth-Century England.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2005) 76.
395
It is noteworthy that Levy Peck herself relied on patent records outside the critical period between 1603
and 1617, see Levy Peck, Consuming Splendor, 19.
396
Charles Webster. The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform 1626-1660. London,
Duckworth (1975), section The Burden of Perpetual Patents, 343-355.

168

and Dawbarn state that during the reign of James I Bacon controlled the economic
system of monopoly patents that Burghley had set up. Also, while claiming that Bacon
did not seek from others any real information on natural of technological matters,
Stephen Gaukroger assumes that Bacon did nevertheless have one source of information
about recent scientific work: In his capacity as Attorney-General and then Lord Keeper,
he oversaw every patent under consideration before 1620.397
Webster framed his analysis of Bacon within the context of Jacobean court culture.
In general, Webster concurred with the received historiographical interpretation
according to which the reign of James I was characterized by general economic decline
and by increased levels of courtly corruption. However, Webster also assumed that the
spirit of innovation generated in the Elizabethan era was not extinguished, and actually
the
Foundations continued to be laid for the mercantilist prosperity of the later part
of the century. Economic conditions under the Stuarts merely delayed the
fruition of this endeavour.398
For Webster, during the early Stuart period
Intellectuals and craftsmen were actively collaborating on many scientific and
technical problems; the pervasive quests for economic applications proved to be

397

See: Pumfrey and Dawbarn. Science and Patronage in England, 173; and Stephen Gaukroger, Francis
Bacon and the Transformation of Early-Modern Philosophy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
(2001) 165, n. 62.
398
Webster, Great Instauration, 345.

169

no handicap to the development of more abstract aspects of mathematics and

science. 399
Regarding Bacon, Webster stated that indeed it could be claimed that Bacons
natural philosophy was not so much an isolated and prophetic statement, as a formal and
coherent expression of the dominant viewpoint in the Jacobean scientific movement. For
Webster, Bacon had likely only limited contacts with leading scientific practitioners,
but at the same time his outlook was considerably influenced by the scientific enterprise
of the period. In particular, following Prices analysis,400 Webster stated that
[Bacon] was intimately involved with the machinery devised by James I to
ensure the efficient operation of the patent law. Bacon was appointed to the
Commissioners for Suits, the permanent body instituted to investigate each
request; he was one of its two most prominent members. Moreover, as AttorneyGeneral and subsequently as Lord Keeper, he was familiar with every patent
under consideration in the years before 1620, the period of the most spectacular
proliferation of patent grants.401
Webster also argued that
Bacons close concern with patents would have ensured familiarity with a wide
range of inventions, inventors and projectors, from whom he would have gained
an impression of the potentialities of science.402
Accepting John Ulric Nefs analysis that the majority of patents in Elizabethan and
Stuart England concerned mining related technologies, Webster particularly stressed the

399

Webster, Great Instauration, 345.

William H. Price, The English Patents of Monopoly. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
(1906).
401
Webster, Great Instauration, 343-344.
402
Ibid., 345.
400

170

role of mining entrepreneurs.403 Though the patents that Bacon examined were a
diversified set, it is true that the largest group of them regarded mining or mining related
industries, so the weight that Webster attributed to these particular activities is justified.
Basing his conclusions on William Reess observations,404 Webster stressed Bacons
personal interests in mining enterprise and technologies. For instance, referring to the
New Atlantis, Webster observed that there are many indications that these grandiose
dreams of mines, mills, distillations and new metals were symptomatic of Bacons
serious involvement with chemistry and technological projects. Independently from the
precise details of Bacons actual connections with Early Stuart mining culture, the subject
of the first chapter of this dissertation, Webster was right to stress their exemplary
character:
The information we possess about Bacons involvement with metallurgy is
sufficient to indicate the intimate relationship between experimental science,
technological innovation, and industrial and economic policy. Bacon was in a
position to view science from all these perspectives and to appreciate the subtle
interrelationship of the various factors affecting its development.405
In his final assessment, Webster tried to evaluate the impact that inventors and
patentees could have had on Bacon:

403

Webster, Great Instauration, 345, and John Ulric Nef The Rise of the British Coal Industry. Vol I.
London, Routledge (1932) 254-6. In his quantitative analysis, Nef referred to the period between 1561 and
1688, and did not use data for the years between 1590 and 1610, for which he claimed not to have any
evidence. However, apparently in his tables Nef included data from the Patent Office regarding the period
between 1611 and 1617, even though it is not clear to me which evidence he used in this case.
404
William Rees. Industry before the Industrial Revolution, 2 vols. Cardiff, University of Wales Press
(1968). However, not all of Reess suggestions on Bacons mineral interests seem correct.
405
Webster, Great Instauration, 346.

171

Most of the inventors were humble specialists who were seeking rewards for
minor improvements to their trade. They designed new ploughs, draining
machines, or furnaces; they introduced new preparations for varnishing, dyeing,
or protecting the hulls of ships from worms. Their combined efforts gave Bacon
an impression of a fertile spirit of innovation among the craftsmen engaged in
the nations nascent industries.406
As examples of creative inventors who received patents, Webster put forth the
examples of David Ramsey and Edward Jorden, who were involved in a variety of
patents related to mining, metallurgy, and new machines.407 Bacon was very likely aware
of these two figures, who were close to the court of James and of Prince Henry (in
particular, Ramsay was royal clockmaker and a favorite of the Prince): however, he did
not seem to have specifically reviewed their privileges, and there is no direct indication
of contacts between him and the two inventors.
In general, and apart from these specific points, Webster was correct in pointing out
the importance of the patent system for the study of Bacons connections in the world of
early Stuart craftsmen. Most significantly, Websters approach must be credited for
shifting attention to early Stuart society, and to Bacons concrete activities as
administrator and political figure of the City.

406

Ibid., 346.
On these two interesting figures, see Anita McConnell, Ramsay, David (c.15751660), Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23080, accessed 25 Feb 2011]; and J. F. Payne, Jorden, Edward
(d. 1632), rev. Michael Bevan, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15125, accessed 25 Feb 2011]
407

172

Bacons Civic Role and Harknesss Thesis

My research on Francis Bacon and patents confirms Websters analysis, and shows what
I have called the civic aspect of his activity: his concrete involvement in administrative
duties and tasks pertaining to economic and financial policies of the state, and his role as
administrative mediator and negotiator in the busy world of the City and of its trades.
The notion of the relevance of a civic aspect to Bacons work and interests is at
odds with current influential descriptions of Bacons overall project. Deborah Harkness,
in her influential book on Elizabethan science, The Jewel House, is probably the author
who in recent times has most forcefully produced an image of Bacon which is antithetical
to the one I delineate.408 In this section, I will consider Harknesss analysis more
carefully, and underline the various points at which my conclusions diverge from her
interpretations.
Harkness dedicates the last chapter of The Jewel House to Francis Bacon, via an
extensive comparison with the author and inventor Hugh Plat.409 Her thesis can be
summarized as follows: Francis Bacon is wrongly considered the founder of the set of
practices identified by the inductive approach to natural knowledge some still call
Baconian Science;410 these practices were already common in what Harkness calls
London science, that is to say to the various, and mostly experimental and hands-on,

408

Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel House. Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. Yale
University Press. New Haven and London (2007).
409
Chapter Six, From the Jewel house to Salomons House. Hugh Plat, Francis Bacon, and the Social
Foundations of the Scientific Revolution, Harkness, Jewel House, 211-253.
410
Harkness, Jewel House, 214.

173

activities over matters of natural knowledge taking place during Bacons life in the
City of London;411 London science was vernacular, democratic, collaborative,
interclassist;412 Bacons science was learned, hierarchical, private, elitist;413 By virtue of
his social class, Bacon did not belong to the world of London science, while by
comparison, Hugh Plat clearly emerges as a better representative of the actual practice
of science in Elizabethan London.414 Nevertheless, Bacons elitist vision of science
encapsulated in Salomons House stole the Jewel House and the memory of Plats
London science, as the members of the Royal Society identified him as the founding
father of their enterprise. This choice was ideological, as it was made by gentlemen who
saw Bacon as their social and economic equal, and proponent of an elitist type of
science.415
The central aspect of Harknesss argument is the depiction of Bacon as a
gentlemanly outsider to the hurly-burly of activity and industry that had long flourished
in the City; as Harkness puts it,
Whereas Hugh Plat was deeply embedded in the messy, decentralized world of
Elizabethan London science, Bacon was an outsider to that world and held
himself aloof from it, severely criticizing its values, practices, and personnel.416

411

Ibid., 8.
Ibid., 7, 13.
413
Ibid., 8, 13.
414
Ibid., 214.
415
Stealing the Jewel House, or How London Science Became Baconian Science. Ibid., 241-253, 252.
416
Ibid., 13.
412

174

In her book, Harkness draws an implicit comparison between Francis Bacon and his
uncle, William Cecil. Secretary of state and lord treasurer of Queen Elizabeth, Cecil was
the main supporter and organizer of the Elizabethan system of patents and privileges for
new inventions. In a chapter titled Big Science in Elizabethan London,417 Harkness
describes well his crucial functions. As she catchily summarizes, Cecil acted in a way
similar to that of a National Science Foundation officer, evaluating the strengths and
weaknesses of particular projects, drafting specific requirements to be included in the
patents, and asking for careful explanations regarding the details of an invention or of a
new process.418 Moreover
London was the central, though not single, corporate institution through which
Elizabethan Big Science projects passed from projectors and speculators into the
hands of William Cecil, and then on to the queens desk419
In this way, Cecil occupied an intermediate role, in which different domains and interests
- the technical, entrepreneurial, and administrative ones- intersected and often
overlapped.
It is almost inevitable to compare this picture of William Cecil with the treatment
that Harkness reserves for his nephew, Francis Bacon. The evidence I produced in
Chapter two of this dissertation shows, by contrast, that Bacon was deeply involved with
privileges for new inventions, and that he and a few other Stuart administrators were
the true heirs of William Cecil, and of the Elizabethan patent system.

417

Ibid., 142-180.
Ibid., 151.
419
Ibid., 144.
418

175

Moreover, this involvement with privileges for new inventions was part of a more
general commitment to financial and economic matters of the Stuart monarchy. If we
consider his work from this larger perspective and focus on this alternative aspect of his
activity, we can see Francis Bacon as a busy state representative, attending to prosaic and
everyday responsibilities, engaged in exhausting administrative negotiations with
merchants, entrepreneurs and guild officers: a picture directly at odds with the one
delineated by Harkness in her book, that of an outsider to London civic practices.
The obliteration of Bacons civic role in the world of London science produces
further problems. According to Harkness, because of his refusal to acknowledge the
substance of London science, Bacon was basically uninterested in the technical
experimentation taking place in London, and completely dismissed the contributions
made by so many Londoners the empirics, alchemists, old women, compilers of recipe
books, manual laborers, artists, and craftsmen to the study of nature. This picture is
clearly at odds with Bacons interest in preparing and producing a History mechanique,
or a collection of the experiments and observations of all Mechanical Arts, described in
his notebook of 1608. This practical interest is clearly confirmed and reiterated in many
points of his work; it is sufficient to note here the Catalogue of Particular Histories
following the Parasceve, which planned the composition of histories for every sort of

176

trade, including Basket-making, mat-making and the manufacture of straw, rushes,

and the like, or a history of sweetmeats and confections.420
Remarkably, for Harkness his lack of interest in actual practice contributed also to
Bacons general distrust and depreciation of experiments and concrete experimentation:
Never fully comfortable with the inductive world of experiments and those who
performed them, Bacon shied away from too messy an engagement with the
natural world. While Bacon claimed that some believed it was a diminution to
the mind of man to be much conversant in experiences, and urged students of
nature to delve into empirical study, he showed no inclination to follow in Plats
footsteps and revel in conversations with Londoners about how to build better
furnaces and preserve wine and cheese.
More generally, for Bacon
Experiences and experiments should play a decidedly secondary role in the new
and improved natural philosophy. Experiences and experiments, Bacon stated,
were merely the lights that after being ordered and digested (the mixed
metaphor is his, not mine) led to axiomatic statements about the natural
world.421
Again, many passages from Bacons works could be used to establish that this was
not the case. The last aphorism of book I of Novum Organum explains well that for
Bacon, the composition of a natural and experimental history was in fact a fundamental
stage, more important than the actual New Organon or interpretation of nature, which
was actually not an absolute necessity:
But now it is time for me to expound the very art of Interpreting nature; in
which though I judge that I have given the most useful and true guidance, I

420
421

Catalogue of Particular Histories, in Works, 4: 269-270.

Harkness, Jewel House, 247.

177

nevertheless ascribe no perfection or absolute necessity [necessitatem ...

absolutam] to it (as if nothing could be achieved without it). For my view is that
if men had a history of nature and experience readily available, and gave
themselves to it wholeheartedly, and were able to make themselves do two
things - set aside received notions and opinions, and keep their minds well clear
for a while of the highest generalisations and those nearest to them - they would
be able to fall in with our mode of Interpreting by their native and inborn mental
powers, and without other art.422
The same concept is reiterated in the introduction to the History of Winds: "It comes,
therefore, to this, that my Organum, even if it were completed, would not without the
Natural History much advance the Instauration of the Sciences, whereas the Natural
History without the Organum would advance it not a little."423
This lack of appreciation for Bacons experimental program is especially apparent
when Harkness discusses the main place where Bacon develops it, that is to say his
natural and experimental histories. Harkness chooses as representative of this genre
Bacons posthumous Silva Sylvarum. According to Harkness, this work offers some
substantive examples of [Bacons] activities in the field of natural history. However,
Compared to Plats Jewell house of art and nature Bacons Sylva sylvarum
was a pale reflection of the rigors of the discipline as it was actually being
practiced around him in the City of London. It was based (as we would suspect,
given his attitude toward doing the work of science and his reliance on the work
of others) on reported facts and generalizations drawn from anonymous daily
experience.
This quick dismissal of the Sylva is regrettable. As Graham Rees observed, the Sylva
can be considered by no means a typical Baconian history:

422
423

Novum Organum, in Oxford Francis Bacon 11: 197.

History of Winds, in Works II:16.

178

Lacking the tight, elaborate structure of his single-subject histories, it consists of

1,000 'experiments' grouped in 10 centuries and concerned with a very wide
variety of subjects. Moreover, in Bacon's view, it was not even a plain history; it
was also a 'higher kind of natural magic'. He freely acknowledged that it was an
untypical and, for that matter, imperfect history; but he undoubtedly saw it as a
major contribution to the task of assembling natural-historical material.424
According to Rees, Bacon had no illusions about the quality of some of the data
presented in the Sylva. Most of all, this work
[served] a variety of purposes. Parts of it were to provide imperfect precedents
or patterns for 'an exact inquisition' of particular natural-historical subjects. It
also presented more 'experiments of profit' than Bacon's other natural histories
and, at points, pandered (Bacon admitted) to popular taste. At the same time, the
Sylva was 'not a description only but a breaking of nature into great and strange
works', and its experiments were 'such as do ever ascend a degree to the deriving
of causes and extracting of axioms'. 425
Moreover, some of the passages of the Sylva were clearly intended to show and
demonstrate particular aspects of Bacons Novum Organum. So, for instance, as shown in
Chapter three, in the Sylva some experiments regard the reduction of axioms to
works, that is to say what Bacon called Deductio ad Praxin, intended to be discussed
in the seventh part of Novum Organum but never composed. This means that the Sylva
Sylvarum is a peculiar and complex text, never properly analyzed by any scholar, 426 and
which should be considered carefully and in its proper context.

424

Graham Rees, An Unpublished Manuscript by Francis Bacon: Sylva Sylvarum Drafts and Other
Working Notes. Annals of Science, 38 (1981) 386.
425
Rees An Unpublished Manuscript, note 52; 386.
426
On this lack of work on Sylva Sylvarum, see Reess comments in the same article; Rees An
Unpublished Manuscript, 388.

179

In any case, Harkness does not address the central place where the program of
Bacons natural and experimental histories fully develops, that is to say the third part of
the Instauratio, as described in the Parasceve ad historiam naturalem et experimentalem
(1620), the Historia ventorum (1622), the Historia vitae et mortis (1623) and the Historia
densi et rari (1623, posthumously published in 1658) together with the Phnomena
universi of 1610-1611, discussed at length in Chapter five. These texts are the ones in
which Bacon applies his historical experimental scheme most carefully and
systematically, and in which he most clearly shows his complete commitment to a
thoroughly quantitative, experimental program.
What are the reasons for this inadequate representation of Francis Bacons project?
A point I already mentioned is the lack of appreciation given to Bacons civic
engagement and contacts with craftsmen in the first two decades of the seventeenthcentury. Harkness focuses and concentrates her study on London in the Elizabethan
period and, with the exception of her analysis of Bacon, does not really engage with early
Stuart London and society. However, Francis Bacons major governmental and
administrative involvement coincided exactly with the first two decades of the reign of
James I. This limitation to Elizabethan England isolates Bacon from his proper
biographical and social context.

A Question Regarding Sources

A further, final issue regarding Harknesss analysis is more properly methodological and
is related to the way she deals with a particular type of source, that is to say private
180

notebooks. These materials are of course very useful, as they provide us with a firsthand
understanding of the everyday concerns and contacts of an author. As a matter of fact,
while building her comparison with Francis Bacon, Harkness develops a very interesting
analysis of the working practices of Hugh Plat. To do so, she heavily relies on Plats
notebooks, twenty-odd tiny volumes of tiny writing that served as his storage facility for
unpolished jewels of natural knowledge. These manuscripts provide us with glimpses
into how he acquired, sifted, sorted, and evaluated the information he received about
nature.427 In the context of this discussion, Plats extensive notebooks allow the
researcher to reconstruct his network of sources, friends, and contacts in excellent detail,
and indeed Harkness paints an excellent picture of Plats environment and milieu.
However, as Harkness recognizes, when Plat turned his manuscripts into printed form,
the situation changed considerably:
Plats published works reveal an emerging tension between his persona as a
public man of science and the unvarnished truth about how reliable natural
knowledge was produced in Elizabethan London. While Plat seems so at ease
conversing with his informants in the notebooks, print opened up divisions
between author and contributor.
In particular, in the process of book production, information about craftsmen and
technical workers, faithfully annotated in the notebooks, was often omitted: as Harkness
explains, by the time an experiment made it into The Jewell House, its authenticity came
not from its origins with this skilled craftsman or that credible gentleman but from its

427

Harkness, Jewel House, 224-225.

181

proven worth; in this way, Harkness acknowledges, hundreds of Plats informants

were driven into historical oubliette.428
Thus, the case of Hugh Plat shows well that the examination of printed texts can give
a very different sense of an authors reliance on informants and networks of contacts,
than one based on the working notes and manuscripts on which those printed texts are
based. This is of course quite an obvious statement. Unfortunately, Harkness does not
take this fact into consideration when she analyzes the case of Francis Bacon. We know
for instance from his notebook of 1608, the Commentarius Solutus, that Bacon made
wide use of note taking, in a variety of contexts. Nevertheless, with few, limited
exceptions that I will now consider, we do not possess Bacons private notes and
accounts. It is then clear that the simple examination of the final versions of Bacons
experimental works, including the Sylva, can give us very little sense of Bacons
informants on matters of natural and technical knowledge. The Commentarius itself
shows that when this information is available, it is indeed possible to expand and better
delineate such context. There are a few other isolated examples of this type which
confirm this point. I refer to two particular texts, which are related and were described by
Graham Rees in 1981. They are a short and -at that time- unpublished manuscript of
working notes of the Sylva Sylvarum and other texts, and a longer piece known as the
Physiological and Medical Remains. The latter was printed for the first time in 1679 by
Thomas Tenison (1636-1715) in a collection titled Baconiana, or certaine genuine

428

Ibid., 236-241.

182

remains of Sir Francis Bacon. According to Graham Rees, the manuscript and the
Remains are the only extant collections of Bacon's miscellaneous working notes notes
clearly never intended for publication.429 Moreover, Rees noted that
The manuscript refers to a man called Meverell who was to be consulted in
connection with a chemical experiment (fol. 29r). That name crops up nowhere
else in Bacon's writing - except in connection with a veritable salvo of
mineralogical questions in the Remains.430
In fact, this figure was doctor Othowell Meverell (1586/81648), an anatomist and fellow
of the College of Physicians.431 The content of the manuscript included working notes for
the Sylva silvarum, but also Historia vitae et mortis (1623), Inquisitio de magnete (16251626), and Topica inquisitionis de luce et lumine (1625-1626).
Interestingly, in the manuscript that was not published, about 4,250 words worth of
notes give a vivid picture of Bacons work and activity, not unlike that given in Plats
private notes. As Rees stated,
The manuscript shows Bacon working against time supervising assistants,
ordering materials, having apparatus made, consulting expert opinion, designing
and performing experiments, carefully drafting and redrafting accounts of the
results and speculating about causes.

429

Rees, An Unpublished Manuscript, 380. Rees correctly did not include the Commentarius among
Bacons working notes, because while containing many clues to his activities [it] deals mainly with
matters outside natural philosophy and even the philosophical materials do not all constitute a record of
work in progress. (Rees, An Unpublished Manuscript, note 20).
430
Rees, An Unpublished Manuscript, 380.
431
Norman Moore, Meverell, Othowell (1586x81648), rev. William Birken, Oxford Dictionary of
National
Biography,
Oxford
University
Press,
2004;
online
edn,
Jan
2008
[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18632, accessed 2 March 2011]

183

From the notes, it is possible to see that Bacon required chemical substances from a
Kelletts, likely John Kelletts, an apothecary in Ludgate Hill, 432 to make experiments
with the loadstone and also that he annotated in a margin the intention to send his results
to Meverell, the already mentioned physician with whom he was exchanging
information in the last part of his life. A further experiment on magnetic needles had to
be sent to a Diall-maker over against St. Clements Church. These references
disappeared when this text was polished in the published version of the Inquisitio de
magnete.433
In short, these observations show that, while evaluating the issue of Bacons concrete
everyday practice and connections in Stuart society, one should always keep in mind the
peculiarity of extant Baconian sources, and always consider that these sources, if not
placed in proper context, can produce a very deformed picture of the true state of affairs
on these matters.

432

See: A Royall Charter granted to the Apothecaryes of London 30 Maii 13 Jacobi. In Charles Goodall,
The Royal College of Physicians of London. London (1684) 122, 125; see also the reference to Kellett's
the apothecary, on Ludgate Hill, in Richard Griffin, lord Braybrooke (ed.). The private correspondence of
Jane, lady Cornwallis (1613-1644). London (1842) 193.
433
Rees, An Unpublished Manuscript, 394-5: Let ther be sent for from Kelletts, a Dramme of Finings of
Iron : A Dramme of Chalybs praeparatus; a Dramme of Crocus Martis: then try every one of them
severally, whether a Load-Stone will draw them.// Take Iron and dissolve [[it]] it in Aqua Fortis, and putt a
Loadstone neare it, and see whether it will extract the Iron. Putt also a Load Stone into the Water, and see
whether it will gather a Crust about it. //L. To send to Meverell\\; in the Inquisitio de magnete, these
experiments are reported with names omitted: Magnes trahit pulverem chalybis praeparati, quali utuntur
ad medicinam, etiam chalybem calcinatum in tenuissimum pulverem nigrum, aeque fortiter ac limaturam
ferri crudam: crocum autem Martis, qui est rubigo ferri artificiosa, hebetius et debilius. Si vero ferrum
dissolvantur in aqua forti, et guttae aliquae dissolutionis ponantur super vitrum planum, non extrahit
magnes ferrum, nec trahit aquam ipsam ferratam. Inquisitio de magnete, in Works 2: 311; transl. Works 5:
403.

184

Literate Experience and the Use of Baconian Histories

A different aspect of my research regards the current, lively scholarly discussion on the
role of Francis Bacons Literate Experience. After early work on this subject, especially
from Lisa Jardine, this notion has recently received renewed attention in interesting and
unexpected directions.
As I discussed, Lisa Jardine was the first person to draw major attention to this
concept. In particular, in a seminal essay of 1990, she suggested that Literate Experience,
to a larger extent than the Interpretation of Nature, identified the true legacy of the
Baconian tradition.434 A striking case giving the sense of Jardines point, is that of
Robert Hooke. In a posthumously published text, Hooke described
A General Scheme, or Idea Of the Present State of Natural Philosophy, and How
its Defects may be Remedied By a Methodicall Proceeding in the making of
Experiments and collecting Observations whereby to Compile a Natural History,
as the Solid Basis for the Superstructure of True Philosophy.435
The derivation of Hookes ideas from the Baconian notion of Literate Experience is
very clear. As Jardine reported in her article, Hookes Methodicall Proceeding consists
of
A Method of making use of, or employing [the] Means and Assistances of
Humane Nature for collecting the Phenomena of Nature, and for compiling of a
Philosophical History.

434

Lisa Jardine, Experientia Literata or Novum Organum? The Dilemma of Bacons Scientific Method. in
W. A. Sessions (ed.) Francis Bacon's Legacy of Texts. New York, AMS Press (1990) 47-67.
435
Robert Hooke, Posthumous Works. Ed. R. Waller (London, 1705), 1. Quoted in Jardine, Experientia
Literata or Novum Organum?, 47.

185

The philosophical history consists of an exact Description of all sorts of Natural and
Artificial Operations, or a method of making Experiments and Observations for the
Prosecution and Examination of any Philosophical Inquiry. This is to be accompanied
by a method of
describing, registering and ranging these particulars so collected, as that they
may become the most adapted Materials for the raising of Axioms and the
Perfecting of Natural Philosophy.436
The connection between Hooke and the Baconian program of Literate Experience of
the experimental histories is most clear in the following description of Hookes
Philosophical History:
A brief and plain Account of a great Store of choice and significant Natural and
Artificial Operations, Actions and Effects, ranged in a convenient Order, and
interwoven here and there with some short Hints of Accidental Remarks and
Theories, of corresponding or disagreeing received Opinions, of Doubts and
Queries and the like []
For Hooke, the construction of this Repository of choice and sound Materials is the
necessary groundwork for the raising of new Axioms and Theories, which echoes the
Baconian tenets for the composition of natural histories according to the principles of
Literate Experience.437 As Jardine noticed, this research program became typical of
many of the early endeavors of the gentlemen members of the Royal Society, as in the
work of John Graunt and William Petty on bills of mortality. In general, Jardine
suggested that Bacons program of Literate Experience was what one might call the

436
437

Hooke (1705) 7-8. Quoted in Jardine, Experientia Literata or Novum Organum?, 47-8.
Hooke (1705) 18. Quoted in Jardine, Experientia Literata or Novum Organum?, 48.

186

lively part of Bacons extant science; meanwhile, the New Organon and Bacons theory
of new induction received only limited consideration in the seventeenth-century.438
Recently, Sophie Weeks and Rhodri Lewis have criticized Jardines treatment of
Literate Experience because she implies a conflicting role in Bacons philosophy,
between Experientia Literata and the New Organon.439 As my treatment of Literate
Experience in Chapter three makes clear, I concur that Literate Experience and the New
Organon are different, non-conflicting levels of Bacons elaboration of experience.
However, Jardine deserves credit for having identified a connection between Literate
Experience and the development of the rise of genre of the experimental histories in the
seventeenth-century. The role of Bacons Literate Experience in this history is central,
but still needs to be properly analyzed. In general, all the authors who have thus far
discussed Bacons Literate Experience have failed to stress the connections between this
notion and the practices of actual artisans and craftsmen. This is a crucial aspect, which
also establishes an important connection between the world of trades and crafts, and the
development of experimental science, at least in the Baconian tradition. A further issue
that has not received proper attention is the quantitative character of Literate Experience.
I will discuss this topic in the next section, as it sheds interesting light on the more
general role of quantification in the Baconian program.

438

Jardine, Experientia Literata or Novum Organum?, 57.

Sophie Weeks, The Role of Mechanics in Francis Bacons Great Instauration, in Claus Zittel, Gisela
Engel, Romano Nanni, and Nicole C. Karafyllis (eds.), Philosophies of Technology: Francis Bacon and his
Contemporaries (2 vols) Leiden, Brill (2008); vol 1, 133-195; Rhodri Lewis , A Kind of Sagacity: Francis
Bacon, the Ars Memoriae and the Pursuit of Natural Knowledge. Intellectual History Review 19 (2009)
155-77.
439

187

Quantification and Mathematics in Bacon

As shown in Chapter five, my analysis indicates that weighing of experience was a key
requirement of Bacons natural and experimental histories. Weighing of experience
assumed a spectrum of meanings, from the metaphorical to the literal. The latter included
quantification of experiments, an integral part of Literate Experience, and the organizing
tenet of Bacon's histories. Following the principles of Literate Experience, Bacon
forcefully stressed the necessity of producing whenever possible quantitative
experiments, providing precise measurements of the properties under consideration. For
Bacon, quantification was a necessary component of operative philosophy, that is to say,
his philosophy of experiment. According to Bacon, operation is possible only when
powers and actions of bodies are precisely known.440 Quantification sets limits to these
powers and actions, acting through a sort of transduction, by which the indefiniteness and
mutability of nature is reduced and defined in a measurable way. For Bacon this is also
the way in which mechanical arts operate. Mechanical arts are eminently quantitative,
because in their processes nature is confined and limited. Bacons investigation of dense
and rare and the wide range of quantitative experiments on the density of matter were the
perfect example of Literate Experience applied.
The quantitative aspect of Bacons histories has seldom been emphasized by
scholars. In a perceptive analysis of Bacons reform of natural history, Paula Findlen has
delineated well the contrast between the Baconian program and traditional examples of

440

See section 5.2.

188

histories. Findlen characterizes Bacons rejection of past histories as part of a broader

dislike for triviality, ornament, and a frivolous taste for nature. For instance, the
humanist embellishments that expanded the scope of natural history in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries certainly heightened the literary
qualities of Plinys discipline; they were central to the work of such well-known
naturalists as Gesner, Aldrovandi and their English imitators. Natural history
had become an elaborate enterprise whose popularity derived not so much from
his subject as its manner of presentation; in the process nature had been
denatured.441
For Bacon, natural history was not a matter of delight and entertainment, but of concrete
application and operation: natural history was not meant to be pleasant.442 Efficacy, as
Brian Ogilvie has reminded us, also implied succinctness and order, and a rejection of
philological concerns.443 As Katharine Park and Lorraine Daston have emphasized, these
requirements might not exclude an interest for individual instances, marvels and
pretergenerations.444 Nevertheless, the true point of departure of Baconian histories from
traditional examples was still a different one: their experimental and quantitative
character.
In many ways, an appreciation of these characteristics of the Baconian enterprise
remained confined to Bacons scholars. Graham Rees, more than any other author has in

441

Paula Findlen, Francis Bacon and the Reform of Natural History in the Seventeenth Century. In
Donald R. Kelley (ed.) History and the disciplines: the reclassification of knowledge in early modern
Europe. Rochester, N.Y., USA. University of Rochester Press (1997) 251.
442
Parasceve, in Works 4:262, quoted in Findlen, Francis Bacon and the Reform of Natural History, 254.
443
Brian W. Ogilvie, The Science of Describing. Natural History in Renaissance Europe. Chicago and
London. The University of Chicago Press (2006), 258-259.
444
Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750. Cambridge (Ma).
The MIT Press (1998).

189

the past decades stressed the innovative character of Bacons quantitative experimental
program:
[] There can be no doubt that he regarded the collecting of quantified data as
essential to the successful accomplishment of his programme. He complained
that in natural history nothing had been duly investigated, nothing verified,
nothing counted, weighed or measured. In the Novum Organum he stressed the
absolute necessity of using measuring instruments to the full in order to
overcome the deficiencies of the senses [] It is perfectly plain that in principle
Bacon believed that quantified data should form a major part of the new natural
history not least because such data would help to generate a productive
philosophy.445
After analyzing the quantitative and experimental character of the History of Life and
Death and the History of Dense and Rare, Rees commented that in the light of this it
seems scarcely credible that commentators continue to believe that Bacon was neither an
experimentalist nor a man for whom quantitative investigation bulked large.446
Reess article is possibly the only extended analysis of Bacons quantitative project.
This is unfortunate, because the ramifications of Bacons program of natural and
experimental history extend all over seventeenth-centurys natural philosophy and
beyond, and not only in a British context. For instance Peter Dear, in his analysis of the
meanings of experience in the seventeenth-century, did not consider the very specific,
quantitative character of the Baconian case.447 This exclusion is quite problematic. Dear
assumed that the emergence of something resembling experimental science in this

445

Graham Rees, Quantitative Reasoning in Francis Bacons Natural Philosophy. Nouvelles de la

rpublique des lettres 1, 27-48 (1985) 32-33.
446
Graham Rees, Quantitative Reasoning, 46.
447
Peter Dear, The Meanings of Experience. In Katharine Park, Lorraine Daston (eds.) The Cambridge
history of science. Vol. 3, Early modern science. Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press (2008).

190

period occurred most evidently in the so-called mathematical sciences. According to

Dear,
Following the widely accepted Aristotelian view, these were frequently
represented as branches of natural knowledge that concerned only the
quantitative, measurable properties of things rather than questions having to do
with what kinds of things they were [] Thus, such sciences as astronomy ...
and geometrical optics were branches of mathematics. They were also the
sciences that made the greatest use of specialized instruments such as quadrants
and astrolabes, and sometimes, especially in optics, custom-made experimental
apparatus, to generate precise empirical results.448
However, experiments dealing with quantitative and measurable properties, making
use of a custom-made apparatus are exactly what Bacon was developing in his own
investigation of dense and rare, started sometime around or before 1610, the date of
composition of Phaenomena Universi. Moreover, as Graham Rees convincingly showed,
Bacon certainly looked very favorably on the use of specialized instrumentation. The best
testimony of this fact is aphorism 39 of Book II of the Novum Organum, in which Bacon
refers to the useful instances of the Door or Gate, that is, to instruments able to help or
rectify senses like microscopes, telescopes, measuring rods, and astrolabes.
A further issue with Dears discussions is his assumption on the origins of what he
aptly calls event experiments. With this expression, Dear refers to experimental reports of
specific tests, accounted for in a historical form. Dear suggests that event experiments
emerged only late in the seventeenth-century, particularly within the Royal Society, and
through a process of adaptation of experimental modes derived from the Jesuits and

448

Ibid., 119.

191

scholastic traditions. This reconstruction obviously cuts out a possible contribution to

such emergence from the Baconian tradition. For Dear, Bacons notion of experience
consisted in the scrupulous examination and collection of facts regarding the properties
and behaviors of physical phenomena. This definition hides the experimental component
of Bacons experience. As discussed at length in Chapter five, for Bacon, experience is
worthy of interest only when duly weighed through the various procedures defined by the
notion of Literate Experience. But, for Bacon, weighing of experience is a short way to
indicate experimental processes and measurement of properties. For Dear, however
[Baconian] facts remained however generic. They concerned how things
behave and took for granted the establishment of such general facts from
singular instances, much like the Aristotelian kind. The main exception was
Bacons concern with monsters and other pretergenerations, that is, individual
cases where nature does not behave in its normal, regular way.449
As a note makes clear, Dear here refers to the sort of facts appearing in the
discussion of the form of heat in the Novum Organum, and in particular to the instances
in which the nature of heat is present, from aphorism 11 of Book II. However, this table,
together with the discussion of the form of heat in the Novum Organum, is only a
preliminary example and a provisional demonstration of Bacons method, and certainly
should not be taken as an exhaustive model of Bacons experimental histories proper.450
Moreover, in proper experimental histories the tables are only the final results of an
experimental process that is not described in the Novum Organum. Instead, as shown at

449
450

Ibid., 111.
Bacon calls this provisional attempt as the first vintage.

192

the end of Chapter five, Bacons systematic construction of the concept of experimental
history works exactly in the direction of the establishment of a notion of event
experiment, well ahead of the time in which Dear sees it happening. Bacons accounts of
his trials with substances and gases, obviously rhetorically constructed to represent event
experiments, clearly bear a lot in common with the accounts to which Dear refers.
Very briefly, let us consider the example that Dear uses to introduce the notion of
event experiment in Discipline and Experience, Newtons report of an experiment
making use of a pendulum:
I suspended a round deal box by a thread 11 feet long, on a steel hook, by means
of a ring of the same metal, so as to make a pendulum of the aforesaid length.
The hook had a sharp hollow edge on its upper part, so that the upper arc of the
ring pressing on the edge might move the more freely I accurately noted the
place I marked three other places All things happened as is above
described451
Compare this description with Francis Bacons account of his trial on the expansion of
substances in the Historia Densi et Rari,
I took therefore a small glass phial, which would hold about an ounce. Into this
phial I poured half an ounce of spirit of wine I then took a very large bladder,
which would hold eight pints (or a gallon as call it in English) Out of this I
forced all the air ... I then smeared it outside with a little oil, and rubbed it
gently, that the porosity of the bladder might be closed up by the oil 452

451

Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Ed. Alexandre Koyr and I. Bernard
Cohen. Harvard University Press. Cambridge (1972) vol. 1 pp. 461-463; quoted in Dear, The Meanings of
Experience, 14-15.
452
Historia densi et rari, in Works 5:352 (transl.).

193

These accounts are of course very similar in style, and the exclusion of a role for the
Baconian tradition of Literate Experience in the construction of this type of reports is
very problematic.
Overall, it is possible to say that the underestimation of Bacons program of
quantitative experimentation is part of a more general interpretation of the role of
mathematics in Bacon and the Baconian tradition. This interpretation has been described
well by Mary Domski in a recent article on the links between Francis Bacon and the
mathematical tradition in the seventeenth-century.453
Domski builds on an early, seminal article by Thomas Kuhn, who famously
identified two separate traditions at the origins of modern science.454 Kuhns thesis was
particularly innovative because it moved away from the accepted line of explanation for
the origin of modern science which substantially saw it as an evolution of the methods of
what Kuhn called the classical physical sciences of astronomy, statics, and geometric
optics. In opposition to these mathematical sciences, Kuhn identified a second cluster of
disciplines, which he labeled Baconian sciences:
[] If Baconianism contributed little to the development of the classical
sciences, it did give rise to a large number of scientific fields, often with their
roots in prior crafts. The study of magnetism, which derived its early data from
prior experience with the mariners compass, is a case in point. Electricity was
spawned by efforts to find the relation of the magnets attraction for iron to that
of rubbed amber for chaff. Both these fields, furthermore, were dependent for

453

Mary Domski, Observation and Mathematics. In Peter R. Anstey (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of
British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century (draft copy; forthcoming, 2011)
454
Thomas S. Kuhn, Mathematical vs. Experimental Traditions in the Development of Physical Science.
Journal of Interdisciplinary History 7 (1976) 1-31.

194

their subsequent development upon the elaboration of new, more powerful, and
more refined instruments. They are typical new Baconian sciences. Very nearly
the same generalization applies to heat. []455
Kuhns interpretation established a strong dichotomy between experimental and
mathematical disciplines in the seventeenth-century. As Mary Domski has emphasized,
this sharp division was based on Kuhns interpretation according to which Bacon
produced a complete rejection of mathematical astronomy and mixed mathematics;
according to Kuhn,
Bacon himself was distrustful, not only of mathematics, but of the entire quasideductive structure of classical science. Those critics who ridicule him for
failing to recognize the best science of his day have missed the point. He did not
reject Copernicanism because he preferred the Ptolemaic system. Rather, he
rejected both because he thought that no system so complex, abstract, and
mathematical could contribute to either the understanding or the control of
nature456
However, as Domski suggests,
Upon closer examination of the system of sciences that Bacon urged natural
philosophers to establish, we find that he does not demand that astronomy
relinquish its use of mathematics, or more generally, that the mixed
mathematical sciences relinquish their use of abstraction and idealization.
Rather, what he demands is that the mathematical treatment of nature, and of
heavens in particular, be grounded on and informed by the findings of natural
history457

455

Ibid., 14-15.
Ibid., 16-17; quoted in Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 7.
457
Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 7.
456

195

In general, as also Graham Rees noted, Bacon did not reject the use of mathematics
in the so-called mixed sciences. He was instead careful in stating its subordinate character
with respect to experiments and natural histories:
Bacons point is that we must be careful to put mathematics in its proper place,
as a tool that can be used to investigate certain domains of nature after a proper
natural history and physics has been established. In other words, we should not
begin our study of bodies with the idealization and abstraction characteristic of
mathematics; we should only turn to it once a solid foundation of knowledge
concerning bodies is in place458
This shift of interpretation substantially tends to integrate the mixed mathematical
program into the Baconian tradition. In particular, Graham Rees suggested that in 1623,
at the time of the publication of De Augmentis, Bacon became a stronger advocate of
mixed mathematics, and implied that mathematics had to be considered auxiliary to all
the sciences.459 As Bacon put it,
I have thought it better to designate Mathematics, seeing that they are of so
much importance both in Physics and Metaphisics and Mechanics and Magic, as
appendices and auxiliaries to them all460
According to Domski, there is evidence that a similar stance was adopted by several later
authors associated with the Baconian tradition, and Robert Boyle in particular.461
If this new analysis is correct, what is the place of the Baconian program of Literate
Experience in this history? In my discussion of quantification in Literate Experience, I

458

Graham Rees, Mathematics and Francis Bacons Natural Philosophy. Revue Internationale de
Philosophie, 40 (1986) 399-426; quoted in Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 9.
459
Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 9-10.
460
De Augmentis, in Works IV: 370; quoted in Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 9
461
Domski, Observation and Mathematics, 16.

196

showed how weighing of experience was mostly connected to efficacy of operations.

Bacon, clearly inspired by the example of mechanical arts, assumed that concrete and
practical results can only be achieved when a quantitative experimental program is
established.462 However, in light of these considerations, the requirement for
quantification assumes a different sense. As his discussion of mathematics suggests,
Francis Bacon seemed to envisage a very general if auxiliary role for this discipline. In
this way, mathematics was a tool that could be generally applied once natural histories
had been properly compiled.
It is then possible that Bacons program of data quantification for natural histories, in
the forms I discussed at length in chapter five, was also preliminary to the use of
mathematics as envisaged in De Augmentis. In fact, mathematics can fully operate only
on experimental results that are suitably organized in quantitative form: in this case,
quantification of data is a precondition not just for operation, but for the possible
employment of mathematics, and possibly these two aims overlap, if not identify. Bacon
never fully expanded his discussion on these points, and in any case it seems that this
reassessment of the role of mathematics can be considered an option to which he came
late in his work. In general, such reconsiderations of the role of quantification and

462

See sections 5.1 and 5.2.

197

mathematics in Francis Bacon call seriously into question the sense of the strong Kuhnian
dichotomy between a mathematical and an experimental tradition.463

463

Peter Dear reaches similar conclusions describing a largely non-Baconian history of PhysicoMathematics; see Peter Dear, Discipline and Experience. The Mathematical Way in the scientific
Revolution. Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press (1995) 246.

198

Appendix 1 List of Patentees from British Library Hargrave MS 377. Calendar of

Patent Rolls temp. James I

BL Hargrave Ms 377 is a useful text to recover quick information on all grants passed
during the reign of James I. The title page of the volume indicates that This booke
containes an Index of the Grants of all Offices, Commissions, Licenses, Proclamacions,
Protections, Charters of, marketts, Fayres, warrens, Leases which exp. 21 yeare, Grants
&, Priviledges made by K. James As they are Recorded in the Chancery & remanie at the
Rolles. Because in this manuscript privileges for new inventions are usually indicated as
Licenses, they can be easily identified. The list in the following pages is in fact put
together in that way. The information on the list in Hargrave Ms 377 is however very
limited, and for instance lacks the details of the t patent referees.
However, this information can be recovered by means of the so-called Docquets
Books of the Signet Office (National Archives, SO 3 series). These are summaries and
lists of the patents/warrants, indicating who signed and/or supervised them. For instance,
Russell's and Murray's patent of May 1608 is identifiable as Signet Office, Docquets
Books. March 1608-October 1610. SO 3/4, May 1608.
Indexes of grantees in the Signet Office Docquets Books can be found in W. P. W
Phillimore. The Index Library. An Index to Bills of Privy Signet, commonly called Signet
Bills, 1584 to 1596 and 1603 to 1624, with a Calendar of the Writs of Privy Seal, 1601to

199

1603. London, The British Record Society (1890) (this is in fact an index of the Signet
Docquets Books).
Copies of the patent texts can be found as part of National Archives, Patent Rolls
Mss, C66 series. For instance, Russell's and Murray's patent of May 1608 is identifiable
as National Archives, Patent Rolls Mss., 6 Jas I, part 18, n. 10 (C 66/1768).
An index for patent rolls is available at the National Archives, Maps Room, C66
(open shelves). Knowing the name of the grantee and the patent date, these indexes make
it possible to identify the reference number for the patent roll (i.e., from Murray, May
1608 it is possible to find the reference to the actual patent, C 66/1768)

02 Jas
Evelyne et al.
Jo: Evelyne &c speciall lycense for making Salpeter and gunpowder
[1604-10: Signet, grant]
Powell
Lic - R[c]o Powell to open search dig & try all grounds & soiles for discovery of
Gold & Silver ore [p] 7 ans
[1604-08: Signet, license]
Parkes
Lic - Humf[r] Parkes Lic to erect & sett up all mann[r] of workes & Engines to
drawe up waters from any minerall pitts [p] 21 ans.
[1605-01: Signet, grant.]
Winter
Ed: Winter lic to cutt downe woods for Wales about the Iron milles Co[m] Glou[c]
1604-10: Signet, grant. [Wyntour, Sir Edward]

200

03 Jas
Sheffeild et al
E[d]o [d]m Sheffeild & al lic. to dig and work for all mynes & uares of Allome [p]
21 ans.
[1605-02: Signet, grant.]
Bulmer
Lic - Bevis Bulmer lic use an engine by him devised for cutting Iron into small rods
for making nayles &c 12 ans
[1605-03: Signet, license.]
Twynyhoe et al
W[o] Twynyhoe & al for makeing of Smault [p] 21 ans.
[1605-07: Signet, Privilege (spelled: Twyniho)]

04 Jas
Echard et al
Christop[h]: Echard & al to make all mann[r] of Pickels brine and Salt by y[e] heat
of y[e] Sun & other artificial reflecc[o]ns in any convenient place w[th]in his
Ma[tyes] do[nio]ns
[1606-06: Signet, license.]
Aston
Rog: Aston mil lic to make glasses or glassworke w[th]in Eng & Irland for 21 ans
[1606-09: Signet, license.]
Chantrell
Ro: Chantrell lic to make & forge Iron & Steel w[th] Stone Cole Seacole
[1606-12: Signet, license.]
Powell
Ri[c]o Powell & al lic to open dig & myne & try all earthes & places w[th]in this
Realme for all man[r] of oures simple & pure compounded of mettalls of Gold Sylver
Copper quicksilver lead tynne.
[1606-12: Signet, signification.]

201

05 Jas
Wygorne [Earl of Worcester]
E[d]o Com Wygorne In[d]r concer[n] Salt Peter & gunpowder dat 13 May.
[1607-05: Signet, license. Or, 1607-10: Signet, grant.]
Heart
Percivall Heart mil lic for making glasses in re[v]co[n]
[1607-10: Signet, grant (Hart, sir Percival)]
Agnell
Lic W[o] Agnell to [p]vide all kind of fishe for y[e] kings household
[1607-04: Signet, license (Angell, William)]
Treyton
Tho: Treyton lic for y[e] art of brewinge ad vit
Stalling
Lic W[o] Stalling concerning Mulbery trees.
[1607-01: Signet, license (Stallenge)]

06 Jas
Jordan
Ed: Jordan potestat & authoritat to extract Silver out of Lead in all [p]tes of
England & Irland [p] 21 a[n]
[1608-05: Signet, privilege.]
Hamon
Christ: Hamon conces[s] speciall concerning Silke dyees
Baker
Lic Abrah[m] Baker ad faciend[m] Smault [p] 30 ans.
[1608-01: Signet, grant.]
Douglas
J[a]co Douglas lic & aucthority to dig & search in grounds Co[m] Sout[hon] et
Insul vect for gold & silver for 2 yeares

202

[1608-10: Signet, grant464]

Murray, David et al
David Murray mil & al lic et authority to make brimstone & coperons [p] 31 ans
[1608-05: Signet, grant.]
Sturt [Simon Sturtevant]
Simon Sturt lic to make presware & wood pleits for 21 ans
[1608-10: Signet, privilege. ("Sturtevante")]
Romero et al
Lic Nic[ho] Romero & al to frame & erect furnices Stones & other engines for
Sparing wood & coale.
[1608-06: Signet, privilege. (maybe spelled "Romers")]

07 Jas
Cosens
Lic Ro: Cosens to dy woolls with oade wrought w[th] Calke
[spelled Cousens in Lansdowne MS. 222]
Salisbury [Earl of]
Rs confir[m] [omia] agreament fact intr Robt[m] co[m] Salisbury & al ex 1[a] 2
3[a] et 4 [p]te London [m]cators concerning the making of Allome
Bell
Rob: Bell authority to make Copper [p] 31 a[n].
[1609-02: Signet, grant [this is for a "Bellott"]; or 1608-08: Signet, warrant.]
Challen[r] [Thomas Challoner]
Ind[r] inter Jul. Caesar subthesaur [sri] ex [p]te [Rs] & Tho: Challen[r] & al
touching makeing of Allomes.

464

In the Signet text, the places actually read as "Southon" and "isle of Wight" (from its Latin name: 'Insula
Vecta' or 'Insula Vectis'). Southampton was abbreviated as 'Southon'.

203

08 Jas
Slingsby [Slingesby] et al.
sea-coal and pit-coal furnaces
[1610-07: Signet, license.]
Cornelius
Lic Jo[h] Cornelius to practise and use the mistery of Refining lead & Casting y[e]
same into thynne
[1610-04: Signet, privilege.]

09 Jas
Sellnie
Dan: Sellnie in medic doct lic to Smelte & refine w[th]in Engl & Irland lead ures &
lead [p] 21 a[n]
[1611-05: Signet, license. Alternative spelling: Seline]
Onslowe
Tho: Onslowe lic to Silver guild paint &c all kind of leather [p] 12 an.
[1611-10: Signet, invention.]
Zouch
Edo Zouch & al lic & authority to exercese y[e] mistery of making & melting of
Glasses w[th] Seacoale [p] 21 a[n].
[1613-02: Signet, privilege [spelled as "Zouche"]. The following is not a license, but
is subscribed by F. Bacon; 1612-06: Signet, grant.]
Dike et al
R[t]o Dike & al lic & authority to use the mistery of making gold & Silver thred [p]
21 a[n]
[1611-05: Signet, privilege.]

10 Jas
Barnewell, Richard

204

[1612-05: Signet, privilege.465]

Usher et al
Jos: Usher &c lic to devise & exercise the new engine to bee wrought w[th]all by
water wind men or horse [p] 14 a[n]
[1612-09: Signet, privilege.]
Middleton [Hugh Middleton]
Hug: Middleton to [p]forme all actes to further y[e] bringing in of Springs & waters
into y[e] Citty of London
[1613-03: Signet]

11 Jas
Bradshawe
Edm: Bradshawe &c Lic to make all man[r] of paneing, tyles dishes potts for
gardens &c, after such mane[r] as is used in ffiansa [p] 21 ans
[1613-07: Signet, privilege.]
Newton [Adam Newton]
lic to use y[e] Art & Invention of steeping seed for tillage in Engl & Wales [p] 11
a[n]
[1613-05: Signet, privilege.466]
Brunt
Edm: Brunt Lic to make [all, deleted] [a new, added] engines [sic] for dressing of
meale in Eng[d] and Wales [p] 21 a[n]
[1613-02: Signet, privilege.]

465

I missed this reference in Hargrave Ms 377. This information derives from Alan Gomme, Patents of
invention: origin and growth of the patent system in Britain. London and New York. Longmans Green and
co (1946) 31-2.
466
See State Papers Domestic:
June 5 1613 - June 5. Grant of Special License to Adam Newton, John Southcote, and John Wood, to
use the art of steeping seed to be sown, for the furtherance of tillage in England and Wales, for eleven
years. [Grant Bk, p. 118.]
June 5. Westminister. Proclamation of the effect of the Letters Patent granted to Adam Newton, John
Southcote, and John Wood, for the use of their new invention of a liquor for steeping all kinds of grain
for sowing. With note by the patentees of their willingness to give information, &c. upon it. Printed.
[Proc. Coll., No. 22 A.]
This technology is discussed extensively in Sylva Sylvarum, century V.

205

Harrington
I[vh]i dno Harrington lic to make farthing tokens [p] 4 a[n]
[Signet, commission [Lord Harrington]]

1613-09:

12 Jas
Thyn et al
To make salt Car. Thyn et al lic to make salt [p] 21 a[n]
[1614-08: Signet, privilege [Thynn]]
Houghton et al
Lic R[co] Houghton mil &c to make Allome and transport 500 tun yearly [p] 24 a[n]
Montgomery et al
Lic P[h]o com Montgomery &c to make glasses w[th] Seacole or pitcole [p] 21 a[n]
[1614-01: Signet, privilege.]
Sheffeild et al
Lic [Edo] [dno] Sheffeild & al to make cop[p] [p] 31 a[n]
[1614-07: Signet, privilege.]
Elliots et al
W[m] Elliots [& al, added] lic to make or convert Iron into Steele [p] 21 a[n]
[1613-03: Signet, privilege.]
Browne
Tho. Browne & al lic to make Stone potts [p] 21 a[n]
[1614-09: Signet, privilege.]
Abdey et al
Christ[o]ph: Abdey & al lic to use y[e] Art of makeing Indico Neale [p] 31 a[n]

13 Jas
Windham et al
H: Windham lic to make oyle & pitch out of mynes & sope w[th] Seacole [p] 21 a[n]
[1615-06: Signet, privilege. (together with a "Nicholas Geff")]
Dike et al
206

Lic Ric[o] Dike & al for making venice gold & silver thred & al [p] 21 a[n]
[1614-09: Signet, privilege.]
Wood & al
Jas[o] Wood &c Lic for sowing of all kinds of graine [p] 21 a[n]
[1615-05: Signet, grant.]
Lloyd
Lic Evan Lloyd for Making of Rackets and tennis balles [p] 21 a[n]
Sturtevant et al
Sim. Sturtevant [Cl[illeg.]io & al, added] Lic to use y[e] mistery of ffortage and
Lyneage [p] 21 a[n]
[1615-12: Signet, privilege.]

14 Jas
Hary
Jo[h] Hary & al lic to teach and sell y[e] table for casting of Accompts &
Cypheringe [p] 21 a[n]
Elliot et al
W[m] Elliot &c lic for con[v]ting Iron into Steele [p] 21 a[n]
[1616-07: Signet, license. ("Ellyotts")]
Ketchet
Lic Jo[h] Ketchet to make water milles &c [p] 21 a[n]
[1616-02: Signet, grant.]
Vanelderhays
Lic Mic[h]: Vanelderhays to practise y[e] art of drayning grounds [p] 21 a[n]
[1616-03: Signet, grant ("Van Elderhuis")]
Harrison
Lic Jo: Harrison for Im[p]tacon of Pykes Carpes & other fresh fish from forein
[p]tes to London [p] 21 ans.
[1616-06: signet, privilege.]
Woodward et al
Lic E[d]o woodward & al for making & uttering ffarthing tokens [p] 7 a[n]
[1616-07: Signet, license.]

207

15 Jas
Wolfen et al
making of oyles to keep armor from rust [p] 21 a[n]
[1617-10: Signet, grant.]
Gason
Jo: Gason lic concerning water works [p] 21 a[n] et assig[n]
[1617-06: Signet, privilege.]
Wygorn [Earl of Worcester]
E[d]o Com Wygorn lic spia[ll] for making saltpeter & gunpowder [p] 31 a[n]
[1616-03: Signet, grant]

16 Jas
Cromp
Robt Cromp lic to make engines for dreyning of mineralls &c [p] 21 a[n]
[1617-12: Signet, license (alternative spelling, "Crump")]
Foote
C[h]o Foote lic to sell clay for the making of Tobacco pypes [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-07: Signet, license (alternative spelling, "Foot")]
Baker
Lic Abram Baker for [making &, added] selling of smalt [p] 31 a[n]
[1618-01: Signet, privilege]
Gilbert
Jo: Gilbert lic to make an Engine cald a water plowe [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-06: Signet, privilege]
Murray, John
Joh. Murray lic for making of swords, rapiers and ye like [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-12: Signet, privilege]

208

Ramsey et al
David Ramsey &c lic to make engines to plow w[th]out horses & al [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-01: Signet, privilege.467]
Dawbeny
Clement Dawbeny lic to make any new kind of engine to bee driven by water for
cutting of Iron into small barrs [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-12: Signet, license (spelled Dawbenny")468]
Banister
R[co] Banister lic to exercise the art of making clookes &c of Beaner [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-03: Signet, grant.]
Hatton
Tho: Hatton mil lic for makeing of hard waxe [p] 21 a[n]
[1618-01: Signet, privilege]

17 Jas
Jack
Jo: Jack lic for making of Coaches waggons Carts & other instruments for carryages
& setting & Sowing Corne [p] 31 a[n] re[d] . 13.6.8.
[Recorded as Jackson in Lansdowne Ms 222]

18 Jas
Bucks et al
Geo: marchion Bucks & al full power and authority for making gunpowder
Dixon
Jo: Dixon y[e] sole making of an Instrum called a Back Stalle or Back Skreen for
ease of such sick [p]sons as are distemper'd w[th] heat of their backs [p] 21 a[n]

467

Also (same page, 173/175): "office- David Ramsey y[e] office of keepinge the Clocks ad vit".
Referred to in Bacon Works 13:134-5. Also spelled "Daubigny", in Calendar of State Papers, Domestic.
James I. 1611-1618. London (1858) 602. See also Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States, vol II.
Boston and New York, The Riverside Press (1891) 869. There spelled "Dabney", "Daubeny".
468

209

[1619-03: Signet, privilege (spelled as "Dickson")]

Sharpe et al
Sam Sharpe & al the sole authority to exercise the mistery of Chamletting or making
Chamletts of Grogranes & all Silkes and Stuffs [p] 21 a[n] re[d]. vi: 13. 4.
[1620-07: signet, invention.]
Lisley
Laur Lysley & al sole and absolute lic and authority to vernish and dresse armour &
armes kept at the Com[o]n charge of any County Citty or towne [p] 21 a[n].
[1620-07: Signet, grant (indicated as "Lisle, etc.")]
Ailoffe
Geo. Ailoffe mi[l] & al the sole making of Charcole
Sackvile
Lic Sackvile Oxon for making Iron [ordnce] ad vit
Howard
Lic. Robto Howard for dressing of armor.

19 Jas
Lenox et al
Lodovic duci Lenox 7 al the sole making of farthing tokens [p] 19 a[n] in renwe post
[dinips, unclear] to ["Lo", unclear] Ed. Woodward &c Sub red. 100 [m[rks],
unclear]
[1621-10: Signet, license. ("Lenox, duke of")]
Dudley
E[d]o dn[o] Dudley lic for melting Iron ewre and casting y[e] same w[th] seacoles
or pitcoales [p] 17 a[n]
[1621-02: Signet, privilege.]
Middleton [Hugh Middleton]
Hug: Middleton lic to practise the art & skill of winning or drayining of any ground
surrounded or over flowen w[th] water [p] 14 a[n]
[1621-06: Signet, privilege ("winning" also spelled "wynning")]
Hamilton et al
[Jaco] marchion Hamilton & al the sole making of farthing tokens [p] 19 a[n]
210

20 Jas
Nairne [unclear]
Alex [Nairne, unclear] the sole making of Phenix wyne [added text:
"w[th][unclear] & water"; "whitwine & water" in Lansdowne Ms 222] [vid, unclear]
Thorneborowe
Harewell et al
Ed: Hardwell mil et al lic to practise in Irland the making of Soapes, sope ashes pott
ashes & Salts for Soape [p] 11 a[n]
[Spelled Harwell in Lansdowne Ms 222]
Ramsey Robt et al
Ro[b]t Ramsey lic for sole makeing an instrument for raysing of water for drayning
lands and an instrum[t] for turning broaches [p] 14 a[n]
[1622-07: Signet, grant.]
Jones et al
Making of hard soape Roger Jones & al lic for making of hard soape [p] 21 a[n]
[1622-01: Signet, license ("Jones and Palmer")]

21 Jas
Upton
Hugo[n] Upton lic and authority for y[e] sole making an instrument w[ch] shallbe
dryven by y[e] wynde for carryage of any thing by land [p] 21 a[n]
[1623-06: Signet, privilege.]
Palmer et al [Jones]
Andr Palmer & al the sole making of sope [p] 21 a[n]
[1623-02: Signet, privilege (assigned to "Jones, Roger"). Note the Signet license for
soap making to "Jones and Palmer"; 1622-01]
Leigh
Jo: Leigh the sole [p]viding of Clay to make tobacco pypes [p] 21 a[n]
[1623-09: Signet, privilege.]
Pickhays [unclear]
Admondishm Pickhays [name unclear] the sole making of spangles Bullions & other
garnishm[ts] of silver for coates for the king footmen & messing[rs]
211

[1623-07: Signet, office grant. ("Pickeyes"). Also spelled "Agmondesham

Pickhays"469]
Mansell
Ro[bt]o Mansell [mil, add] y[e] sole making of glasses for 15 yeares
[1623-05: Signet, privilege.]
Garlick et al
Law: Garlick et al the sole libty of setting up a water mill by them invented for
drayning of lands [p] 21 a[n]
[1623-05: Signet, privilege.]
Hamilton [Alex:]
Alex: Hamilton y[e] sole making and useing an instrument by him devised for
plowing sowing & harrowing of ground for 21 yeares.
[1623-11: Signet, grant.]

22 Jas
Web
Benedict web lic for preparing grinding and making y[e] oile of Rapeseed [p] 14
a[n] Red 5[li]
[1618-10: Signet, grant]
Bucks & Cardwe
Geo: Duci Bucks et Geo d[n]o Cardwe lic to y[m] and [heir, sic; "theire", in
Lansdowne Ms 222] deputies &c to make all mann[r] of Saltepeter & gunpowder
Shipman
Lic w[o] Shipman for sowing setting and planting of madder [p] 21 a[n]
[1623-09: Signet, privilege.470]
Jones [Jo.]
Jo. Jones lic for y[e] sole makeing of an Instrument for quenching & p[r]venting of
fyer

469

see John Yonge Akerman (ed.) Moneys received and paid for secret services of Charles II and James II.
London, Camden Society (1851) 117, 124.
470
"Madder" is an Asian plant used for the production of dyeing pigments.

212

Appendix 2 Two Examples of Patented Inventions Discussed in Bacons Works

Peter Edney and George Gill, two royal musicians and instrument makers, are listed
among the patentees whose grants were passed by the Privy Signet in March 1609 and
refereed by Francis Bacon (see list 1, Chapter two). Their patent record states that their
privilege was granted for the sole making of violles violins and Lutes w[i]th an
addic[i]on of wyer stringes beside the ordinary stringes for the bettering of the sound an
invenc[i]on of theirs not form[er]ly practise or knowe.
As Peter Holman has shown, the instrument that Edney and Gill tried to patent was a
lyra viol, the main characteristic of which was a set of auxiliary metal strings that
vibrate in sympathy with the bowed strings.471 This type of instrument was fully an
English invention and, if not the true inventors, certainly Edney and Gill were among the
first makers of the lyra viol.472 According to Holman, the first English reference in print
to the viols peculiar addition is in one of the passages on acoustics in Francis Bacons
Sylva Sylvarum. Bacons description found in a section titled Experiments in consort
touching the sympathy or antipathy of sounds one with another, was accurate:
280. It was devised, that a Viall should have a Lay of Wire Strings-below, as
close to the Belly as a Lute; And then the Strings of Guts mounted upon a

471

Peter Holman, An Addicion of Wyer Stringes beside the Ordenary Stringes: the Origin of the
Baryton, in J. Paynter, R. Orton, P. Seymour and T. Howell (eds.). Companion to Contemporary Musical
Thought. London and New York, Routledge (1992) Vol 2, 1098.
472
See Holman, An Addicion of Wyer Stringes; Terence M. Pamplin, The Influence of the Bandora on
the Origin of the Baroque Baryton, The Galpin Society Journal. 53 (2000) 221-232; Lynn Hulse, The
Musical Patronage of Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612), Journal of the Royal Musical
Association. 116 (1991) 24-40.

213

Bridge, as in Ordinary Vialls; To the end, that by this means, the upper Strings
strucken, should make the lower resound by Sympathy, and so make the Musick
the better; Which, if it be to purpose, then Sympathy worketh as well by Report
of Sound, as by Motion. But this device I conceive to be of no use, because the
upper Strings, which are stopped in great variety, cannot maintain a Diapason or
Unison, with the Lowe, which are never stopped. But if it should be of use at all;
it must be in Instruments which have no stops; As Virginalls or Harps; wherein
triall may be made of two Rowes of Strings, distant the one from the other473
A different case is given by a peculiar patent assigned to Adam Newton, secretary to
Prince Henry, John Southcote, and John Wood in May 1613. The grant, signed and
refereed by Francis Bacon, was for the monopoly of a new invention & meanes to make
all manner of graine prosper & thrive much more fruitfull then it doth w[t]hout any helpe
of soyling onely by some steeping & dressing of the good.474 A royal proclamation of
June 1613 confirming the patent stated that the "liquor" in which the grain was steeped
consisted of a mix of "sundry materials of very small value, which every husbandman
hath, or with little charge may procure." According to the inventors, the process was
"very beneficiall for the increase of Corne and Graine, aswell in sparing of Soile, as also
in preserving the Seed from birds, fowle and vermine." The various benefits had been

473

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works 2: 433-434.

National Archives, SO 3, May 1613. John Wood was the likely inventor of the process; see Thomas
Lorkings letter to Sir Thomas Puckering, Newtons brother-in-law: Your brother Newton, Mr. Southcot,
and one Mr. Wood, have all, jointly together, lately obtained letters patents for the putting in practice of an
invention of the said Wood's, who by steeping all kind of corn and grain in a certain liquor, undertakes
thereby to render it more fruitful with five shillings' cost, than would ever have been before done with
forty. They are now very busy in projecting a course for the spreading of it throughout the realm, and hope
to reap no small profit and advantage by it. In: The Court and Times of James the First; illustrated by
authentic and confidential letters, from various public and private collections. [Compiled by Thomas
Birch] Edited, with an introduction and notes, by the author of Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea [i.e. Robert
Folkestone Williams] 2 vols. London, Henry Colburn (1848) 249.
474

214

testified "as by Certificate exhibited unto his Majesties Commissioners" (likely the
Commissioners for Suits).
It is interesting to note that Francis Bacon discusses steeping of seeds extensively in
Sylva Sylvarum, Century V, Experiments in consort touching the acceleration of
germination. In that section, Bacon describes a control experiment to evaluate the
effectiveness for germination of seeds of steeping liquors produced with different
substances:
402. There was wheat steeped in water mixed with cow-dung; other in water
mixed with horse-dung; other in water mixed with pigeon-dung; other in urine
of man ; other in water mixed with chalk powdered; other in water mixed with
soot; other in water mixed with ashes; other in water mixed with bay-salt; other
in claret wine; other in malmsey; other in spirit of wine. The proportion of the
mixture was a fourth part of the ingredients to the water; save that there was not
of the salt above an eighth part. The urine, and wines, and spirit of wine, were
simple without mixture of water. The time of steeping was twelve hours. The
time of the year October. There was also other wheat sown unsteeped, but
watered twice a day with warm water. There was also other wheat sown simple,
to compare it with the rest. The event was, that those that were in the mixture of
dung, and urine, and soot, chalk, ashes, and salt, came up within six days; and
those that afterwards proved the highest, thickest, and most lusty, were, first the
urine; and then the dungs; next the chalk; next the soot; next the ashes; next the
salt; next the wheat simple of itself, unsteeped and unwatered; next the watered
twice a day with warm water, next the claret wine. So that these three last were
slower than the ordinary wheat of itself; and this culture did rather retard than
advance. As for those that were steeped in malmsey, and spirit of wine, they
came not up at all. This is a rich experiment for profit; for the most of the
steepings are cheap things; and the goodness of the crop is a great matter of
gain, if the goodness of the crop answer the earliness of the coming up; as it is
like it will; both being from the vigour of the seed; which also partly appeared in
the former experiments, as hath been said. This experiment would be tried in
other grains, seeds, and kernels: for it may be some steeping will agree best with
some seeds. It would be tried also with roots steeped as before, but for longer

215

time. It would be tried also in several seasons of the year, especially the spring.
475

Like the patents documents, also Bacons conclusions regard the profitability of the
process: this is a rich experiment for profit; for the most of the steepings are cheap
things. It seems then likely that Bacons trials are related to the experiments on steeping
of Newton, Southcote, and Wood.

475

Sylva Sylvarum, in Works, 2: 475-476. On the strengthening of corn by steeping, see Also Sylva
Sylvarum, exp. 670, Works, 2: 546-547.

216

Appendix 3 Gohorys Chasteau de Febus & de Diane

In his extremely free translation of the eleventh book of Amadis, Gohory often added
entire passages of his own invention, responding to his own mythological and esoteric
interests. Chapter two of this text is Gohorys own, and is rich in alchemical, astrological,
and symbolic allusions.
The main subject of the section is the description of the Chasteau de Febus & de
Diane, a complex fabricatura or imaginary architecture, with seven different logis or
palaces dedicated to the seven planets and their respective gods (Diana -or the Moon-,
Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, and Phoebus -or the Sun-).476 Each palace is
dedicated to different objects and activities. The palaces of Venus, Mercury, and Phoebus
are particularly interesting. So, Venuss dwelling includes a beautiful garden adorned
with every flower and plant, and an aviary containing a great variety of strange and rare
birds.477 Mercurys palace is dedicate to ingenuity, and contains a library, full of all the
books in all languages and sciences which once were in the one of Ptolemy Philadelphus
in Alexandria.478 The same palace contains a cabinet with all the machines and

476

On this subject, se Rosanna Gorris Camos Pour une lecture steganographique des Amadis de Jacques
Gohory, in AA.VV., Les Amadis en France, Actes du XVIIe Colloque International du Centre V. L.
Saulnier, Paris, 6 mars 1999. Paris, ditions rue dUlm Cahiers V. L. Saulnier, n. 17 (2000) 127-156;
Jeanice Brooks Music as Erotic Magic in a Renaissance Romance. Renaissance Quarterly 60 (2007)
1229-1231.
477
fort recreatif en iardinages garnis de toutes fleurs, avec allees couvertes de berceaux de roses
muscades & iossemins, souef fleurans & petites fontaines ruisselans par lieux touffuz ombragez darbres
fruitiers, & en un endroit la belle voliere pleine de tous oyseaux rares & estranges, Jaques Gohory, L
'Onzieme livre d'Amadis de Gaule. Paris (1552) 4.
478
remplie dautant de livres en toutes langues & sciences que iadis celle de Ptolomee Filadelfe en
Alexandrie, Ibid., 5.

217

instruments, both from mathematicians and all craftsmen and artisans of the world.479
The description of the palace of Phoebus is also very interesting: as Jeanice Brooks well
synthetizes, Alchemy, music, and the therapeutic use of plants elements that would
later occupy Gohorys Lycium Philosophal are united under the sign of Apollo.480
This is Gohorys depiction of the palace:
At last there was the most excellent [palace] of all, that of Phoebus: of which
the furniture was of gold; a cabinet of all the instruments of music: another of all
waters, oils and unguents of medicine: for which the fair garden furnished the
herbs, gums and fruits, its squares apportioned according to their diverse
properties, one for wounds, another for fevers, here the hot plants, here the cold
and so on for the others.481
Here Gohory hints at a botanical garden, and to a pharmaceutical laboratory where
medical remedies can be prepared.

479

tendu de tous les engins & instrumens, tant de mathematiciens que de tous les ouvriers & artisans du
monde. It is interesting to note that le sage Cinistides, the magician who built the chasteau, also
adapted a second cabinet in Mercurys palace, where he faisoit jouer a Nature en vaisseaux artificielz le
personnage de Proteus, devenant eau, puis air, puis tournant en mille formes de monstres horeibles. Ibid.,
5.
480
Brooks, Music as Erotic Magic, 1231.
481
Brookss translation, in Brooks, Music as Erotic Magic, 1231; Reste le plus excellent de tous, celluy
de Febus: duquel les meubles estoient dor: un cabinet de tous les instrumens de musique: un autre de
toutes eaux, huiles et ongnemens de medecine: desquelz le beau jardin fournissoit les herbes, gommes et
fruits: estans les quarreaux dicelluy departis selon les proprietez diverses, lun pour les playes, lautre pour
les fievres, icy les plantes chaudes, icy les froides et ainsi des autres.; Gohory, L 'Onzieme livre, 5.

218

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