Bacon Essays

[Francis Bacon]
The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland...1625

8vo. Original buff wrappers, in a clamshell box. A near fine copy.
Small 4to. Late 17th or early 18th century full red morocco, spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in one compartment, the remaining decorated with a central floral device surrounded by floral sprays, framed by dots and rules; the covers ruled and with a panel framed by a triple fillet with a floral device at each corner, board edges and inner dentelles gilt, a.e.g. Bound without A1 (blank) as usual, rebacked. A fine copy in a pull off case by Riviere.

First complete edition, first issue, with Barret and Whitaker imprint and words “newly enlarged.” This edition is the first complete edition and the last to appear in Bacon's lifetime. “Of Bacon's literary, as distinct from his philosophical and professional, works, by far the most popular and important are the ‘essays.’ These, in their earliest shape, formed part of a very small octavo volume, published in 1597, and were ten in number...Finally, the book in its present form, may be regarded as a storehouse of the practical wisdom gathered during its author's lifetime, a life singularly rich in opportunities for such accumulations” (DNB). This edition contains fifty-eight essays, and Bacon writes in the dedication: “I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other workes, have been most currant: For that, as it seemes, they come home, to men’s businesse, and bosomes. I have enlarged them, both in Number, and Weight; so that they are indeed a New Work.” Bookplate of Archibald, Earl of Eglinton, who may well be the 11th Earl of Eglinton. He participated, along with George Washington in the Forbes expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. In 1760, he commanded an expedition against the Cherokee during the Anglo-Cherokee War.
STC 1147; see Pforzheimer 30 (second issue).

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