BACON, Francis

Francis Bacon’s ‘Advancement of Learning’, originally issued in 1605, is the first original book of philosophy in English. First published in 1623, ‘De Augmentis’ was Part I of Bacon’s empiricist project, the ‘Great Instauration’ of knowledge and learning, never completed; Part II was ‘Novum Organum’ (1620). Here, Bacon presents ‘a general description of the sciences including their divisions as they presented themselves in his time […] [as well as] a systematic survey of the extant realms of knowledge, combined with meticulous descriptions of deficiencies, leading to his new classification of knowledge’ (Stan. Enc. Phil.).

Formerly in the library of Thomas, 6^th Baron Fairfax of Cameron (1692-1781). The Fairfaxes of Virginia were ‘America’s only peerage’, after the 6^th Baron, moved there to manage the family estate in the mid-C18. In 1719, he had become sole owner of the Northern Neck Proprietary, the western boundaries of which were disputed. After a visit in the 1730s, Fairfax was back in Britain to clarify the legal boundaries of his land along the Potomac and Rappahannock. A 1745 decree by the Privy Council granted him Shenandoah Valley and further surrounding territories, for the eye-watering total of c.5 million acres instead of the 1.5 million originally reckoned – hence an area larger than Wales. In 1747, he returned to Virginia to complete the land surveying; one of the hired surveyors was the young George Washington. The 6^th Baron remained Washington’s lifelong friend and mentor; Washington was godfather to Thomas, the 9^th Baron. Thomas’ father, Bryan, 8^th Baron, was a frequent correspondent with Washington, for 30 years. After the Revolution, the Fairfax estate was the only survivor in British hands.