Sir Francis Bacon, 1625

BACON, Sir Francis (1561-1626). The Essayes or Counsels, civill and morall ... Newly enlarged. London: John Haviland for Hanna Barret and Richard Whitaker, 1625.

First complete edition of Bacon’s Essays, in a 17th-century red morocco binding, first issue, with the title bearing the Barret and Whitaker imprint and the words "Newly enlarged." A splendid copy from the library of the Scottish General and member of parliament, Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton, who fought alongside George Washington in the Seven Years’ War and was the patron of the poet Robert Burns. This edition, the twelfth overall, was the last to appear in Bacon's lifetime. “It contains fifty-eight essays and is the text most commonly reprinted today. For this reason the present edition ranks in importance with the first of 1597” (Pforzheimer). "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, and containing fifty-eight essays, was published in 1625, the year before Bacon's death. This greatly enlarged edition ... 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). STC 1147; see Pforzheimer 30 (second issue).

Quarto (184 x 136mm). (Title trivially soiled, very minor chips at a few margins, tiny holes affecting a letter in K1 and N2). 17th-century English red morocco paneled in gilt, edges gilt (rebacked to style). Morocco box by Riviere & Son. Provenance: contemporary marginal annotations in English to P3v and Q1r – Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton, 1726-1796 (armorial bookplate) – Parke Bernet, 8-9 May 1940, lot 25.