The Essays; Colours of Good and Evil & Advancement of Learning of Francis Bacon, 1902

A handsome early twentieth-century edition of selected philosophical works by Francis Bacon, one of the most influential thinkers of the early modern period. This volume brings together Bacon’s celebrated Essays, the rhetorical treatise Colours of Good and Evil, and The Advancement of Learning, his landmark work advocating the systematic pursuit of knowledge through observation and reason. First written in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, these works helped shape the intellectual foundations of the modern scientific age and remain among the most enduring pieces of English philosophical prose. Presented here in an attractive early twentieth-century edition, the volume offers a compact and readable gathering of Bacon's most important writings.

The Essays; Colours of Good and Evil & Advancement of Learning of Francis Bacon. Bibliographical note by A.W. Pollard.

Published by Macmillan and Co. Limited, London, 1902 - third impression of the 1900 first edition. Printed at the University Press, Glasgow, by Robert Maclehose and Co. Part of Macmillan's 'Library of English Classics'.

A handsome, near fine full polished calf leather hardback prize-binding from Glasgow University, with gilt armorial to front and fully tooled spine with raised bands and burgundy morocco title label. The book presents very well, with some indented scratches in the leather which can be seen in the light.

This volume bears a Latin prize presentation label awarded at University of Glasgow, recording that the book was presented to Thomas Notman, a student in the Latin class, in recognition of his distinguished merit through ability and diligence ("ingenio ac labore insignis"). The award was granted on the testimony of G. W. Ramsay, and is dated April 1905, indicating the book was given as an academic prize for excellence in classical studies.

With marbled text block edges (a little toned to top edge), and matching marbled endpapers. With prize presentation label to first pastedown.

Text is lovely and clean throughout with some spotting to blank endpapers.

A smart volume indeed.

Text in English.

(xvi) + 422pp.