Bacon's Bible

• In Event: Negotiating Francis Bacon

Abstract

Francis Bacon represented his natural philosophic agenda as an improved translation of God’s works, which he called “a kind of second Scripture,” in order to align his emphasis on natural philosophy with the Protestant emphasis on biblical exegesis. More specifically, he sought to appeal to James I, to whom he dedicated The Advancement of Learning (1605), by establishing continuity between his plan for a new “natural history” and the crown’s ambitious plan for a new English Bible, a plan that had just been conceived at the Hampton Court Conference the year before. It was in part through the book-of-nature metaphor, this reading demonstrates, that Bacon strategically made his natural philosophic project complement the Jacobean biblical project: while both were vast labors whose fruits would benefit everyone, the actual work of translating sacred truths, whether natural or divine, was to remain the province of a wise elect.

Author

• Katherine Bootle Attie, Towson University