Francis Bacon: Constructing Natural Histories of the Invisible

• Published in: Early science and medicine Vol. 17; no. 1-2; pp. 112 - 133
• Main Author: Rusu, Doina-Cristina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands BRILL 2012; Brill
• Subjects: Bacon; BACONIAN HISTORIES OF BODIES, AIRS AND SPIRITS; England; EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY; FIRST SCHEMATISMS; FRANCIS BACON; HISTORIA NATURALIS ET EXPERIMENTALIS; History of medicine and histology; History, 17th Century; MATTER THEORY; Medieval music; NATURAL HISTORY; Natural History - history; Natural philosophy; Nature; Philosophical axioms; Philosophy - history; Pneumatics; Polyphony; QUALITIES OF MATTER; Schematism; SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY; Sulfur; Sympathy; TANGIBLE AND PNEUMATIC MATTER; England
• ISSN: 1383-7427; 1573-3823
• DOI: 10.1163/157338212X631800

The natural histories contained in Francis Bacons Historia naturalis et experimental seem to differ from the model presented in De augmentis scientiarum and the Descriptio globi intellectualis in that they are focused on the defining properties of matter, its primary schematisms and the spirits. In this respect, they are highly speculative. In this paper I aim to describe the Historia naturalis et experimentalis as a text about matter theory, the histories of which are ascending from what is most evident to the senses to what is least accessible to them. Moreover, the Latin natural histories are parts of a methodological procedure in which the provisional rules and axioms obtained in one history can be used as theoretical assumptions for another history, thereby permitting one to delve ever more profoundly into the structure of nature.