The Oxford Francis Bacon aims to produce a new 20-volume critical edition of the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), in the original spelling, edited from the authoritative witnesses after a meticulous analysis of surviving manuscripts, whether authorial or scribal, and the collation of a substantial number of copies of printed books, to identify stop-press corrections. The introductions and commentaries will provide a rich contextualization of Bacon’s wide-ranging works, opening up many new avenues of research. The edition will provide brand-new facing page-translations for the edited texts of the Latin works; and re-integrate Bacon’s work within the study of early modern philosophy, science, historiography, legal thought, and literature.
The project was founded in 1995 by Graham Rees, OBE, FBA, with J. B. Trapp, FBA, as Chair of the Editorial Board. The British Academy adopted it as a Research Project in 1997, and continues to be our main source of funding. After the death of J. B. Trapp in 2004, Brian Vickers succeeded him as Chair of the Editorial Board; after Graham Rees’s death in 2009, Brian Vickers took over as Director until 2017. Alan Stewart is now Director of the project.
Graham Rees’s original aim was to supplant the venerable Victorian edition of Bacon’s literary and philosophical works edited by Spedding, Ellis and Heath (SEH) in seven volumes (1857-1859), and the OFB has used the great advances in textual, manuscript, and historical research since then to consign SEH to a long overdue retirement.
Published Volumes
So far the following volumes have appeared:
1996 Vol. VI: Philosophical Studies c.1611–c.1619, ed. †Graham Rees, pp. 503.
2000 Vol. IV: The Advancement of Learning, ed. Michael Kiernan, pp. 420.
2000 Vol. XV: Essayes and Counsels, ed. Michael Kiernan (first published 1985), pp. 458.
2000 Vol. XIII: The Instauratio magna: Last Writings, ed. †Graham Rees, pp. 363.
2004 Vol. XI: The Instauratio magna, Part II: Novum organum, ed. †Graham Rees with Maria Wakely, pp. 634.
2007 Vol. XII: The Instauratio Magna, Part III: Historia Naturalis and Historia Vitæ, ed. †Graham Rees with Maria Wakely, pp. 502.
2012 Vol. VIII: The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, ed. Michael Kiernan, pp. 702.
2012 Vol. I: Early Writings, 1584-1596, ed. Alan Stewart with Harriet Knight, pp. 1,066.
2025 Vol. XIX: New Atlantis, ed. David Colclough.
Planned Publications
The following volumes are in preparation:
Vol. II: Late Elizabethan Writings, 1596–1602, ed. Alan Stewart
Vol. III: Earlier Jacobean Writings, 1603–1608, ed. R. W. Serjeantson and Angus Vine
Vol. V: Early Philosophical Writings to c.1611, ed. Rhodri Lewis, R. W. Serjeantson, Sophie Weeks and Daniel Andersson
Vol. VII: Writings as Solicitor General, 1608-1613, ed. Angus Vine and R. W. Serjeantson
Vols. IX and X: The Instauratio magna, Part I: De augmentis scientiarum, ed. †Graham Rees, with Maria Wakely, and the editorial board
Vol. XIV: Writings as Attorney General, 1612-1616, ed. Ian Williams et al.
Vol. XVI: Writings as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancelor, 1616-1620, ed. David Foster, Ian Williams, et al.
Vol. XVII: Late Writings, 1621-1626, ed. Samuel Garrett Zeitlin, Alan Stewart, Ian Williams et al.
Vol. XVIII: Sylva sylvarum, ed. Dana Jalobeanu
Vol. XX: Miscellanea (posthumous Latin works, miscellaneous and attributed works; index).
The Oxford Francis Bacon I: Early Writings 1584-1596, ed. by Alan Stewart with Harriet Knight (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 1,136. ISBN: 978-0-19-818313-6.