Sylva Sylvarum (London, 1627, 1651)

Title-page: Francis Bacon, 'Sylva sylvarum or a Natural History in ten centuries.  London, W. Lee, 1651; reusing the engraving from the original 1627 edition.

Inscriptions: 'Sylva sylvarum or a Naturall History in ten centuries. Written by the right Honble Francis Lo: Verulam Viscount Sct Alban. Published after ye Authors Death by W: Rawley Dr of Divinity. &c', 'Tho: Cecill sculp:', 'London Printed for W: Lee and are to be sould at the Great Turks head next to the Mytre Taverne in Fleetstreet', and 'Anno / 1651'.

Desciption: two fluted columns with decorated capitals, between which a globe lettered 'Mundus Intellectualis'; in the background, the sea; above, the sun and rays, two cherubim, a tetragrammaton, and the lettering 'Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona'.  The main elements of the composition derive from Simon de Passe's title-page to Bacon's Instauratio magna (1620)

Dimensions: height 224 mm, width 155 mm.

​Source: The Trustees of the British Museum. Museum number 1896,1230.110. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Full work (9th edn, 1670) available at archive.org. 

Literature: Arthur MaygerHind, Engraving in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 3 vols, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952. III.37.21.