What order to read Bacon's works

[lari]

In what order should I read Francis Bacon's works so I can understand his philosophy better? Any facts about his works which may be useful for this purpose are also welcome.

Edited February 17 by lari

[Light-of-Truth]

4 hours ago, lari said:

In what order should I read Francis Bacon's works so I can understand his philosophy better? Any facts about his works which may be useful for this purpose are also welcome.

It depends on how you came to want to understand his philosophy.

If you study philosophy or science and came across Bacon not knowing anything about him, I cannot even make a wild guess on how to start.

In my case, for quite a while I learned and read about Bacon before reading any of his public work. The Essays were around within the first year or so for me and I read them pieces at a time. Wisdom of the Ancients was a better experience for me as I was being introduced to a lot of new names, words, symbols, and ideas I never came across before. Some I've heard of in the background noise, but had no point to reference.

My first few years back in the late 1990's and early 2Ks were Dodd, Dawkins, Leary, old Baconianias, my friend Lawrence, and of course at the top of the Pyramid has always been SirBacon.org. Today I don't think I'll upset anyone if I say that A. Phoenix is our current teacher for anyone who wants to learn and understand anything about Francis Bacon. His philosophy and life are intertwined like a knot.

His Promus is a great place to read as well. You'll see Bacon's and Shakespeare's philosophy.

For me, what he says in his Shakespeare's Sonnets has been most important. Yet, I am compelled to seriously read and explore Bacon's Hamlet now...

 

[Eric Roberts]

5 hours ago, lari said:

In what order should I read Francis Bacon's works so I can understand his philosophy better? Any facts about his works which may be useful for this purpose are also welcome.

Hi Lari. Good question. All you need is a starting point - say, "The New Atlantis" for example, which you may have already read, and as you explore, the 'plant' begins to grow into a 'tree'. My entry point was researching the portraiture of F.B. Follow your own interests... all roads lead to Francis Bacon.

[Eric Roberts]

If you have a JSTOR account this book looks interesting judging by the first page...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779806

Francis Bacon and the Jews: Who was the Jew in the "New Atlantis"?

LEWIS S. FEUER

Jewish Historical Studies 

Vol. 29 (1982-1986), pp. 1-25 (25 pages) 

Published By: Jewish Historical Society of England