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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Sir Francis Bacon's interest in the study of history was twofold. It was not only the broad interest of the philosopher but also the specific interest of the practical statesman. For the philosopher, history was important as the branch of human learning that has reference to man's memory. The true office of this knowledge, as he saw it, was “to represent the events themselves together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment.” On the other hand, the observations properly belonged to the field of politics. Bacon, the statesman, bred as he was in the realistic tradition of Machiavelli, found a utilitarian value in history. From the events and the counsels he drew conclusions that served as valuable lessons for the politics of the present and the future.
1 Advancement of Learning, in Works of Francis Bacon, edited by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath (Boston, Brown and Taggard, later Taggard and Thompson, 1860-65), vi, 182; also De Augmentis Scientiarum, in Works, ii, 186. This is the edition we shall quote from consistently.
2 Works, vi, 197.
3 Ibid., p. 191.
4 Ibid., pp. 192-193. The italics in the English are ours. The corresponding passage in the De Augmentis (Works, ii, 207) omits the introductory words up to “mediocrity.”
5 Another historian, Cesare Baronio, is also cited by Bacon; but his work, the Annales ecclesiastici, pertains to mediæval history. The single citation occurs in The Charge of Owen, in The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works, collected and set forth by J. Spedding (London, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861-74), v, 159. This edition will henceforth be designated as Letters.
5a Sarpi, P., The Historie of the Councel of Trent. Tr. by N. Brent, 2d ed. (London, B. Norton and J. Bill, 1629), Book ii, p. 227: “Some pleasant wits said, that if the Astrologers, not knowing the true causes of the celestiall motions, to salve the appearances, have invented Eccentriques, and Epicicles, it was no wonder if the Councell, desiring to salve the appearances of the super-celestiall motions, did fall into excentricitie of opinions.” In the analogous passage of the Essay (Works, xii, 136), Bacon alters to some extent the wording of the comparison; but, what is more important, he ascribes it not to pleasant wits but to some of the prelates at the Council themselves. Vide also Reynolds' edition of the Essays (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890), p. 123.
5b According to Spedding, Bacon made extensive use of Melchior's Floresta española (1614) for his apophthegms concerning historical personages (Works, xiii, notes to pp. 336-381, passim) and also made a limited use of the collections by Erasmus and Suninger (ibid., 359, 362, 369).
6 N. Orsini alludes to but one relatively unimportant borrowing from the Islorie fiorentine in his Bacone e Machiavelli (Genoa, Emiliano degli Orfini, 1936), p. 52.
7 Letters, iv, 109 and v, 8.
8 Especially in the De Augmentis (Works, iii, 37), where Commines's portrait of Louis XI is specifically mentioned; and in Essay xxvii, “Of Friendship” (Works, xii, 169), where reference is made to the “closeness” of both Charles the Bold and Louis XI.
9 This famous saying—viz., that the French “came with chalk in their hands to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to fight”—is quoted in four different works of Bacon: the Novum Organum, the De Augmentis, the Advancement, and the Redargutio Philosophiarum: vide Works, i, 249; ii, 307; vi, 231; and vii, 57. It is drawn from Commines's Mémoires (edited by J. Calmette and G. Durville, Paris, H. Champion, 1924-25, iii, 81) which gives all the details rather than from Machiavelli's Principe (Ch. xii), which simply states “a Carlo re di Francia fu licito pigliare la Italia col gesso.”
9a Works, xiii, 245, where there is an allusion to the priceless jewel sold by an ignorant Swiss soldier for a song. Cf. Commines, op. cit., ii, 115. Here, as is often the case with Bacon, the citation is not exact in every detail since he probably trusted to his memory. Cf. also Letters, iii, 324.
10 Works, iii, 70.
11 Ibid., ii, 241 and xi, passim (Vol. xi contains The History of the Reign of Henry VII).
12 The Italian text of the Storia d'Italia first appeared in 1561 (Florence, L. Torrentino), but it contained only the first sixteen books. The last four books were published in 1564 (Venice, G. Giolito; and Parma, S. Viotti). The complete Latin translation by Celio S. Curione came out in 1566 (Basel, P. Perna and H. Petri); the French by Hierosme Chomedey, in 1568 (Paris, B. Turrisan); and the English by Geffray Fenton, in 1579 (London, T. Vautroullier).
13 The Fenton version, based as it is upon the French of Chomedey, gives peculiar forms to Italian proper names: e.g., Guiardadda instead of Ghiaradadda, Paule Ursin instead of Pagolo (or Paolo) Orsino, the Marquis of Pesquiero instead of Pescara, etc. Moreover, Fenton takes delight in adding his own phrases and observations to the faithful Chomedey text. Bacon, on the other hand, usually spells Italian proper names correctly, and makes no such additions to Guicciardini's text as Fenton does. He may at times, however, change a detail since he probably trusted to his memory. For these reasons we believe that Bacon consulted the original Italian, and hence we deem it advisable to quote from the Historia di Italia (Florence, L. Torrentino, 1561), upon the text of which the editions available to Bacon were based.
14 Letters, i, 56.
15 Historia di Italia, p. 644. The italics in all cases of the Italian are ours.
16 Letters, i, 77.
17 Historia, Book x, p. 372.
18 Though not an exact translation, Bacon's English certainly renders the sense of Guicciardini's words: “coprì quasi tutte le sue cupidità sotto colore d'honesto zelo della Religione, & di santa intentione al bene comune” (Historia, Book xii, p. 497).
19 Letters, i, 186.
20 Historia, Book xvi, p. 631 f.
21 Letters, loc. cit.
22 Works, vi, 102. Guicciardini's analysis of Clement's errors is found in Books xvi-xx.
23 Ibid., p. 316.
24 Historia, Book vi, p. 224. Interesting is the enlarged Fenton version of this passage: “… but concerning the present case, as glory springs not of dignity nor of honour (for that they are goods of fortune) but of vertue, which is the riches of the mind & gift of the goodnesse of God: so for my part I desire rather to be presently buried ten foote deepe in the ground whereon we stand, then by giving back one foot to prolong my life an hundred yeares … ”: quoted from The Historie of Guicciardin, 2d ed. (London, R. Field, 1599), p. 247.
25 Works, vi, 370.
26 Historia, Book iv, p. 142.
27 Works, ii, 110 and iii, 17, 100.
28 For example, by N. Orsini in his Bacone e Machiavelli, p. 48.
29 Letters, iii, 324.
30 Loc. cit.
31 Historia, Book ix, p. 325.
32 Works, xiii, 246.
33 Leiters, vi, 246. Guicciardini's opinion is not expressed in any particular passage, but is to be gathered from his general report of the prevailing Venetian reaction to the formation of the League of Cambrai in the beginning of Book viii. This over-confident attitude is especially reflected in his relation of the harangue delivered by Domenico Trivisano before the Senate (Historia, loc. cit.).
34 Works, iii, 37.
35 Vide supra et infra.
36 Works, ii, 241.
37 Letters, vii, 472.
38 Historia, p. 147.
39 Ibid., p. 301.
40 Ibid., p. 310.
41 Ibid., p. 507.
42 Letters, vii, 500.
43 Historia, Book xi, p. 437.
44 Letters, vii, 477.
45 Loc. cit.
46 Loc. cit. Guicciardini states (op. cit., p. 2) that the league had been formed in 1480, “havendo per fine principale, di non lasciare diventare piu potenti i Vinitiani.”
47 Historia, Book i, p. 2.
48 Ibid., p. 3.
49 In the 1625 edition, for in the corresponding essay Of Empire (No. ix) of the 1612 edition, this section is fairly brief and no mention is made of Guicciardini.
50 Works, xii, 142.
51 Ibid., p. 223. In the corresponding essay Of Young Men and Age (No. xxiii) of the 1612 edition, there is no reference to Gaston de Foix.
52 Works, xiii, 331.
53 Historia, p. 197.
54 Spedding's remarks are to be found in the preface and the notes to his edition of the History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, in Works, xi. Wilhelm Busch's observations are in Appendix ii of his England unter den Tudors (vol. i: König Heinrich VII (1485-1509), Stuttgart, J. G. Cotta, 1892, pp. 417-423).
55 The title of Hall's work is The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (London, R. Grafton, 1548).
56 3d edition (Munich-Berlin, R. Oldenbourg, 1936), pp. 168-170. We are indebted to Fueter for a number of observations, to which we have added many of our own.
57 Fueter, op. cit., pp. 124-129; Luciani, V., Francesco Guicciardini and His European Reputation (New York, K. Otto & Co., 1936), passim.
58 Even Polydore Vergil, one of Bacon's sources, has something to say about the revival of Greek and Latin letters in England at the end of the chapter on Henry VII in his Anglicœ Historia libri XXVI (Gandavi, C. Manilius, 1559?), pp. 1563-1566. Hall, however, makes no reference to such a revival.
59 Among Alexander's traits Guicciardini (op. cit., p. 4) mentions “ambitione immoderata, crudeltà piu Che barbara, & ardentissima cupidità di esaltare in qualunque modo i figliuoli, i quali erano molti.”
60 Works, xi, 171.
61 Ibid., pp. 217-218.
62 Ibid., pp. 310-311.
63 Ibid., pp. 226-229.
64 E.g., the speech of Robert Gaguin (ibid., pp. 159-165) and the Lord Chancellor Morton's reply (ibid., pp. 168-170); the indirect discourses of Charles VIII's emissaries (ibid., pp. 100-103) and King Henry's answer (ibid., pp. 104-105), also an indirect oration.
65 Here are some quoted from Chancellor Morton's harangue delivered before the Great Council (ibid., pp. 117-124): “the world abroad (apt to impute and construe the actions of Princes to ambition)”; “(and yet pretext is never wanting to power)”; “the true way [i.e., to obtain perfect peace in the kingdom] is to stop the seeds of sedition and rebellion in their beginnings”; etc.
66 Ibid., pp. 144-145, 180. Vide Machiavelli, Discorsi, ii, 18 and Ritratto di cose di Francia. One must not forget, however, that similar observations about the weakness of French infantry are also to be found in Guicciardini's Storia (Book ii).
67 Works, iii, 36-37. Also vide supra.
68 For the one, cf. particularly Works, xi, 189-190, 305, 317; for the other, ibid., pp. 154, 173, 338.
69 In fact, Bacon quotes a reflection of Machiavelli's from this very chapter in Essay No. xxxix (Of Custom and Education): Works, xii, 213.
69a Orsini (op. cit., p. 77) suggests that Henry VII is represented as a typical principe nuovo, but he fails to develop this idea.
70 Vide also Fueter, loc. cit.
71 Bacon's History contains nothing, for instance, like the famous digression on the origins and rise of the temporal power of the Papacy in Book iv of the Storia—a passage suppressed by the censors in Italian editions and not reinstated until 1621 by J. Stoer (Geneva). Moreover, when Bacon refers to the second voyage of Sebastian Gabato (Cabot) (ibid., pp. 293-296), he does not dare conclude as Guicciardini does after his relation of the discoveries of Columbus and the Portuguese, that such events have given the interpreters of the Sacred Scriptures cause for anxiety, etc. Vide Storia d'Italia, edited by C. Panigada (Bari, G. Laterza & Figli, 1929), ii, 132 (Book vi). This passage was likewise omitted from the early editions of the Storia.
72 In the present essay we have confined ourselves to Bacon's knowledge of Guicciardini the historian. It is possible, however, that the English thinker was also acquainted with the Florentine's political maxims, the Più Consigli et Avverlimenti, first published in Paris in 1576 by Jacopo Corbinelli. This work did not appear in English translation until the 19th Century, and hence Bacon may have seen one of the Italian editions or with greater likelihood he may have known some of the maxims indirectly through Robert Hitchcock's popular Quintessence of Wit (London, E. Allde, 1590), which is a translation of Sansovino's Concetti politici. The latter, as is known, incorporate quite a number of Guicciardini's Avvertimenti. Bacon's indebtedness to Sansovino and to Guicciardini the maxim writer could well form the subject of another short paper. For Sansovino's Concetti, their relation to Guicciardini, and the latter's possible influence upon Bacon and Ralegh, consult: 1) The Maxims of Francis Guicciardini. Tr. by Emma Martin (London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1845), passim; 2) Thompson, Elbert N.S., The Seventeenth-Century English Essay (Iowa City, Iowa Univ. Press, 1927), ch. iii; 3) Kempner, Nadja, Raleghs staatstheoretische Schriften: die Einführung des Machiavellismus in England (Leipzig, B. Tauchnitz, 1928); 4) Orsini, op. cit., pp. 87-90.