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Bacon's New Atlantis and Campanella's Civitas Solis: A Study in Relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Eleanor Dickinson Blodgett*
Affiliation:
New York University

Extract

When Francis Bacon set down, in the fragment called the New Atlantis, his conception of a commonwealth as it ought to be, he was following a precedent of honorable antiquity. As we should expect, he shows obvious indebtedness to Plato's Republic, Timœus, and Critias and to More's Utopia; but the fact that the latest of these was a century old when Bacon began to write gave him scope for considerable originality in creating a “perfect state” adapted to the thought of his own times. His notes and writings over a period of years show that many of the theories and projects that took form in the New Atlantis had long been in his mind. By 1608 he had perceived the importance to science of coöperation in research, had seen the suitability of a collegiate organization as an agency for carrying on scientific investigation, and had jotted down specific details of plans, problems, and equipment which show that his mind was occupied with the practical aspects of his ideal. Although the opportunity to establish a college of research in an English university never came to Bacon, the concept of such an institution persisted until it became the soul of his Utopia—Salomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' Work, credited with having inspired the founding of the Royal Society.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 1931 , pp. 763 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1931

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References

1 G. C. Moore Smith, in the introduction, p. xv, to his edition of Bacon's New Atlantis (Cambridge, 1919), writes: “Some private memoranda made by Bacon in July 1608 (see Spedding's Life and Letters of Bacon, iv, 25, 66) show him pondering on the desirability of (1) a history of marvels, that is of nature erring or varying from her usual course, (2) a history of the observations and experiments of mechanical arts. But how were such histories to be obtained? Not without ‘command of wits and pens.’ Could he get himself transferred to some office which would give it? Some office of authority, for instance, in some place devoted to learning? And so he adds the entry, ‘Layeng for a place to comand wytts and pennes. Westminster, Eton, Wynchester, Spec Trinity College in Cambridg, St Jhons in Camb. Maudlin College in Oxford.’ And then he frames in his mind a scheme for such a College of research as he proposed.

'Gyving pensions to 4 for search to compile the 2 Histories ut suprà. Foundac. of a college for Inventors. 2 Galeries wth statuas for Inventors past and spaces or Bases for Inventors to come And a Library and an Inginary.

Qu. of the Order and Discipline, to be mixt wth some poynts popular to invite many to contribute and joyne.

Qu. of the rules and prscripts of their studyes and inquyries.

Allowance for travailing; Allowance for experimts. Intelligence and correspondence wth ye universities abroad.

Qu. of the Maner and praescripts touching Secrecy, tradition, and publication.

Qu. of Remooves and Expulsions in case wthin a tyme some Invention woorthy be not produced. And likewise qu. of the honors and Rewards for Inventions.

Vaults, fornaces, Tarraces for Insolacion; woork houses of all sorts.'

Here then we have already the plan for securing systematic investigation of the secrets of nature which 15 years later he recommended under the form of a parable in the New Atlantis.

2 Ibid., pp. vii–viii.

3 See his preface to the New Atlantis in the Works of Francis Bacon, edited by Spedding, Ellis, and Heath (New York and Cambridge, 1869), v, 349.

4 Émile Dermenghem, Thomas Morus et Les Utopistes de la Renaissance (Paris, 1927), p. 153.

5 Novum Organum, First Book of Aphorisms, xlvi.

6 A bibliography compiled from the catalogue entries of the New York and Boston Public Libraries, the Harvard University Library, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, and from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1929) shows that interest in Campanella has been reviving during the past hundred years. Beginning at 1826 after an interval of more than a century, translations, editions, biographies, and commentaries number 46, as follows: Italian, 26; German, 9; French, 6; English, 3; Polish, 2. Of these, 17 have appeared since 1904.

7 A convenient and concise biographical sketch is contained in Professor Edmund G. Gardner's Tommaso Campanella and His Poetry (Oxford, 1923).

8 Bacon: b. Jan. 22, 1561—d. April 9, 1626. Campanella: b. Sept. 5, 1568—d. May 21, 1639.

9 Jean Signorel, “La Cité du Soleil de Thomas Campanella,” Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions, et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse, 12me série, tome 1 (1923), p. 28.

10 Encyc. Brit. (1929), xxi, 909. “Telesio, Bernardino (1509–1588)”: “Telesio was the head of the great South Italian movement which protested against the accepted authority of abstract reason, and sowed the seeds from which sprang the scientific methods of Campanella and Bruno, of Bacon and Descartes, with their widely divergent results. He proposed an inquiry into the data given by the senses, from which he held that all true knowledge really comes. … His system is a forerunner of all subsequent empiricism, scientific and philosophical, and marks clearly the period of transition from authority and reason to experiment and individual responsibility.”

11 Signorel, op. cit., p. 28.

12 For a more complete discussion of Campanella's implication in the conspiracy, see Gardner, op. cit., pp. 6–7.

13 Ibid., p. 10.

14 Smith, op. cit., p. ix, quoting Dr. Rawley's preface to the New Atlantis.

15 Works of Francis Bacon, v, 350.

16 Tommaso Campanella, The City of the Sun, translated by Thomas W. Halliday, and edited by Henry Morley in Ideal Commonwealths (London, 1896), p. 225.

This text is incomplete, but inasmuch as the passages omitted are unimportant for the purposes of this paper, I have used it as a basis for reference because it is easily accessible. It is the only English translation that I know of. A complete text in French, translated by Jules Rosset, may be found in Œuvres Choisies de Campanella, précédées d'une notice par Mme. Louise Colet (Paris, 1844).

17 Dermenghem, op. cit., p. 152: “Entré à quatorze ans chez les dominicains, la vie monacale exercera sur lui une telle empreinte qu'il en fera le modèle de son Utopie. C'est à elle qu'il doit son goût pour la théocratie et pour la communauté de biens qu'il pousse jusqu'à la dernière limite.”

18 Campanella, op. cit., p. 232.

19 Ibid., pp. 237–238.

20 Rodolfo di Mattei, “Il Pensiero Politico di Tommaso Campanella,” Politica (1925), xxii, 5–23.

21 Campanella, op. cit., p. 257.

22 Ibid., p. 235.

23 Bacon, New Atlantis, edited by G. C. Moore Smith, p. 20.

24 Campanella, op. cit., pp. 247–248.

25 Bacon, op. cit., p. 9.

26 Ibid., p. 21.

27 Campanella, op. cit., p. 222.

28 Ibid., p. 220.

29 Ibid., pp. 223–224.

30 Ibid., p. 249

31 Ibid., p. 248.

32 Ibid., pp. 229–230.

33 Bacon, op. cit., p. 22.

34 Ibid., p. 34.

35 Ibid., p. 37.

36 Ibid., p. 43.

37 Ibid., pp. 45–46.

38 Ibid., pp. 44–45.

39 Ibid., p. 24.

40 Cf. Spedding, Works of Francis Bacon, v, 351.

41 Campanella, op. cit., p. 236.

42 Bacon, op. cit., p. 27.

43 Campanella, op. cit., p. 224.

44 This idea, of course, is as original with Bacon as with Campanella. Compare footnotel.

45 Sir William John Berry, K.C.B., “Submarine,” Encyc. Brit. (1929), xxi, 492: “The history of the submarine dates from 1620 when Cornelius van Drebel, a Dutchman in the service of King James I of England, built such a vessel, which is stated to have been navigated by twelve rowers at a depth of 12 to 15 feet for several hours in the Thames.”

46 Spedding, Works of Francis Bacon, v, 349–350, suggests that Salomon's House is furnished with the instruments and preparations that Bacon himself felt the want of. The difficulties that he had encountered in his single-handed efforts to provide that apparatus for himself suggested the constitution and regulations of a society formed to cope with them. “He had but to set down as known all that he himself most longed to know. But here he was obliged to stop. He could not describe the process of a perfect philosophical investigation; because it must of course have proceeded by the method of the Novum Organum, which was not yet expounded. Nor could he give a particular example of the result of such investigation in the shape of a form or an Axiom; for that presupposed the completion, not only of the Novum Organum, but (at least in some one subject) of the Natural History also; and no portion of the Natural History complete enough for the purpose was as yet producible. Here, therefore, he stopped; and it would seem that the nature of the difficulty which stood in his way had reminded him of the course he ought to take; for just at this point (as we learn from Dr. Rawley) he did in fact leave his fable and return to his work.”

47 Part i, section i, member ii, subs. 5, p. 19. These passages in The Anatomy were called to my attention by Mr. Hans J. Gottlieb of New York University, and the references were verified for me in the Harvard University Library through the kindness of Professor Hyder E. Rollins.

48 The title-page: Mundus Alter et Idem. Sive Terra Australis antehac semper incognita; longis itineribus peregrini Academici nuperrimè lustrata. Authore Mercurio Britannico. Accessit propter affinitatem materiae Thomae Campanellae, Civitas Solis. et Nova Atlantis. Franc. Baconis, Bar. de Verulamio. Ultraiecti, A pud Joannem à Waesberge Anno ciɔiɔcxliii.

49 A Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy. Wherein we have a Political Glasse, representing each particular Country, Province, Kingdome, and Empire of the World, with wayes of Government by which they may be kept in Obedience. As also, The Causes of the Rise and Fall of each Kingdom and Empire. … Newly translated into English, according to the Third Edition of this Book in Latine. London, Philemon Stephens, 1654.

50 Italics are mine.

51 London, P. Stephens.

52 Prynne's preface elaborates upon the theme of the title-page, asserting that Campanella's projects have been actually in operation “ever since the year 1647 till this present,” and were the primary instigation of the Commonwealth with all its attendant evils. He predicts that the Spaniard and the Pope may take advantage of England's weakness, “which imminent danger and approaching ruine we have no probable means left to prevent, but by a speedy cordial Christian union between our lawful KING, long exiled Head and members.” Whether this be not so, he concludes, “let the Reader resolve when he hath perused Campanella of whom I have oft made mention in my late publications, and was one chief cause of its Translation into English.” Possibly Chilmead, who had died in 1654, would have been as surprised to see his translation thus presented as would Campanella, had he lived to see himself an instrument of propaganda for the English Restoration.

63 For this reference I am indebted to Miss Ella T. Riske of Western Reserve University.