First edition of the earliest of Bacon's philosophical works, and one of the few first published in English. Scarce, with the oft omitted final two errata leaves here present.

The Advancement of Learning sketched out the main themes and ideas that Bacon (1561-1626) continued to refine and develop throughout his career, beginning with the notion that there are clear obstacles to or diseases of learning that must be avoided or purged before further progress is possible.

'Relatively early in his career, Bacon judged that, owing mainly to an undue reverence for the past (as well as to an excessive absorption in cultural vanities and frivolities), the intellectual life of Europe had reached a kind of impasse or standstill. Yet he believed there was a way beyond this stagnation if persons of learning, armed with new methods and insights, would simply open their eyes and minds to the world around them. This at any rate was the basic argument of his seminal 1605 treatise one the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, arguably the first important philosophical work to be published in English' (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

The erratic pagination and differences in type, signatures and headlines indicates the book was the work of three separate printers: the first set-up Book I and the sheets of quires 2K-2R of Book II, the second set-up sheets 2A-2I and 3E-3H, and the third sheets 2S-3D.

The 'forerunner of the De Augmentis Scientia which is, in fact, merely an expansion and remodelling of the present' (Pforzheimer).

First edition; 4to (16.5 x 11 cm); ff misnumbered as normal (i.e. first book: f.3 unnumbered, and '34' for '24'; second book: '6' for '9', '33' for '30', and after f.69 numbered 70, 70, 71, 60, 72, 74,73,74, 75, 69, 77-80, 77, 74, 74, 69, 69, 82, 87, 79, 89-95, 99, 97, 99, 94, 100, 99, 102, 103, 103, 93, 106-108, and from f.109 onwards foliation obscured with loss to top right corner, variant with C4 recto line 5 'maniable' and 3D3 recto lines 26-27 'through lights' in italics, lacking final blank f. but with the final 2 errata ff not often found, early pen note to title, dated ownership inscription in pen to fly-leaf recto, bookplate to front pastedown with further inscription in pen, occasional underlining in pen, textblock slightly toned with occasional light spotting, trimmed close with occasional loss to marginalia and headlines, upper corner torn with loss to text of final 10ff, hinges split at gutter margins of endpapers, pen note in a 19th-century hand on wax paper loose to endpapers; 19th-century blind-tooled brown calf, lettering-piece to spine renewed, edges stained red, slightly rubbed, very good; [1], 45, [123]ff. Collation: A-L⁴, M², 2A-3G⁴, 3H¹, ¶².

ESTC S100507; STC 1164; Gibson 81; Grolier/Horblit 8a; Pforzheimer 36.