Experimental misunderstandings: the precedent of Francis Bacon’s ‘Sylva Sylvarum’ and the beginnings of the Royal Society

View Experimental misunderstandings: the precedent of Francis Bacon’s ‘Sylva Sylvarum’ and the beginnings of the Royal Society

Presenter: Guido Giglioni

Published: July 2013

Age: 14-19 and upwards

Views: 1419 views

Tags: francis

Type: Lectures

Source/institution: Royal Society


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Guido Giglioni is the Cassamarca Lecturer in Neo-Latin Culture and Intellectual History at the Warburg Institute, University of London. By writing a number of natural histories and above all the Sylva Sylvarum, Bacon set an important but difficult precedent in the history of experimental science, especially among the first natural practitioners gathered around the Royal Society. This talk will explore the notion of Ôexperimental metaphysicsÕ, the hybrid discipline that, especially in the Sylva Sylvarum, Bacon left as an awkward legacy to his experimental followers.