De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum.

Paris: Pierre Mettayer, 1624. Second Printing. Quarto (22 cm); [16], 540 pages. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Roman and italic type. Woodcut printer's device on the title-page. In contemporary full brown plain leather boards, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt, with title stamped in gilt directly on spine ("Verulami de Augm. Sc."). Ownership inscriptions on title page (dated 1724). Text unmarred. References: Gibson, "Bacon," 130.

Second printing after the London edition the previous year, and the first European printing of Bacon's "De augmentis scientiarum." Effectively a greatly expanded version in Latin of his "Advancement of Learning" (1605), this is the book that, in its Paris printing, spread the word of the scientific method across Europe, influencing Descartes and the philosophers of the Enlightenment, Locke, Leibniz, Huygens and Voltaire.