Francis Bacon Publishes Essays
1597
The English lawyer and philosopher Francis Bacon published the first edition of his Essays, terse aphoristic meditations on honor, truth, studies, and death. Bacon styled them counsels civil and moral. Readers loved their economy and would love them more as he expanded the book in successive editions. The terse, aphoristic style established a distinctively English tradition of moral reflection influencing writers from Johnson to Emerson.
In context
Also in 1597 (4 other events on record)
- Yi Sun-sin Wins at Myeongnyang · East Asia · War
- Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan · East Asia · Religion
- Shakespeare Buys New Place · Europe · Culture
- Second Roanoke Mystery Deepens · North America · Exploration
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
- Before: 1596: Shakespeare's Son Hamnet Dies
- After: 1599: Globe Theatre Opens
Era
Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources