# Is "Novum Organum" by Francis Bacon a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Novum Organum by Francis Bacon (London — title-page imprint "Apud Joannem Billium", 1620) is identified by: London, 1620, folio; issued as the second part of the Instauratio Magna, so the letterpress title begins "Franscisci de Verulamio. The 1620 London folio is the true first of Novum Organum and there is no earlier or competing edition; Bacon wrote in Latin and published in London, so no original-language-versus-translation question arises.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London, 1620, folio; issued as the second part of the Instauratio Magna, so the letterpress title begins "Franscisci de Verulamio... Instauratio Magna" and Novum Organum is the section title
- The letterpress title-page imprint reads "Londini, Apud Joannem Billium, Typographum Regium
- Anno 1620" — John Bill alone
- This is the trap: Bonham Norton's name appears in the COLOPHON, never on the title page, so a buyer hunting for "Bonham Norton" on the title leaf will not find it in any copy
- The engraved allegorical title is by Simon van de Passe and shows a ship in full sail passing outward through the Pillars of Hercules; woodcut headpieces and historiated initials throughout
- The two issues are distinguished at the back of the book, not the front
- Publisher imprint reads London — title-page imprint "Apud Joannem Billium"

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Francis Bacon |
| Publisher | London — title-page imprint "Apud Joannem Billium" |
| Year | 1620 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London, 1620, folio; issued as the second part of the Instauratio Magna, so the letterpress title begins "Franscisci de Verulamio...… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London, 1620, folio; issued as the second part of the Instauratio Magna, so the letterpress title begins "Franscisci de Verulamio... Instauratio Magna" and Novum Organum is the section title. The letterpress title-page imprint reads "Londini, Apud Joannem Billium, Typographum Regium. Anno 1620" — John Bill alone. This is the trap: Bonham Norton's name appears in the COLOPHON, never on the title page, so a buyer hunting for "Bonham Norton" on the title leaf will not find it in any copy. The engraved allegorical title is by Simon van de Passe and shows a ship in full sail passing outward through the Pillars of Hercules; woodcut headpieces and historiated initials throughout. The two issues are distinguished at the back of the book, not the front. Gibson 103a, the FIRST issue, has Bonham Norton's name present in the colophon beside John Bill's, leaf e3 present and uncancelled, and NO errata leaf, with pagination and errors uncorrected. Gibson 103b, the SECOND issue, has leaf e3 cancelled, the previously blank leaf e4 printed with the errata, and the colophon reset to omit Norton's name. Pagination runs [xii], 172, 181-360, 37, [3] — the jump from 172 to 181 is original and involves no loss of text. In some large-paper first-issue copies leaf e3r (beginning "Non abs re fuerit admonere...") is numbered 37; in others the numbering is suppressed. A small cancel slip correcting a Latin preposition on T1r is recorded. ESTC S122428 (103b); Gibson 103; PMM 119; Dibner 80; Horblit 8b; Norman 98; Sparrow 17. The first issue is the scarcer of the two: ESTC locates roughly ten copies in the United Kingdom and twelve in the United States.

## Is this the true first?
The 1620 London folio is the true first of Novum Organum and there is no earlier or competing edition; Bacon wrote in Latin and published in London, so no original-language-versus-translation question arises. The census claim naming "Bonham Norton and John Bill" is the standard ESTC and Gibson attribution and correctly describes the first issue's colophon, but it should not be read as a title-page imprint. The important correction is to issue precedence, which is easy to get backwards and is frequently reversed in dealer copy: the presence of Norton in the colophon marks the FIRST issue, and his removal — together with the cancellation of e3 and the printing of errata on e4 — marks the SECOND. Bacon's Essayes are a separate high spot on their own footing, not part of this book, and both are collected.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club question arises for a 1620 folio. The material later-state tells are the issue points above: a copy whose colophon omits Norton and whose e4 carries the errata is the second issue, however it is described. Bacon's Essayes should not be confused with this work or with each other across editions: the first is "Essayes. Religious Meditations. Places of perswasion and disswasion. Seene and allowed.", London, printed for Humfrey Hooper at the Blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane, 1597, with the colophon "Printed at London by Iohn Windet for Humfrey Hooper", containing ten essays (Gibson 1). The 1612 edition enlarges the text to 38 essays and the 1625 to 58; these are distinct editions rather than printings, and the 1612 and 1625 are routinely offered as though interchangeable with the 1597. Later Latin and English editions of Novum Organum carry their own imprints and dates.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Novum Organum* by Francis Bacon a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/novum-organum
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.