BACON’S BROTHERHOOD AND ITS CLASSICAL SOURCES: PRODUCING AND COMMUNICATING KNOWLEDGE IN THE PROJECT OF THE GREAT INSTAURATION Dana Jalobeanu The Brotherhood of Light: Solomon’s House In New Atlantis, Bacon pictures a whole society centered upon a strange institution which captured many imaginations ever since the fi rst pub- lication of the allegedly unfi nished writing, in 1626. Some saw it as utopian fi ction, others, as a practical project for a future scientifi c society, some read it as a part of Bacon’s Instauratio Magna, others as a literary or theatrical device.1 There were many divergent interpretations of New Atlantis in the seventeenth century as well. Robert Burton described 1 Some such recent and less recent examples are Weinberger J., “Science and Rule in Bacon ’s Utopia: An Introduction to the Reading of New Atlantis”, The American Political Science Review 70 (1976) 865–885, for the “utopian” interpretation claiming that what we have in New Atlantis is a rewriting of the old genre of utopia in the vein of modernity. See also Weinberger J., Science, Faith and Politics: Francis Bacon and the Utopian Roots of Modern Age (Cornell: 1985). For a reinterpretation of the same utopian vein, but seeing New Atlantis as a negative form of utopia see Spitz D., “Bacon’s New Atlantis: A Reinterpretation”, Midwest Journal of Political Science 4 (1960) 52–61. Another important trend of interpretation comes from cultural studies and the discussions upon the rhetoric and politics of early modern science. See, for example, Albanese D., “New Atlantis and the uses of Utopia”, ELH 57 (1990) 503–528, or Aughterson K., “The Waking Vision: Reference in New Atlantis”, Renaissance Quarterly 45 (1992) 119–139. Solomon’s house has also been considered a project of a future scientifi c society, see Farrington B., Francis Bacon: Philosopher of the Industrial Science (New York: 1949), or as a (possibly non-intentional) model for the Royal Society. See also Lynch W.T., Solomon’s Child: Method in Early Royal Society London (New York: 2001). More recently, the empha- sis of the interpretation shifted from scientifi c or political features towards modes of expression and the construction of discourse. Brownen Price has discussed the ways of disclosing the secret as expressing Bacon’s views on the general importance of secrets in the new science, Sarah Hutton pointed towards the intrinsic paradoxical character of New Atlantis and to its careful rhetoric destined to enlist the readers among the researchers of Nature’s secrets, while Donna Coffey has pointed out several simili- tudes between Bacon’s New Atlantis and Jacobean court masques. See Price, B. (ed), New Atlantis: New Interdisciplinary Essays (Manchester: 2001), Hutton S., “Persuasions to science: Baconian rhetoric and the New Atlantis” in Price B. (ed.), New Atlantis 48–59, Coffey D., “As in a theatre: scientifi c spectacle in Bacon’s New Atlantis”, Science as Culture 13 (2004) 259–290. 198 dana jalobeanu it as a utopian commonwealth,2 while various members of the Early Royal Society have been arguing that Solomon House was, in fact, an appropriate model for a collective enterprise designed to produce useful knowledge. Joseph Glanvill , following Thomas Sprat , claimed that in New Atlantis, Bacon ‘desired and formed a Society of Experiments in a Romantick Model; but could do no more: his time was not ripe for such performances’,3 while John Evelyn read it as exactly the kind of practical model that the new science is in need for.4 One reason for so many divergent interpretations is that New Atlantis stands at odds with other writings of Francis Bacon: it is a literary fi c- tion.5 Another might be simply that in reading New Atlantis one gets the strong feeling that nothing is quite what it is supposed to be.6 Here are just some of the most striking examples: the people of Bensalem are Christians, but they have received Revelation in a very special way, through a direct miracle which was nevertheless accessible only 2 Robert Burton , Anatomy of Melancholy (London: 1661) 60. ‘I will yet to satisfy and please myself, make an Utopia of mine owne, a new Atlantis, a poeticall Common- wealth of mine owne, in which I will freely domineere, build cities, make statuse, as I lift myselfe’, and also: ‘Utopian parity is a kind of government to be whished for, rather than effected, Respublica Christianopolitana, Campanella’s city of the Sun, and that new Atlantis, witty fi ctions, but meer Chimera’s and Plato’s community in many things is impious, absurd and ridiculous’, Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy 63. 3 Joseph Glanvill , Plus ultra (London: 1668) 88. 4 John Evelyn , Introductions Concerning Erecting a Library (London: 1661), cited by Fos- ter J.R., Ancients and Moderns: A Study of the Rise of the Scientifi c Movement in 17th century England (Dover: 1982) 317. 5 As it was emphasized time and again, New Atlantis is the only fi ction written by Bacon , an author who often criticised the use of ‘fi ctions’ in reconstructing natural philosophy. And however, New Atlantis was rarely read as a fi ction and more often considered to be a project for a future scientifi c society. See Hutton S. “Persuasions to science”. Moreover, it is probably Bacon’s only writing which, although talking about natural and experimental knowledge and a reformation of the human being, does not belong, at least not by design, to the general plan of the Great Instauration. 6 For a way in which such a suggestion might be transformed into a work hypoth- esis for a general interpretation of New Atlantis see Spitz D., “Bacon’s New Atlantis: A Reinterpretaton, Midwest Journal of Political Science 4 (1960) 52–61. Spitz’s direction of reading suggest that all the characters of New Atlantis are wearing all sorts of masks (i.e. Joabin the Jew is a Socratic fi gure in disguise, one of the Wise Brothers of Solomon’s house etc.) destined to hide a dark side of Bensalem and a rather dangerous attempt of Bacon to prove that philosophy is ‘superior’ to religion. There is another direction of interpretation of New Atlantis as a literary device using some of the techniques of the court masques to re-create a sort of theatrical discourse about the new science that will encourage the reader to be willing to take part in the new enterprise. See Coffey D., “As is a theatre”..