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New Atlantis

Francis Bacon · 1627

An unfinished utopian novel by Bacon describing an imagined island with a state-funded scientific institution called Salomon's House.

Bacon's imaginative vision of a research institution, showing his influence on the future of organised science.

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Title page of New Atlantis, printed in old-style typeface: 'NEVV ATLANTIS. A Vvorke vnfinished. Vvritten by the Right Honourable, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban.' Below the text is a small ornate woodcut frame with a figure and a winged creature.
Title page of New Atlantis, in Sylva Sylvarum, second edition, 1628.

About this source

What it is

New Atlantis is a utopian novel by Francis Bacon, published after his death in 1626, tucked into the back of his longer work Sylva Sylvarum. It describes a fictional island, Bensalem, and its scientific college, Salomon's House.

Why it matters

The novel reveals Bacon's vision for how organised, state-supported research could improve society. Salomon's House, with its structured scientific experiments, is thought to have influenced the later founding of the Royal Society, making this unfinished story an important link between Bacon's philosophy of science and real scientific institutions that followed.

Look closer

  • Why might Bacon have chosen to present his ideas about science through an imaginary story rather than a straightforward essay?
  • What does the description of Salomon's House suggest Bacon thought a good research institution should look like?
  • The book was left unfinished — what questions does that raise about Bacon's final years?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Francis Bacon on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of a 1696 London edition of Sir Francis Bacon's Essays, Or Councils, Civil and Moral, with a table of the colours of good and evil and a discourse on the wisdom of the ancients. Printed for H. Herringman, R. Scot, R. Chiswell, A. Swalle, and R. Bentley.Book

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Black and white engraved portrait of a bearded man with curly hair, wearing a wide-brimmed dark hat, a large white lace collar, and a dark embroidered doublet, against a shaded background. The caption below reads 'LORD BACON'.Painting

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Francis Bacon, Engraving by C. Cook after Houbraken

C. Cook after Jacobus Houbraken · 1738

Engraved title page of a 1640 Oxford edition of Bacon's work. Two obelisks flank a central banner reading 'Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning or the Partitions of Science'. Globes, a ship, owls, and Latin inscriptions appear, with the imprint 'Oxford, Printed by Leon Lichfield'.Book

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