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Primary sourceBookwritten before 1637, published 1641

Timber, or Discoveries

Ben Jonson · written before 1637, published 1641

Ben Jonson's notebook of jottings, including a famous eyewitness account of Bacon's oratory and a judgement of his rise and fall.

Contains a contemporary's eyewitness praise of Bacon's oratory and a judgement of his career.

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Dark navy cloth book cover with a white library label at top left reading UC-NRLF above a barcode and the number B 4 109 897. The rest of the cover is plain.
Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries, published 1641. Library binding shown, not an original page.

About this source

What it is

A notebook of observations and reflections by the playwright Ben Jonson, written before 1637 and published in 1641. It touches on many writers and public figures of the time.

The cover shown here is a plain library binding with a shelf label, not a page from Jonson's original text.

Why it matters

In it Jonson gives a famous description of Bacon's speaking skill, praising how 'no man ever spoke more neatly', and also comments on Bacon's greatness and his fall from power. It is valuable because it is an eyewitness judgement of Bacon by a contemporary who had seen him in action.

Look closer

  • Why might a fellow writer's opinion of Bacon be useful to historians?
  • What does the cover image tell us, or not tell us, about the contents inside?
  • How might Jonson's own opinions and rivalries have shaped what he wrote about Bacon?

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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