ARTICLE SIR FRANCIS BACON AND THE HOLY OFFICE * Marta Fattori This article is accompanied by an appendix with selected documents chosen from a list of thirty important documents found in and taken from the Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Holy Office, referred to as ACDF). They all concern Francis Bacon and may be divided into two categories: the documents preceded by an asterisk have already been published by me 1 and they are presented here for the first time translated into English; the second group appears in the original version with an English translation; many other documents for reference purposes are indicated in the footnotes, but they will all be published in a forthcoming book, Francis Bacon and the Holy Office. Following the publication of the first article where I reconstructed and published the documents concerning the whole story of the condemnation and of the insertion in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of Francis Bacon’s De Augmentis Scientiarum, 2 I have found further documents: in particular, Matteo Magnani’s letter of denunciation, 3 and the official manuscript Decree of 3 April 1669 Donec corrigatur 4 – meaning that the work under examination is prohibited until the required corrections are made. The discovery of Magnani’s letter against Bacon’s De augmentis scientiarum, the * This article is the transcription of the paper I gave on the occasion of the International conference held in London, Queen Mary, University of London, 2001, September 6–8, ‘Bacon in history and on history’, organized by Graham Rees. I would like to thank Prof. Hilary Gatti for her help with the difficult task of translating the ‘votes’ expressed by the three advisors of the Holy Office. 1 See Marta Fattori, ‘Vafer Baconus’: la storia della censura del De augmentis scientiarum, in Nouvelles de la Re ´publiques des Lettres, 2000–II, pp. 97 – 130 (from now on referred to as ‘Vafer Baconus’) and Id., Altri documenti inediti dell’Archivio del Sant’Uffizio sulla censura del De augmentis Scientiarum di Francis Bacon, in Nouvelles de la Re ´publiques des Lettres, 2001– I, pp. 121–30 (from now on referred to as Altri documenti) with commentary and notes. 2 See ‘Vafer Baconus’. 3 Concerning Matteo Magnani and his role in the whole process of the condemnation of the De augmentis scientiarum, see my ‘Vafer Baconus’, p. 98, footnote n. 15, but particularly, see Altri documenti, pp. 121–30. Finally, see the English translation of his letter of denunciatio, infra, Appendix, doc. n. i. 4 Official manuscript decree against the De augmentis scientiarum of the 3 April 1669, ACDF, Protocolli NN36 (IIa, 36), f. 54. See the image published in Altri documenti, p. 130. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 13(1) 2005: 21 – 49 British Journal for the History of Philosophy ISSN 0960-8788 print/ISSN 1469-3526 online # 2005 BSHP http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/0960878042000317573