Nova Atlantis

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Title page of an edition from 1628

Nova Atlantis or New Atlantis , German Neu-Atlantis , is the title of a fragmentary utopian work by Francis Bacon . It was published in New Latin in 1627 - a year after the author's death . Among other things, Bacon laid down his idea of ​​a modern research institute . Nova Atlantis is the first modern utopia that explicitly refers to Plato's Atlantis in both the title and the text . However, some authors such as Thomas More ( Utopia ) or Tommaso Campanella (La città del Sole ) Plato's description used as a model for her utopian works. Bacon elevates Atlantis to a historical fact in order to give its own history more credibility. He identified Atlantis - following a view that was widespread at the time (for example in Las Casas or Fracastoro ) - with America. This "old Atlantis" was once lost in the catastrophe described by Plato, but some residents could have saved themselves on the "new Atlantis", the (fictional) South Sea island of Bensalem.

literature

  • Tino Licht: On the origin and tradition of the Nova Atlantis. In: Strenae nataliciae. Heidelberg 2006, pp. 113-126.
  • Bronwen Price (Ed.): Francis Bacon's New Atlantis: New Interdisciplinary Essays . Manchester University Press, Manchester 2002, ISBN 0719060516 .
  • Josef Bordat: Bacon's Atlantis myth and the self- image of modern science. In: S. Bodenmann, S. Splinter (Ed.): Mythos - Heroes - Symbols. Legitimation, self-perception and perception of others in the history of the natural sciences, medicine and technology. Meidenbauer, Munich 2009, pp. 121–130

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Klein :  Francis Bacon. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .