Fortune’s Salt

(Title-page to the 1642 Latin edition of Francis Bacon’s History of the Reign of Henry VII)

In this title page illustration some deliberate changes have been in some of Fortune’s emblems, which are significant. Besides her being held and supported by Bacon and his knight companion, she holds above Bacon's head a ceremonial salt rather than a cornucopia. As a replacement for the horn of plenty with its fruits of nature, this large salt cellar and the salt it contains is almost certainly intended in its meaning of immortality, wisdom and knowledge (sal sapientiae), which the goddess is bestowing upon Bacon. It probably also refers to literary wit (Graeco-Roman interpretation) and spiritual discernment (Hebrew), by means of which the wisdom is won. This unusual representation of Fortune with the salt is referred to in the Continuation of Bacon's New Atlantis that was published in 1660 (entitled New Atlantis, Begun by the Lord Verulam and Continued by R. H. Esquire), where it mentions that ‘…for wisdom she (the virgin) holds a salt’.

In alchemical symbolism, salt is a symbol of the philosopher’s stone—the harmony of the soul, containing light.

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999