Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was, as you will see when you look at his essay, an English statesman, essayist and philosopher. One his most famous and influential books was titled Novum Organum (1620). That title translates as The New Instrument and it's purpose was to lay out a whole new way of coming to know about the world, a method that would be based on direct experience, empirical data, testing, etc., rather than just on reason or divine revelation. Bacon is generally considered to be one of the early originators of what we now refer to as "the scientific method," and this book is his outline of what that method should be.