What was the original context in which the word "coordination" (lit.
meaning 'to arrange in order")was used?

Hello.

'DEFINITIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF COORDINATION 
When the word coordination was first recorded in 1605, it meant
"orderly combination" Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, 1988'
source:
CONCEPTIONS OF COORDINATION, Jackie L. Hudson and Laura Hill,
University of North Carolina - Greensboro, hosted by csuchico.edu
http://www.csuchico.edu/~jackieh/pdf/hudson91.pdf

(This document is in PDF format, so the Adobe Acrobat Reader is
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I also checked the online Oxford English Dictionary, available via my
local public library.  Like Barnhart's Dictionary of Etymology cited
above, the Oxford English Dictionary lists "orderly combination" as
the earliest meaning.  The specific context is cited as well: Francis
Bacon's Advancement of Learning (1605).


Here is the sentence in which Bacon's 1605 usage appears:

"So then always that knowledge is worthiest which is charged with
least multiplicity; which appeareth to be metaphysique; as that which
considereth the simple Forms or differences of things, which are few
in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations whereof make all this
variety."

source:
Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning (1605), hosted by uni-bremen.de
http://www1.uni-bremen.de/~kr538/baconadv.html

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search strategy:
"word coordination" meant
bacon, "advancement of learning"

I hope this helps.

thanks, that was helpful, comprehensive and quick