On Delaying the Effects of Old Age

Pages 71 to 80 of this edition are summarized by John Williams in less than a page (p. 27). Pages 87 to 99 of this edition are shortened by him into about four pages.

Williams’s edition was the version translated by Richard Browne. It was published under the title The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth by Roger Bacon a Franciscan Friar, London, 1683.

About forty years before Williams published his edition, Michael ‘Securis’ (or Hatchett), a Doctor of Medicine from Salisbury, prepared a paraphrase with commentary of Bacon’s On Delaying the Accidents of Old Age original: "De retardatione Senectutis". He did this at the request of his friend Thomas Candel, who wrote to him from Windsor Castle in 1547. The work exists as a manuscript in MS. Digby 202, along with other medical treatises collected by Dr. Michael Hatchett.

ii. Manuscripts collated for the present edition.

The following signs are used:

Ad.
British Museum Additional 27582. Written in Latin and English; on parchment and paper; contains both printed and manuscript text. It dates to the late fifteenth century. Dimensions are 292 by 216 millimeters. It consists of 267 leaves.

On folio 2: ‘I give and bequeath this book to Master Arnulph ap Rice, sub-prior of Saint John of Exeter, to pray for my soul, namely the soul of Richard Smyth, in the year of our Lord 1523.’ original: "Hunc librum do et lego domino Arnulpho ap Rice suppriori sancti Johannis Exoniae ad orandum pro anima mea vide- licet Ricardi Smyzth A. D. 1523."

This is a miscellaneous collection of twelve medical treatises. The only one relevant to this work is number 11:

‘Here begins the book on the preservation of youth’ original: "Incipit liber de conseruacione Juuentutis" (‘Albert of Cologne’ original: "alberti colon’" written in another hand). Albert of Cologne refers to Albertus Magnus, a 13th-century philosopher and scientist often associated with Bacon in medieval manuscripts.