The Common Principles of Natural Philosophy

[and] his commentator, they were not able to know natural philo-
sophy; they turn themselves to the seven other natural sciences, and
to the mathematical sciences, and to other authors of natural philosophy,
such as the books of Pliny Pliny the Elder, author of the encyclopedic Natural History, and Seneca Lucius Annaeus Seneca, specifically his "Natural Questions", and many others, and thus they
5 arrived at a knowledge of natural things, concerning which Aristotle in the
common books original: "libris vulgatis," referring to the widely circulated Latin translations of the Aristotelian corpus and his expositor likely Averroes, the influential 12th-century Islamic philosopher known as "The Commentator" cannot satisfy natural study.
Since, therefore, to know natural things it is necessary for us to know the
eight aforementioned sciences, or at least their core substance | 4 a 2.

I have decided in this work to collect from all the natural sciences
10 whatever will be necessary for the knowledge of natural things:
and likewise from other authors of natural philosophy: and likewise—
through mathematics, which verifies all things in its own way—I
intend to proceed to the senses original: "ad sensum," meaning making concepts demonstrable or perceptible through visual representation in figures, physical surfaces, lines, and
angles, so that it may become clear that through these
15 magnificent ways natural things can be magnificently known, and not through
common ways, which have been in use until now. For I do not intend
at this time to write even treatises on individual natural sciences,
according to their own specific form, but to extract from them what
is necessary for any natural thing about which I wish to speak, so that what
20 is said about the heavens in the threefold Astronomy Bacon divided astronomy into three parts: the movement of celestial bodies, the calculation of tables, and the use of instruments, and the book On the
Heavens and the Earth Aristotle's "De Caelo et Mundo" also by Aristotle and among all authors, I wish to bring together
into one, so that from whomever or in whatever books it may be found,
it may be reduced to conclusions to be known in order concerning the
heavens, and likewise concerning the elements, and similarly concerning mixed bodies, and thus
25 concerning all things, even to the last things generated by nature. When
these things are done, if there is a need to provide the individual natural sciences in their
proper form, either I shall proceed to this, or others through my labors
may be inspired. However, I desire to compose a concise treatise on
Perspective term: Perspective; in the Middle Ages, this referred specifically to the science of Optics and the study of light and vision, because this is more beautiful than the others, and without
30 this nothing can be magnificently treated. Since, however, born...

29 I desire however . . . The Common Principles of Nature would therefore be com-
posed before the Greater Work, F being a later edition of an earlier form of it.

1 they were able] to be able D       2 they turn] they are turned F       2-3 and to
omitted F       3 to others] others D       5 knowledge] science D       7 therefore]
ergo D       it is necessary] it might be necessary F       8 of them (masc.)] of them (fem.) FD       10 will be] is FD
11 likewise] above D       authors] authorities F       12 which through] through D
12-13 to the senses omitted D       14 that omitted D       16 common omitted D       for]
however F: since D       17 at this time omitted D       even omitted FD       individual] angles D
18 them] these F       20 book] in the book D       21 also omitted F       22 or in] or from D
23 to omitted D       26 is omitted F       27 or] so that MD       28-30 I desire . . . treated omitted F