Previously Unpublished Works of Roger Bacon, Fascicle 11: Questions on Aristotle's Metaphysics and On Plants

only knew the Old Metaphysics original: "Vetus Metaphysica" and the Arabic-Latin version of the first twelve books—omitting Book XI (designated as K in the Greek tradition).¹ In this series Bacon knows of Books XIII and XIV, but is still ignorant of Book XI (p. 121), which seems to have been first translated by William of Moerbeke A Flemish Dominican monk who was the most prolific translator of Greek philosophical and scientific texts in the 13th century. after 1268, no quotations from it being met with till much later. As some Greek-to-Latin versions of Books XIII and XIV are credibly placed before 1230, their diffusion to Paris must have taken fifteen or twenty years; the official ban on the Metaphysics The Church occasionally banned the teaching of Aristotle’s "natural philosophy" at the University of Paris in the early 1200s due to fears of heresy. might work either by encouraging curiosity or discouraging study. The Physics were known from the beginning of the century in their Greek-to-Latin version; the Arabic-to-Latin version was made at the same time as that of the commentary of Averroes An influential Andalusian philosopher whose commentaries on Aristotle were essential to medieval scholarship..

The Old Metaphysics.

original: "The Metaphysica Vetus."

This is the oldest Latin version known, indeed Dr. Birkenmayer has proposed the name ‘oldest version’ original: "versio vetustissima". The manuscripts of this version date from the turn of the twelfth century, one a little before its end, the other at the latest not many years after. Other copies may still exist, as the Metaphysics is mentioned in the twelfth century catalogue of the monastery of St. Peter at Salzburg. The text as we have it is obviously a fragment, breaking off in the middle of an argument, as if the remainder of the original manuscript had been lost or destroyed. Whether any complete copies of this translation existed in the thirteenth century is a matter of conjecture; perhaps the so-called Boethian version was its source, for Boethius A 6th-century philosopher whose goal was to translate all of Aristotle into Latin; he only completed the logical works before his execution. is put down as the translator of the Old Metaphysics in several manuscripts. However, there was nothing exceptional in the reception of a fragment of a work

(Statutes of Narbonne, 1260.) "Furthermore, we forbid that any new writing henceforth be published outside the order unless it has first been carefully examined by the Minister General or the Provincial Minister and the definitors in the provincial chapter; and whoever acts contrary to this shall fast for three days on bread and water only and be deprived of that writing." original: "Item inhibemus, ne de cetero aliquod scriptum novum extra ordinem publicetur, nisi prius examinatum fuerit diligenter per generalem ministrum vel provincialem et diffinitores in capitulo provinciali ; et quicunque contrafecerit, tribus diebus tantum in pane et aqua ieiunet et careat illo scripto." Archive for the Literary and Church History of the Middle Ages original: "Archiv f. Litt. u. Kirchengesch. des Mittelalters", vol. vi, p. 110, ‘The oldest editions of the General Constitutions of the Franciscan Order’ (edited by Ehrle).

¹ Averroes knew of its existence, but had never seen it.