The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon

After the conclusion of this passage, MS. J then proceeds with what is given in volume one on the authority of other manuscripts (P. and O.) as the opening of Part IV. (volume one, page 97), Manifesto it is manifest that many and distinguished roots of wisdom depend upon the power of languages (and following), as far as the words ac per contrarium hujus scientiae notitia and by the contrary of this, the knowledge of science (last line of page 97), and then stops. On this there follow the first words of Distinctio Secunda Second Distinction, page 109, Quod de scientiis jam ostensum est What has already been shown concerning the sciences (and following).

The Hebrew passage, following on the Hebrew alphabet (volume one, page 75), is so incorrectly written, whether as regards the Hebrew words, their transliteration, or the Latin translation of them, that it was omitted from my text. V., the manuscript next to be spoken of, offers a complete contrast in this respect, as the annexed photographic reproduction will show.

J. has other faults of a kind which make it difficult to believe that this manuscript can have been prepared under Bacon’s superintendence. Thus the word gnomone gnomon/pointer (page 103, line 18) is written by him cognomone by/with name; page 161, line 22, atagonis for heptagonis heptagons; page 222, line 13, Yndorum for Numerorum of numbers, and other blunders of the same kind. In the displaced passage above mentioned on the conversion and repression of the heathen, the text, as will be seen from the footnotes, is extremely corrupt. There are some remarkable omissions. That of the table, page 208, with the commentary on it, is common to J. with V. But there is another of eight lines on page 138, and a still more important one of five pages (pages 231-6). On folio 84 and on folio 148 there is a drawing of a man’s head in the margin of the page. As Bacon speaks of his practice of using this sign to call attention to certain passages (see Opus Tertium Third Work, ed. Brewer, page 68), these instances have been thought to prove Bacon’s supervision of this manuscript. The evidence is quite inadequate to such a conclusion.

Vatican 4086, here spoken of as V., is a beautifully written manuscript (parchment) in 74 folios, of the first quarter of the 14th century. A photographic copy of it, and also of the unpublished fragment previously mentioned, has been given to the Museum by Dr. Gasquet (Add. 35,253). It includes the first 376 pages of volume one, ending with the words principalem scripturam the principal writing, which close the geographical section. V. is without rubrics, but leaves spaces for them which on the whole correspond to the divisions in J. It follows J. in omitting the last chapter of Part I., and the table on page 208, and like J. it passes from Part III. to Part IV. without clearly marking the division. The mathematical section begins simply as a new paragraph with the words Secundum impedimentum est majus isto The second impediment is greater than this, and continues as in J. to the words praesentis speculationis of the present speculation at the foot of page 108, proceeding then with Quod de Scientiis ostensum est What has been shown concerning the sciences, as on page 109. The passage as to conversion and subjugation of the heathen is not contained in V., and