The Philosophical Works of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln

In the Index Britanniae scriptorum Index of British Writers, edited by Poole (1902) (completed approximately 1549–57), Bale lists the manuscript holdings, sources, and locations from which he draws¹.

Outside of England, two Italian scholars attempted to create lists of Grosseteste's works: Sixtus Senensis in his Bibliotheca sancta Holy Library IV (Venice 1566) 373 with 10 items, and after him Possevinus in his Apparatus sacer ad scriptores Vet. et novi Testamenti Sacred Apparatus for the Writers of the Old and New Testaments III (Venice 1606), 343, who have Grosseteste living in the year 1140 (sic!).

The catalogs by Th. James, Catal. der Bodleiana s. v. Rob. Lincolniensis Catalog of the Bodleian under the entry for Robert of Lincoln and Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensia Oxford-Cambridge Selection, London 1600, were based on the manuscript holdings of the libraries in Oxford and Cambridge, but they contain only a small portion of Grosseteste's writings. Not much more significant is the enumeration of Grosseteste's works by the editor of De cessatione legalium On the Cessation of the Legalities [according to an entry in the copy in the Bodleian in Oxford: Bruno Ryves, later Dean of Windsor], London 1658, page 8, who, incidentally, made an effort to compile the bibliographic notes and was familiar with Trivet, Bale, Leland, Pits, and Gesner.

More significant are the compilations presented by C. Oudin in Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiae Commentary on the Writers of the Church² Vol. III, 137 ff., and in the Supplementum de scriptoribus vel scriptis ecclesiasticis ... Supplement on Ecclesiastical Writers or Writings, Paris 1686, p. 522 ff., insofar as he provides corresponding manuscript references for each work³.

In the 17th century, Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, conducted extensive studies on his predecessor Robertus.

John Williams († 1649), Archbishop of York, had the intention of editing all of Grosseteste’s writings in three folio volumes. It is impossible to say how far his work, which was thwarted by the complications of war, progressed. In any case, as a result of the preliminary work done by Barlow and Williams, one must assume that a catalog of writings and a record of manuscripts would have been the first fruit of that labor.

¹ This "Index" appeared in Anecdota Oxoniensia IV, 9, Oxford 1902.
² I only had access to the "Leipzig 1722" edition.
³ Furthermore, Oudin refers to Bulaeus, Historia universitatis Parisiensis History of the University of Paris, Vol. III, who derived his knowledge solely from Matthew Paris.