Volume 1

Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi ... / edidit Robert Steele.

  • Roger Bacon
Date:
[1909]-1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi ... / edidit Robert Steele. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/560
    PREFACE The treatises of Roger Bacon on the subject of Metaphysics of which we have any knowledge are the following:— 1. Questiones super primum [etc.] Methaphisice, a magistro R. Baco. (MS. Amiens 406, f. 74 sqq. described by Cousm, Journal des Savants, 1848, PP- 459-72.) 2. /Methaphisica fratris Rogeri ordinis Fratrum Minorum, de viciis contractis in studio theologie. (MS. Digby 190, fol. 86 b, fragment; Bibi. Nat. 7440, ff. 38-40, 25-32, unfinished. Here printed.) r The names of others occur in old library lists. Three are found in the library of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, whose catalogue has been published by Dr. James. They were in the possession of John of London. 3. ‘Tractatus naturalis philosophie communis Rogeri Bacun et in eodem libro. Tractatus de nutrimento et nutribili secundum eundem Rogerum bacun. Tractatus de intellectu et intelligibili. Tractatus de sompno et vigilia, et Methaphisice eiusdem Rogeri. (2 fo. et quod habet.) ’ S43. 4. ‘ Methaphisice R. Bacon in commento Averois super liber Ethicorum.’ 843- 5. ‘ Comentum Averois super librum Ethicorum: et in eodem libro concordancie Ethicorum: poetria Aristotelis cum comento Averoys: Averoys de substantia orbis: Avicenna de animalibus: Methaphisica Rogeri Bacon : et Yconomica Aristotelis. (2 fo. quemadmodum.) ’ 1071. Of the contents of these treatises (except the first) it is not easy to speak with any approach to certitude. No. 1 seems from Cousin’s account to be a scholastic treatise on questions arising from the Metaphysics of Aristotle, with the exception of the third and fourth books. No. 2, of which the surviving fragment is now printed for the first time, is incomplete and gives no indication of its original length and scope. But some ground of conjecture as to thes.e exists. A number of references to Methaphisica mea occur in undoubted works of Bacon. A comparison of these will be our best guide to the contents of the lo6t book. The Magnum Opus (if I may provisionally name it so) on which Bacon had been engaged for years when the papal command reached him was planned to extend over four volumes (see extract 23): (1) Grammatica Logica, (2) Communia Mathematica, (3) Communia Naturalium, (4) Methaphisica et Moralia. Considerable portions of each of these were already writtem and some of them were utilized in the Opus Majus or in the Opus Tertium, written to accompany it. Others were written later, as for example parts of the Communia Naturalium. Ali however refer to the Metaphysics as already completed and well known. The works which principally influenced Bacon in the composition of