Page:Opus majus (IA b24975655 0003).pdf/11
PREFACE. vii
latter. O. is a small folio volume of 269 vcllum leaves [ff. 2-269, paged incorrectly from 1 to 539]. For its history, see Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library 1890, pp. 7, 8, 316, and Catalogus Codicum MSS. Kenelmi Digby 1883, col, 244. The volume contains:~ 1. One leaf from a fourteenth century copy of the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de Beauvais. 2. Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, parts 1.-V. There is no general heading. Part I. is headed, Pars prima hujus persuasionis in qua excluduntur quatuor universales causae tocius ignorancie humane habens quatuor distinciones ; and begins, Sapiencic perfecta consideracio consistit in duobus. Part of an unfinished fourteenth century MS. (ff. 125-148) has been skilfully embodied, the later scribe ending a short quire on f. 124 b. at the procisc point where the older fragment begins, and continuing the text on f. 148 b., which his predecessor had left blank. Part V. ends "veritatem non posset sustinere." Colophon "Finitur quinta pars majoris operis fratris Rogeri Bacon."
3. "Tractatus Magistri Kogeri Bacon de Multiplicacione Specierum," begins "Primum igitur capitulum circa influenciam agentis," f. 153, ends "licet bene retinet post quam recipit." Colophon: "Explicit tractatus M. Rogeri Bacon de multiplicacione specierum."
4. Opus Majus, Parts VI. and VII, Part VI, is headed, "Pars sexta hujus persuasionis et est sexta pars maioris operis de scientia experi- mentali ;" and begins, "Positis radicibus sapiencie Latinorum penes linguas, etc.,” f. 194. It ends, "secreta nature et artis indagarent,” f. 209 b. near the top of col. 2. The rest of the column is left blank, and Part VII. begins a new quire (but the text is in the same hand as in the pre- ceding part). Heading, Incipit pars septima huius persuasionis de morali philosophia habcns distinctiones ct capitula. Begins, Manifestavi in praecedentibus quod cognitio linguarum, etc., f. 210. The leaves numbered PP. 471-498 (ff. 235-248) are misbound and ought to come in the following order: 487-498, 483 486, 471 482. Ends, "et quid potest homo plus petere in hac vita?" Here the MS. ends. Cf. vol. ii. p. 403. The insertion of the Multiplicatio Specierum between Parts V. and VI. may possibly not have been the original arrangement of the volume, since that treatise and Part VI. both begin new quires. We know from the Opus Tertium that the Multiplicatio Specierum was intended to be read in connection with Part V. (Brewer's ed., pp. 38, 117); but we also know that it was regarded by Bacon as distinct from the Opus Majus, (Op. Tert., p. 272.)
O., as already stated, is of the fifteenth century, probably of its second quarter. For carlier authority we have to consult MSS. which contain