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X PREFACE.

there is no indication, like that given in J., of the opening to Part IV. which is adopted in the ed. of 1733 and in my own. The principal value of V. is that it restores to us passages which in J. are destroyed or made illegible by fire, and that the Hebrew sentences are more accurately transcribed. In the scientific portions of Part IV. there are many errors and omissions which render it of less value than J, or O. or than P., which is next to be spoken of. In the thirty-two pages, for instance (197-228), there are eight omissions, amounting to 107 words, all of which interfere fatally with the sense. It has many mistakes, moreover, in the computations of astronomical magni- tudes.

A copy of this Vatican MS. will be found in the Paris Library (Nouvelles Acquisitions Latines 1715). It is complete, except that the Hebrew passages are omitted, though a place is left for them. It is probably of the beginning of the sixteenth century.

Royal 7 F vii (here spoken of as P.) contains a complete copy of the fourth part of the Opus Majus. It appears to be of the first half of the fourteenth century, and is very boldly and clearly written, in 6 folios of four columns. On the margin at the foot of f. 1ob and f. 11 is a long quotation from Albertus Magnus in a very different handwriting, but also clearly of the fourteenth century, on the subject of the tides, which will be found among the additional notes (p. 139).

On f. 62b, after the words principalem scripturam (p. 376), there follows, in a later handwriting, Hic sequi debet tractatus qui incipit, Post locorum descriptionem (cf. vol. i. pp. 376-403). And on f. 68 this treatise will be found in another hand of the same period; another fragment, De visu ct speculis, occupying the intervening space. (It has been held by some critics that it should be regarded as part of the introductory work called by Bacon Opus Minus, or Secundum, of which we possess other fragments, It is addressed to the Pope, and contains references to the various parts of the Opus Majus. On the whole it appeared best to leave it in the position assigned to it in O.) The text of this astrological section in P. is extremely imperfect, very inferior to the corresponding text in O. In P. l'art IV. is clearly defined as a separate section of the work. The rubric is, l'ars quarta in qua ostenditur potestas mathematicae in scientiis et rebus et occupationibus hujus mundi, habens distinctiones. Prima habet tria capítula. In primo dater intentio istius partis. Like V., it contains the section (pp. 269-285) on the correction of the Calendar. In the scientific portions of the work, and especially in arithmetical calculations, it is much more accurate than V.

The above are the only MSS. known to me containing the fourth part that