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PREFACE. xi

are as carly as the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth it was several times copied. The Cottonian MS. Tiberius C.V, has been mentioned in the Preface (p. xv). It covers 71 folios (49-119) of the same volume that con. tains one of the principal MSS. of Opus Tertium. There are no rubrics and no divisions of chapters. The Correctio Calendari, although it will be found in the Opus Tertium (ff. 40b-43h) is not given here, nor the concluding astrological treatise. The MS. ends as in V. with the final words of the Geographia, principalem Scripturam. It is apparently of the middle of the fifteenth century.

Another copy of the fourth part is in the possession of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; and yet another in the Lambeth Library. These are approximately of the same date as the Cottonian. Of the fifth part of the Opus Majus (Perspectiva) the most important MS. is Royal 7 F viii. (ff. 47 et seq.) already spoken of on pp. xiii and xv of the Preface. The rubric, displaced from its proper position, is, Tractatus perspectivae habens tres partes; prima est de communibus ad caeteras duas; secunda pars descendit in speciali ad visionem rectam principaliter; tertia ad visionem reflexam et fractain. Prima pars habet duodecim distinctiones. Prima est de proprietatibus istius scientiae et de partibus animae et cerebri et instrumenti videndi, habens capitula. Primum est de proprietatibus scientiae hujus.

The treatise begins, Hic aliqua dicenda sunt de perspectiva. Auctores quidem multi tractant de hac scientia; sed quidam nimis parun, et seq. as in the extract from Combach's edition, quoted in the note to vol, ii. PP. 1-2. This MS., like the greater part of that which precedes it in the same volume (ff. 13-46b), is of the 13th century. The rubric of the second part of Perspectiva is, Hic incipit pars secunda hujus tractatus, et seq. as in the text of this edition. The rubric of the third part is simply, Tertia pars perspectivac principalis.

It will be noted that 12 distinctions are spoken of in the first part. O., however, speaks of nine only. The two MSS., however, agree in giving ten distinctions, and they entirely coincide in their contents. Next in antiquity is the MS. of Perspectiva contained in Add. MS. 8786 (a small volume entitled Baconis Opuscula Physica), f. 84 (et seq.). This MS. is in very small writing, in double columns, of the early part of the fourteenth century. It is headed, Incipit tractatus de modo videndi, and begins, Quoniam praecipua delectatio nostra est in visu, et lux et color habent speciale pulcritudinem (et seq.). Chapters are marked by red letters, but without titles. Of Distinctiones, in the first part, nothing is said. The diagrams are scanty and imperfect.