Victor Cousin, who has been for many years engaged in researches on the
scholastic philosophy, with the view of collecting and publishing such
of its monuments as have escaped the diligence of scholars, or the
ravages of time, has lately made the discovery in the library at Douay
of a copy of an inedited MS. of Roger Bacon, entitled _Opus Tertium_, of
which but two or three other copies are known to exist; and has taken
occasion, in some elaborate critiques, to enter, at considerable length,
into the history and character of Roger {394} Bacon and his writings.[1]
The following is a summary of part of M. Cousin's observations.
The _Opus Tertium_ contains the author's last revision, in the form of
an abridgment and improvement, of the _Opus Majus_; and was drawn up at
the command of Pope Clement IV., and so called from being the _third_ of
three copies forwarded to his holiness; the third copy being not a
_fac-simile_ of the others, but containing many most important
additions, particularly with regard to the reformation of the calendar.
It also throws much light on Bacon's own literary history and studies,
and the difficulties and persecutions he had to surmount from the
jealousies and suspicions of his less-enlightened contemporaries and
rivals. The _Opus Tertium_, according to the sketch given of its
contents by Bacon himself, is not complete either in the Douay MS. or in
that in the British Museum, several subjects being left out; and, among
others, that of Moral Philosophy. This deficiency may arise, either from
Bacon not having completed his original design, or from no complete MS.
of this portion of his writings having yet been discovered. M. Cousin
says, that the _Opus Tertium_, as well as the _Opus Minus_, is still
inedited; and is only known by what Jebb has said of it in his preface
to the _Opus Majus_. Jebb quotes it from a copy in the Cottonian
Library, now in the British Museum; and it was not known that there was
a copy in France, till M. Cousin was led to the discovery of one, by
observing in the Catalogue of the public library of Douay, a small MS.
in 4to. with the following title, _Rog. Baconis Grammatica Græca_.
Accustomed to suspect the accuracy of such titles to MSS., M. Cousin
caused a strict examination of the MS. to be made, when the discovery
was communicated to him that only the first part of the MS. consisted of
a Greek grammar, and that the remaining portion, which the compiler of
the Catalogue had not taken the trouble to examine, consisted of many
fragments of other works of Bacon, and a copy of the _Opus Tertium_.
This copy of the _Opus Tertium_ is imperfect, but fortunately the
deficiencies are made up by the British Museum copy, which M. Cousin
examined, and which also contains a valuable addition to Chapter I., and
a number of good readings.
The _Opus Majus_, as published by Jebb, contains but six parts; but the
work in its complete state had originally a seventh part, containing
Moral Philosophy, which was reproduced, in an abridged and improved
state, by the renowned author, in the _Opus Tertium_. This is now
ascertained, says M. Cousin, with unquestionable certainty, and for the
first time, from the examination of the Douay MS.; which alludes, in the
most precise terms, to the treatise on that subject. Hence the
importance of endeavouring to discover what has become of the MS.
Treatise of Moral Philosophy mentioned by Jebb, on the authority of Bale
and Pits, as it is very likely to have been the seventh part of the
_Opus Majus_. Jebb published the _Opus Majus_ from a Dublin MS.,
collated with other MSS.; but he gives no description of that MS., only
saying that it contained many other works attributed to Bacon, and in
such an order that they seemed to form but one and the same work. It
becomes necessary, therefore, to ascertain what were the different works
of Bacon included in the Dublin MS.; which is, in all probability, the
same mentioned as being in Trinity College, in the _Catalogi Codicum
Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum Collecti_: Folio. Oxon, 1697.
According to this Catalogue, a Treatise on Moral Philosophy forms part
of Roger Bacon's MSS. there enumerated; and if so, why did Jebb suppress
it in his edition of the _Opus Majus_? Perhaps some of your
correspondents in Dublin may think it worth the trouble to endeavour to
clear up this difficulty, on which M. Cousin lays great stress; and
recommends, at the same time, a new and complete edition of the _Opus
Majus_ to the patriotism of some Oxford or Cambridge Savant. He might
well have included Dublin in his appeal for help in this undertaking;
which, he says, would throw a better light on that vast, and not very
intelligible monument of one of the most independent and greatest minds
of the Middle Ages.
J.M.
Oxford, April 9th.
[Footnote 1: See _Journal des Savants_, Mars, Avril, Mai, Juin,
1848.]
* * * * *