40 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»<» S. IX. Jan. 21. 'GO. 



clear whether he was of Merton College or Brazen-nose 

 Hall; and perhaps," says he, "he studied at neither, but 

 spent his Time at the public Schools." See his Notes, d 

 and e.) — Radcliffe. 



The same treatises as the " Speculum Alchemiie," etc., 

 in Part n. The Latin only is in the Bodleian. In the 

 British Museum is the same edition, 1597. 



" Perspectiva in qua ab aliis fuse traduntur succincte 

 nervose et ita pertractantur ut omnium intellectui facile 

 pateant. Nunc primum in luceni edita opera et studio 

 Johannes Combachiii. (Cum tractatu de Speculis.) 4to. 

 Francofurti, 1614." 



"In eodem volumine, Specula Mathematica. In qua 

 ostenditur potestas Mathematics in scientiis et rebus et 

 occupationibus huius mundi." 



" Item, Joannis Archiepiscopi Cantvariensis [Joannis 

 Peccam], Perspectiva; Commvnis Libri Tres. Colonias. 

 1627." 



On his knowledge of all sorts of glasses, see Dr. Plot's 

 Hist, of Oxfordshire, p. 215. seqq., and Dr. Freind. His 

 Perspectiva is in the 5th book of the following : — 



" Opus majus ad Clementem IV. Ex MS. codice Dub- 

 liniensi cum aliis quibusdam collato nunc primum edidit 

 S. Jebb." Fol. Lond., 1733. 



" It contains a multitude of things that one would 

 scarcely expect to find in a performance under this title. 

 For it was the custom of our author never to confine his 

 thoughts too strictly unto any particular subject; but on 

 the contrary believing, as he did, that all sciences had a 

 relation amongst themselves, and were of use to each other, 

 and all of them to Theology ; it was very natural for him 

 to illustrate this in a work calculated to shew how the 

 study of Divinity might be best promoted." — Bio;/. Brit. 

 His life is copiously described in the BiographiaBritannica, 

 and in the Biographie Universale, which, observes Dean 

 Milman, in his Latin Christianity (vol. vi.), "has avoided 

 or corrected many errors in the old biographies." An 

 analysis of the " Opus Majus," which is a collection of 

 the several pieces he had written before the year 1266, 

 and which, to gratify the Pope Clement IV., he greatly 

 enlarged and ranged in some order, is given in the 

 first work referred to above. Picus Mirandula, Del Rio 

 Wierus, and others, maintain that in Roger Bacon's 

 works there is a great deal of superstition. See Bayle's 

 Diet. But " throughout Bacon's astrological section 

 (read from p. 237.) the heavenly bodies act entirely 

 through their physical properties — cold, heat, moisture, 

 drought. The comet causes war, not as a mere arbitrary 

 sign, nor as by magic influence (all this he rejects as 

 anile superstition), but as by intense heat inflaming the 

 blood and passions of men. It is an exaggeration un- 

 philosophical enough of the influences of the planetary 

 bodies, and the powers of human observation to trace 

 their effects, but very different from what is ordinarily 

 conceived of judicial astrology." — Milman. Maier, in his 

 Symbola Aurece Mensa, proves him to have been no con- 

 jurer, and to have had no connexion with Friar Bungay 

 and the brazen head.* The seven years' labour feigned 

 to have been spent on this head must have been given to the 

 search of the stone, which is farther proved by the exist- 

 ence of some alchemical tracts and letters passing und r 

 Bacon's name, one of which contains a valuable chemical 

 axiom, applicable, according to Maier, to many other 

 works besides Bacon's : " Cum dico veritatem mendacium 

 puta ; cum mendacium veritatem."— Maier's " Symbola," 

 etc., reviewed in Thomson's Annals of Philosophy (vol. 

 vi.) by the Rev. J. J. Conybeare. "In Geography he 

 was admirably well skilled, as appears from a variety of 

 passages in his works, which show that he was far better 



* See "The famous Historie of Fryer Bacon," in 

 Thoms's Early English Fictions. 



acquainted with the situation, extent, and inhabitants, 

 even of the most distant countries, than many who made 

 that particular science their study, and wrote upon it 

 in succeeding times. This I suppose was the reason 

 which induced the judicious Hackluyt to transcribe a 

 large discourse out of his writings into his noble collec- 

 tion of Voyages and Travels." . . . . " What he has pub- 

 lished is taken out of that part of our author's ' Opus 

 Majus,' in which he treats expressly of Geography, and 

 gives so clear and plain, so full and yet so succinct an ac- 

 count of the then known world, as, I believe, is scarcely 

 to be found in an}' other writer either of the past or pre- 

 sent age." — Biog. Brit. The writer here gives incorrect 

 reference. The " Excerpta qusedam de Aquilonaribus 

 mundi partibus ex quarta parte Majoris Operis fratris R. 

 Baconi," are not in Hackluyt's collection, but that of 

 Purchas, iii. 52—60. 



" Baconus, Bacconus, seu Bacho (Rogerius) De Alche- 

 mia Libellus, cui titulum fecit, Speculum Alchemia? v. 

 Mangeti Bibl. Chemica, i. 613-16. Epistola? de Secretis 

 Operibus Artis et Naturae, et DeNullitate Magiae. Opera 

 Johannis Dee," etc., 617-26. Printed, according to the 

 Biog. Brit., " Paris, 1542, 4to. ; Basil, 1593, 8vo. ; Ham- 

 burgh, 1608, 1618, 8vo. It is also involved in the fifth 

 volume of the Theatrum Chemicum." Dee's notes are in 

 the Hamburgh edition, and in the two collections. The 

 Fire Ordeal is here noticed as having been used by Ed- 

 ward the Confessor to test the chastity of his mother. — 

 Manget., p. 624. The Aqua Purgationis of the Mosaic 

 Law is also referred to, p. 618. (See Acoluthus.) "There 

 were ordeals by hot water, by hot iron, by walking over 

 live coals, or burning ploughshares.' This seems to have 

 been the more august ceremony for queens and empresses, 

 undergone by one of Charlemagne's wives, our own queen 

 Emma, the empress Cunegunda." — Milman's Latin Chris- 

 tianity, i. 397. By Theutberga also, wife of Lothaire II., 

 King of Lorraine, see Milman, ibid. ii. 364. The ordeal 

 was held by Hincmar (De Divortio Hlotharii et Theut- 

 bergaa) to be a kind of baptism. All the ritualists — 

 Martene, Mabillon, Ducange, and Muratori — furnish ample 

 citations. In the tenth and eleventh chapters he men- 

 tions the ingredients of gunpowder, and shows his know- 

 ledge of its effects. On Alchemy, or the art of transmuting 

 metals, of which our author has left man)' treatises, see 

 Boerhaave's Chemistry, vol. i. p. 200., and Maier's Symbola 

 Aurece Mensa:. His notions on the medicinal virtues of 

 gold, the aurum potabile or golden elixir, are found in 

 ch. vii., in " Opus Majus," p. 469., and his book " De 

 retardatione accidentium senii" (see MSS. infra.'). In the 

 "Opus Majus" (pp. 466-72.) is mentioned the great 

 secret, the grand elixir of the chemists, far beyond the 

 tincture of gold in its effects. An enumeration of his dis- 

 coveries and inventions will be found in Dr. Freind's 

 History of Physic (ii. 233. et seqq.) ; Morhofii Polyhistor 

 (vide Index) ; Bruckcr (iii. 817-22.) ; Milman's History 

 of Latin Christianity (vi. 302.). For additional refer- 

 ences consult Histoire LitUraire de la France. His various 

 works, manuscript and printed, are enumerated in Jebb's 

 Prafat., xiii. ; Baleus, 342. ; Pitseus, 366. ; Leland's Com- 

 ment, de S. B., 258. ; Cave, i. 741. ; Oudin, iii. 190. The 

 most copious list is in Tanner's Bibliothcca Britannico- 

 Hibernica. A list of printed editions will be found in 

 Watt. See also MSS. in this Catalogue, and Part I. 



" A Catalogue of European Manuscripts in the Chetham 

 Library. 



" Bacon (Roger) Medical Treatises ; vellum, 4to., 

 Ssec. xiii." — "A collection of treatises b} T this author, 

 apparently written in the 13th century, in the hand which 

 is very commonly used for books of this description, and 

 which differs materially from books of Law or Theology. 

 It contains: — 1. p. 1 — 32 b. His treatise de retardatione 

 accidentium senectutis. This work has been printed at 



