Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850 | Page 2

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.]
* * * * *
CRAIK'S ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE.
If I knew where to address Mr. G.L. Craik, I should send him the
following "Note:" if you think it deserves a place in your columns, it
may probably meet his eye.

In the article on the Lady Arabella Stuart (_Romance of