Opus Majus
The Opus Majus (
Opus Tertium
, as a preliminary introduction to the other two.
Contents
The Opus Majus is divided into seven parts:
- Part one considers the obstacles to real wisdom and truth, classifying the causes of error (offendicula) into four categories: following a weak or unreliable authority, custom, the ignorance of others, and concealing one's own ignorance by pretended knowledge.
- Part two considers the relationship between Holy Scripture) is the foundation of all sciences.
- Part three contains a study of Biblical Hebrew, and Arabic, as a knowledge of language and grammar is necessary to understand revealed wisdom.
- Part four contains a study of Julian Calendar, proposing to drop a day every 125 years from 325 CE (Council of Nicaea). He also noted the shifting of the Equinoxes to the Solstices.[2]
- Part five contains a study of lenses.
- Part six, De scientia experimentalis, a study of
- Part seven considers moral philosophy and ethics.
An incomplete version of Bacon's Opus Majus was published by William Bowyer in London in 1733. It was edited by Samuel Jebb from a manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge which omitted the seventh part.
As a recent paper emphasizes, this major work cannot be usefully read exclusively in the context of the history of science and philosophy while forgetting to consider Bacon's religious commitment to the
optic
studies, from Opus Majus
Notes
- ^ Opus Majus in year 1267 was accompanied by a letter of dedication to the Pope.
- ^ David Ewing Duncan, The Calendar, 2011, pp. 3–5.
- ISBN 9780511572999.
- .
References
- A History of Western Philosophy Vol. II by Ralph McInerny from the Jacques Maritain Center, University of Notre Dame
- Roger Bacon from the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Fr. Rogeri Bacon Opera quaedam hactenus Inedita, Vol. 1 at Google Books. Contains the Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, and Compendium Philosophiae.
External links
- Opus Majus, Volume I in the Internet Archive – original text in Latin (omitting Part IV), ed. by John Henry Bridges, 1897.
- Opus Majus, Volume I in the Internet Archive – original text in Latin (including Part IV), ed. by John Henry Bridges, 1900.
- Opus Majus, Volume II in the Internet Archive – original text in Latin, ed. by John Henry Bridges, 1897.
- Opus Majus, Volume I at Google Books – English trans. by Robert Belle Burke, 1928.
- Opus Majus, Volume II in the Internet Archive – English trans. by Robert Belle Burke, 1962.