The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon

Published in 1897, this was the first complete edition of Roger Bacon's influential thirteenth-century encyclopedia of science.

John Henry Bridges (Edited by), Roger Bacon (Author)

9781108014434, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 July 2010

784 pages, 89 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 4 cm, 0.89 kg

Roger Bacon, the medieval natural philosopher who broke new ground in promoting scientific method, produced the encyclopedic Opus Majus or 'Greater Work' in the mid-thirteenth century. This 1897 publication in two volumes was the first complete edition of the work to appear in print. Written at the request of Pope Clement IV, the Opus Majus is the most significant and most influential of Bacon's works, containing his observations of the natural world and theories on knowledge acquisition. Bacon's text appears in the original Latin, and Bridges includes a substantial introduction and brief analysis of each chapter in English, as well as extensive footnotes and an analytical table to aid the reader. Volume 2 contains the last three parts of Bacon's treatise, on Optics, Experimental Science, and Moral Philosophy. This volume also incorporates a later supplement containing additional material and corrections.

Part V. Optics
Part VI. Experimental Science
Part VII. Moral Philosophy: Analysis of the Multiplication of Species
Index
Addenda and corrigenda.

Subject Areas: Cosmology & the universe [PGK]