[2254] In the Apologetica Defensio and again in the Vigintiloquium.
[2255] De Recuperatione Terre Sancte (ed. C. V. Langlois, Paris, 1891), 65.
[2256] Bridges, I, 394. “Statim enim vocantur magici, cum tamen sint sapientissimi qui haec sciunt.”
APPENDIX I
THE STUDY OF ROGER BACON
Lack of early printed editions of his works.
In addition to criticizing and refuting the over-estimate of Roger Bacon which has been prevalent in modern times, it may be well to indicate when and how this exaggerated estimate of his importance and uniqueness originated, and also to trace the gradual growth of a more critical attitude towards him in still more recent years. The investigations of Mr. A. G. Little and several other contributors to the Roger Bacon Essays of 1914 have demonstrated that his writings were not almost forgotten for centuries, but that they exerted a continuous influence. However, owing perhaps to the unfinished state and rather fragmentary, confused, and scattered form in which they have survived in the manuscripts, they did not appear, as did many of the works of medieval science which we have considered, immediately after the invention of printing in early editions. No incunabula of them are known and only a few brief treatises were printed in the course of the sixteenth century,[2257] namely, some alchemistic tracts of doubtful authorship, a treatise on how to postpone the ills of old age, and the “Epistle concerning the secret works of nature and the nullity of magic,” which became quite a favorite and was reprinted several times in Latin and appeared twice both in English and in French translations in the course of the seventeenth century.[2258]
His popular reputation as a magician.
Meanwhile, despite what was said of “the nullity of magic” in this treatise on the secret works of nature,[2259] Friar Bacon had become in popular tradition a nigromancer, conjurer, and magician. As such he was presented about 1592 in Robert Greene’s play, the “Honourable History of Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay,” with magic wand, perspective glass, and speaking brazen head, and in the prose “Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon” which appeared about the same time.[2260] In 1625 Naudé included Roger Bacon among the great men of the past whose memory he endeavored to clear of the false charge of magic.[2261]
Jebb’s edition of the Opus Maius.