As shown by Luc. Wadding in his “J. Duns-Scoti Opera,” twelve volumes, published at Lyons in 1639, his works are quite numerous, the most important consisting of questions and commentaries on the writings of Aristotle and on the “Sentences” of Peter Lombard.
Joannes Duns Scotus is very frequently referred to by Dr. W. Windelband (“History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1893, pp. 311, 314–315, 321–326, 344), and is mentioned as “the acutest and deepest thinker of the Christian Middle Ages, who brought the germs of the philosophy of the will, contained in Augustine’s system, to their first important development, and so from the metaphysical side gave the impulse for a complete change in the direction of philosophical thought.”
References.—“Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” London, 1888, Vol. XVI. pp. 216–220; Ritter’s “Geschichte der Philosophie”; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 452–457; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VI. p. 1398, containing an extensive list of references; Alfred Weber, “History of Philosophy,” New York, 1896, pp. 246–252 (tr. of Frank Thilly); “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XV. pp. 256–257; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XV. pp. 71–72; Pluanski, “Thèse sur Duns Scot,” Paris, 1887; “The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages,” W. J. Townsend, London, 1881, “Duns Scotus,” Chap. XV.; J. B. Hauréau, “La Philosophie Scholastique,” Paris, 1850, Vol. II. pp. 307–417. Consult also the biographies written by Ferchius, Berti, Caveili and Veglensis, and, for a complete exposition of his system, C. Werner, “Die Scholastik des Späteren Mittelalters,” Vienna, 1881, Vol. I; “Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought,” by R. L. Poole, London, 1884.
A.D. 1254.—Bacon (Roger), “the most remarkable man in the most remarkable century of the Middle Ages” (E. H. Plumptre, 1866), sometimes called Friar Bacon (1214–1294), a Franciscan monk of Ilchester, who devoted himself to the study of science at Oxford and Paris and “whose deep penetration into the mysteries of nature justly entitled him to the appellation of “The Wonderful Doctor,” treats of the magnet and of its properties at pp. 383–384 of his “Opus Minus” (J. S. Brewer, “Fr. R. Bacon,” London, 1859), and dwells upon the loadstone as a miraculum in parte notum.
Bacon is also the author of many other works, the most important of which are his “Opus Majus” and “Opus Tertium” (first published in English respectively in 1733 and 1859), the last named having been originally written out for Pope Clement IV and intended to serve as a preamble to the “Opus Minus” and “Opus Majus,” although it was later than either in the date of its composition (Brewer, op. cit. p. xliv). Leland has said that it is easier to collect the leaves of the Sybil than the titles of all of Bacon’s works. At pp. 218–222, Vol. III. of the ninth edition “Encyclopædia Britannica” will be found a synopsis of the six parts into which Jebb divided the “Opus Majus” (pronounced by Whewell “at once the Encyclopædia and the Organum of the thirteenth century”), and likewise an account of his other works, besides numerous references to leading authorities.
In the “Opus Tertium,” the last of the series of three which, it is said, were all completed in about eighteen months, he speaks more than once of A.D. 1267 as being the then current year. This happens to be but two years prior to the date of the epistle of Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt, the great experimentalist (Petrus Peregrinus), whom he commends (p. lxxv) in the following words: “For there are only two perfect mathematicians, Master John of London[16] and Master Peter of Maricourt, the Picard ... who is worth more than any of them ... of whom I have fully written in my ‘Opus Minus’ and of whom I shall write more in its proper place.” Of this Master Peter, whom he calls one of his most illustrious pupils, he further says that, being “struck with the genius that dawned in his countenance,” he took him under his protection from his fifteenth year and instructed him so carefully that he outstripped all of his contemporaries both at Oxford and at Paris. “There is no one,” adds he, “who knows so much of the root of Philosophy ...” and one who, “through experiment, gains such knowledge of things natural, medical, chemical; indeed, of everything in the heavens or earth.”
Gilbert states (“De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) that many believe the work of Peter Peregrinus on the magnet owes its origin to the opinions of Roger Bacon. And in the Appendix I to Brewer’s work—p. 537, chap. vi. “De Experimentis Mirabilibus”—will be found Bacon’s views fully exposed on the operations of the magnet.
References.—“Fratris Rogeri Bacon, O. M. Opus Majus,” S. Jebb, Londini, 1733; “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” Paris, 1860, by Louis Figuier, who, at p. 97, calls Roger Bacon La plus vaste intelligence que l’Angleterre ait possédée; “Essai Théorique ... des connaissances humaines,” par G. Tiberghien, Bruxelles, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 388–389; Dr. Geo. Miller, “History Philosophically Illustrated,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 112; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” New York, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 43, 229, 241, 245, 318; “Journal des Savants” for March, April, May and August 1848, also for December 1859 and February 1891; “Origin, Progress and Destiny of the English Language and Literature,” by John A. Weisse, New York, 1879, pp. 28, 233–234, 236, 424; “History of Latin Christianity,” by Henry Hart Milman, London, 1857, Vol. VI. pp. 279–303; “Opus Majus,” by John Henry Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. xxv-xxvi, and Vol. II. pp. 203–206, containing a valuable tabulated list of facts relating to Bacon’s life; “Roger Bacon,” par Emile Charles, Paris, 1861, pp. 15–19, 339–391; “De Bibliorum Textibus,” by Dr. Hody; Wm. Whewell, “History of the Inductive Sciences,” 1858, Vol. I. pp. 512–522, or 1859, Vol. I. pp. 209–210, 245–246, 512–522, Vol. II. p. 55; also “Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,” London, 1840, Vol. II. pp. 323–337; “The Philosophical Magazine,” Vol. XII. pp. 327–337; Enfield, Book VII. chap. iii.; “Catalogue Général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale,” Paris, 1901, Vol. VI. pp. 256–259; “Encyclopædia Britannica,” Edinburgh, 1842, seventh edition. Vol. I. as per Index at p. 17; “Les Editions de Roger Bacon” in the “Journal des Savants” for July 1905.
Brunetto Latini. “Li livres dou Trésor.”