Add MS 35253

PHOTOGRAPH of Vatican MS. 4086, ff. 1-82 (early 14th cent.), containing:-

1. The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, ]parts i.-iv. Beg. "Sapientie perfecta consideratio." f. 1. Ends "usquequo uestra reuerentia requirat principalem scripturam," omitting the section on astrology (ed. Bridges, Oxford, 1897, vol. i. p. 376). No titles to the several sections, which are marked (chapters and larger divisions alike) by ornamental initials. The text differs considerably from that of the Oxford edition, and approaches more nearly (so far as can now be judged) to the injured Cotton MS. Julius D. v., but is not a copy of it; eg., it omits the passage in support of the stud of languages (Jul. D. v., ff. 107-108 b).

2. Letter [from Roger Bacon] to Pope Clement [IV., 1265-68], containing an epitome of the Opus Majus Beg. "Sauctissimo patri domino Clementi . . . Cum tante reuerentie dignitas." f. 149 (Vat. MS. f. 75). Ends "et a partibus ad tota." Printed in Engl. Hist. Rev., 1897, xii. 497, by the Rev. F. A. Gasquet, who regarded it as the preface to the Opus Majus; Dr. Bridges, on the other hand, preferred to call it a draft of Bacon's Opus Tertium (Opus Majus, 1897, vol. i. p. xix*.). Paper; ff. 163. 7 X 4 ½ in. (reduced from the original). Presented by the Rev. Francis Aidan Gasquet, D.D., O.S.B.