(StnwAl Hmwmtg pikmg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 3Hcnrg W. Sage 1891 hjb/S9c ;. jc/lij/?^ C VerS,,y "*** PA 257.B lTl902 The Greek grammar of Roger Bacon and a I 3 1924 021 600 790 B Cornell University 9 Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021600790 THE GREEK GRAMMAR OF ROGER BACON HonDcm: C. J. CLAY and SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. ffilaagoto: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. Heipjiss: F. A. BROCKHAUS. i^cto Sorlt: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Bombap an!) Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. [All Rights reserved] THE GREEK GRAMMAR OF ROGER BACON AND A FRAGMENT OF HIS HEBREW GRAMMAR EDITED FROM THE MSS WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY The Rev. EDMOND NOLAN, B.A TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE AND S. A. HIRSCH, Ph.D. THEOLOGICAL TUTOR AT THE JEWS' COLLEGE, LONDON CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1902 H : ©amftrfoge F. CLAY, PRINTED BY J. AND C. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. HENRICO JACKSON Litt.D. GRATO ANIMO EDMUNDUS NOLAN TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Preface ix Errata xii Introduction xiii I. Authorship of the Oxford Grammar .... xiii External evidence xiii a. Tradition xiii b. Bacon's expressed intention of writing a Greek grammar xiii Internal evidence. Parallel passages xiv a. Large passages xiv b. Illustrative examples xv References to Hebrew xvi Inferiority of Latins xvii Bishops ignorant of Greek xviii References to French ...... xviii Greek teachers. Itacism xix Boethius, Bede, Grosseteste xxi Hugutio, Papias, Brito, Neckham . xxii Independence of judgment. Priscian . xxiii Philology. Language and Idiom .... xxv Grammar in its relation to Physical Science and Astrology xxviii Difference in tone. Boasting .... xxix II. Authorship of the Cambridge Fragment . xxxi III. Relations of the Cambridge Fragment to the Oxford Grammar xxxiv IV. Greek Scholarship in England at the time of Roger Bacon xxxviii The early Middle Ages xxxix Subsequent centuries. Causes of neglect .... xl First attempts in the Twelfth Century .... xiii viii CONTENTS. PAGE The Thirteenth Century xliii' xliii Insufficiency of Teachers. Want of Books . Bacon's estimate of amount of linguistic knowledge attain- able xlv Daniel de Morlai xlvii John de Basingstoke xlvii Adam Marsh. Thomas Wallensis xlviii Michael Scot xlix Robert Grosseteste liii lviii Homo Sapientissimus ; William de Mara .... Roger Bacon's Greek grammar lix V. Hebrew in England at the time of Roger Bacon Ixiii VI. Description of the Manuscripts .... lxv The Oxford MS. (A) lxv Contents of the MS lxvi University College and Douai MSS lxx The Cambridge MS. (B and C) lxxi Latinity, spelling, style lxxi Letters, numerals lxxii Consecration of Churches lxxii The proper name Omnes lxxiv The Canons of Theodosius lxxiv Sicilian origin of Greek MSS lxxv An inexplicable passage lxxv (A.) Oxford Greek Grammar i (B.) Cambridge Greek Grammar. [83 (C.) Cambridge Hebrew Grammar 197 PREFACE. T N his article on Roger Bacon in the Dictionary of National -*- Biography, Professor Adamson says "It is much to be desired that a more thorough and detailed study of the known manuscripts and a more extensive search for others which doubtless exist should be undertaken. Some portions are in a condition suitable for publication and it is well-nigh an obligation resting on English scholars to continue the good work begun by the late Professor Brewer. Bacon's works possess much historical value, for his vigorous thinking and pronounced scientific inclinations are not to be regarded as abnormal and isolated phenomena. He represents one current of thought and work in the middle ages which must have run strongly though obscurely, and without a thorough comprehension of his position our conceptions of an important century are incomplete and erroneous." But this interest in the serious work of Friar Roger Bacon is of comparatively modern date. His Opus Majus was not printed until 1733, and of the fifty works enumerated by Little in The Grey Friars in Oxford not more than eight seem to have been printed. The works of Emile Charles, Brewer and Bridges are all of the latter half of the nineteenth century. As is well known a certain portion of the Opus Majus, of the Opus Minus, of the Opus Tertium and of the Compendium Studii, is devoted to the subject of "Grammar" and contains a$ X PREFACE. occasional critical remarks on the Greek and Hebrew texts of Scripture. But heretofore none of the works which Bacon expressly wrote on Grammar have been printed. Reason is shown in the Introduction for accepting the statement—(by a later hand)—in the MS. Greek Grammar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, that Roger Bacon was its author. Of this MS. only a few lines have been published by Brewer, Charles, and Bridges, and quite lately three or four pages were communicated by Heiberg in the Byzantinische Zeitschrift. This MS., under the title of the Oxford Greek Grammar (A), forms the body of the present volume. While working at it I was fortunate enough to light upon a MS. fragment of a Greek Grammar in the University Library at Cambridge which is here printed as the Cambridge Greek Grammar (B), and in the same codex a fragment of a Hebrew Grammar here printed as the Cambridge Hebrew Grammar (C). On examination I came to the conclusion that (B) also must be assigned to Bacon. And Dr S. A. Hirsch, who is a Hebraist and a far better Baconian scholar than I am, pronounced the Hebrew fragment to be of the same authorship. Dr Hirsch was at that very time occupied on a paper on " Early English Hebraists," since published in the Jewish Quarterly Review, October 1899, and finding this work so germane to that in which he was himself engaged, he agreed to collaborate with me. In the result, while I am responsible for the text and notes of the Greek Grammars and Section VI. of the Introduction, Dr Hirsch edited the Hebrew Grammar and contributed Sections I —V. of the Introduction, in Which sections my only share was to place at his disposal some notes and some knowledge of the literature of the subject acquired in editing the text. PREFACE. XI It may be worth while to draw the attention of students of Bacon's works to the questions raised in the Introduction as to whether the Toulouse MS. and the " Parcionarium '' in the College of Arms are also to be attributed to him. My thanks are due in the first place to the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who twice, for a lengthened period, lent their MS. to the Cambridge University Library for my use and gave me permission to print it. In particular I am grateful to their Librarian, the Rev. C. Plummer, for his personal kindness. I am especially indebted to Dr M. R. James for his advice throughout, and for calling my attention to the Arundel MS. IX. at the College of Arms ; and to him and to the University Librarian, Mr F."J. H. Jenkinson, for assistance in deciphering the MS. in many passages. I wish also to express my gratitude to Dr Rendel Harris for reading the proofs of the Introduction and for making many valuable suggestions. I acknowledge with much pleasure the help given us by Mr Alfred Rogers of the University Library and the generosity of the Syndics of the University Press in under- taking to publish the work. E. N. Trinity College, June i, 1902. EP.RATA. p. 14, for stannum read scamnum, cf. p. 207 p. 30, n. 1, for exutatur read exsiccatur p. 40, n. 5, for cf. p. 95 n. 3 read cf. p. 95, n. 4 p. 71, for fucimilus read furcimilus ! p. 131, for Adeo...adiungitur read "Adeo...adiungitur' INTRODUCTION. I. AUTHORSHIP OF THE OXFORD GRAMMAR. External evidence. (a) Tradition. Although the manuscript did not originally display Roger Bacon's name as the author of the Greek grammar, we are in a position to ascribe it unhesitatingly to that scholar. As to external evidence, it must be remembered that Bacon's authorship has never been doubted. A Greek grammar appears in all the lists of Bacon's works ; it is, therefore, clear that the compilers of such lists must have known it to be his, either traditionally, or from some other copies of the work which may have been extant, and which may have borne his name. There is a consensus of opinion on this point, which, although not conclusive, is yet of sufficient weight, if cor- roborated by internal evidence. (b) Bacon's expressed intention of writing a Greek gram- mar. Bacon repeatedly expressed his intention of writing a Greek grammar. In the Opus Tertium, xx. p. 65, he declares himself to be able to teach languages to any willing and apt student, provided that he first composed some grammatical treatise (dummodo composuissem primo quiddam scriptum Missing Page Missing Page xvi INTRODUCTION. Oxford Grammar : p. 81 the names of the Beast = Compendium vi. p. 437. p. 92 Orichalcum, with the quotations from Horace and Virgil = Opus Minus p. 3 8 5 , Compendium vii. p. 45 3. p. 107 Conopeum, mausoleum, theloneum, quoting Juvenal and Lucan = Opus Tertium lxiii. p. 258. p. 131 nichil, michi = Opus Tertium lxi. p. 245. The above instances, if not exhaustive, suffice to show the similarity, both in method and subject-matter, subsisting between our grammar and corresponding passages in Bacon's other works. There is, in fact, hardly a passage in the former that has not its parallel, and frequently almost in the same words, in the latter.