Roger Bacon: A Compendium of the Study of Philosophy

Shortly after composing his Opus maius, Opus minus, and Opus tertium (1267) Bacon felt the need once again to call attention to obstacles to the achievement of wisdom placed by the Church, academia, and civil society in the early 1270s. This he did in Part I of his Compendium of the Study of Philosophy. But his explorations in 1267 of the need for the study of languages needed, he thought, further attention. So Part II of this follow-up work renews that call with greater fervour and detail and yields a presentation of the rudiments of Greek and Hebrew, indicating how knowledge of these is needed to interpret the scriptures accurately and how many errors result from failure to recognise this.

This new edition of Bacon's Compendium of the Study of Philosophy, with facing English translation, enables today's readers to engage with Bacon's philosophy. It provides a window on academic life in Oxford and Paris of the 1270s at an important time in the development of the universities of both cities.