pro et
APPEND, i. reliqiii locum cl nee templum, in quibus philosophi e consue-
d ncque. vcrunt componere et f reponere sua opera s secreta h quod non
J deponere. visitavi ; nee aliquem peritissimum quern credidi k habere ali-
>" quef e quam noticiam de scripturis l philosophicis quern non " exqui-
k aHquem 11 " ^ V1 quousque veni ad oraculum solis, quod " construxerat
I phydcb Esculapides " pro se. In quo inveni quemdam virum soli-
" exquisiverini. tarium abstinentem, i studentem in philosophia peritissimum.
u construxit.
n petses. M ingenio excellentissimum. cui me humiliavi in quantum potui,
<i ing. exc. de- servivi 1- dihgenter, et supplicavi devote ut mini ostenderet
rW. et. secreta scripta illius oraculi : qui 8 mihi libenter tradidit. i Et
tdfelt. inter "cetera x desideratum opus inveni, propter quod ad
xcpusdesid. y ilium locum iveram, et tempore longissimo z laboraveram.
- iaboravi lum Q uo na bit il ad propria cum gaudio remeavi. Inde referens
a cum gaudio i> gracias multis modis creatori, et ad peticionem regis illus- grates raui- trissimi laboravi : c studens inter lin., vel studiisl et transtuli studui. primo ipsum de lingua Greca in a Caldeam, e et de nac in pro et de hac. Arabicam. In primis f igitur, sicut inveni in isto codice, transtuli librum g peritissimum Aristotelis, in quo h libro respondetur ad peticionem regis Alexandri sub hac forma. reg. Alex. pet.
I have been directed to this passage by a remark of Anthony à Wood that the said John, whether Scotus, or Erigena, or Patricias (for by all those names he is quarto. written by authors), was one of great learning in his time, and much respected by kings for his parts. Koger Bacon, a great critic in authors, gives him by the name of Patricius, the character of a most skilful and faithful interpreter of the tongues, and to whose memory we are indebted for some true copies of certain works of Aristotle. Wood then translates from the Corpus manuscript the passage, which I have given above in the original, and which he supposed to be by Koger Bacon because the glosses in the volume are ascribed to him. The extract however is taken not from the glosses, but from the text itself; a text which might as well have been quoted from one of the printed editions, so that Roger Bacon s name should not have been introduced into the matter at all. As it is, Bacon has been treated for centuries as the author of a fiction of which, so far as I can trace, the proper credit
