304
Herevpon It was mentiond that Roger Bacon in a Book of his
called [De mirabili
bus ^ /Potestate/ artis & naturae] had manife
sted by an
Enigmaticall De
scription thereof that he well vnder
stood how
to make Gunpowder or a composition which should per
forme the same effect. for in the Edition of it by Orotius fi
=neus. Anno. 1542. pag. 44. he saith Praeter haec vero sunt alia
stupenda naturae. nam soni velat tonitruj po
ssunt fieri in
aere immo maiori horrore quam illa quaefiunt per natur
anam modica materia adaptata ad quantitatem vnius pollicis
sonum facit
horrobil horribilem & corruscationem
facit /ostendit/ vehemen
sem. et hoc fit multis modis quibus
al omnis Ciuitas & exercitus
De
struatur ad modum artificis Gideonis qui Lagunculis fractis & Lam
padibus, igne saliente cum fragore ineffabili madianitaram
de
struxit Exercitum cum trecentis hominibus mira sunt haec
si si quis sciret vti ad plenum in debita quantitate & materia -
and pag. 52. Item potabis totum sic. Sed tamen Satis petra LVRV
Vo Po Vir Can Vtriet sulphuris & sic facies tonitruum & coru
scatio
nem sic facies artificium. videas tamen vtrum loquor in aenigmate
vel secundum veritatem.
It was De
sired by the society that as many books as could be procu
red of the said Roger Bacon should be peru
sed, and It was wished
that they were all collected and printed as being supposed to contein
very many curious & v
sefull matters.
D
r. Gale affirmed hat he had collected as many of the works of this
Author as he could procure, and that his
had compared his wth thecopy ^ /was that/ of D
r. Langbane who had
also been very diligent and Cu
rious about that matter.
mr. Henshaw /D
r. Gale/ Affirmed that the King
had a booke of Bacon out of D
r. Prideaux his library ^ /calld the opus maius/
bought byThat my Lord B.P of London It being /his Booke/ of the Prolongation of
Life w
ch. was supposed to be lo
st. Byt D
r. Plot affirmed /it/
that thesame was /to be/ in the Bodleian Library, and Docter Gale /added/ that he had
the same. |__ D
r. Plot was De
sired by the society to Enquire
what other works there were of Bacon more then tho
se pos=
=se
ssed by D
r. Gale. D
r. Gale affirmed that his collection was full
as good as that of D
r. mar
sh at Dublin, though his be suppo
sed
the faire
st coppy of his works Extant in manu
script.
Ref: CELL/RS/HF_306 © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters
