sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 6

Paola Bernardini / Carla Casagrande / Chiara Crisciani et al. (a cura di): Ruggero Bacone: Moralis philosophia

This book presents the original Latin text along with an Italian translation of the Moralis Philosophia of the thirteenth scholar Roger Bacon (c.1220-c.1292), one of the most fascinating thinkers of the Middle Ages. Bacon studied in England (probably at Oxford) and the University of Paris, a place that he taught from 1247-1257, and entered the Franciscan Order in 1257.

The Moralis Philosophia constitutes the seventh and ultimate part of the Opus Maius, the main work by which Roger Bacon wanted to pursue Pope Clement IV (1264-1268) to undertake a radical reform of studies in the century in which theology was embolden by the rise of the universities at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

His Opus Maius is his significant contribution to our understanding of the world of medieval learning. Since the Opus Maius has been translated into various languages in the last few decades, there has been a resurgence of Bacon scholarship. According to a leading scholar of Bacon's thought Amanda Power: "His Opus maius was a plea for reform addressed to the supreme spiritual head of the Christian faith, written against a background of apocalyptic expectation and informed by the driving concerns of the friars. It was designed to improve training for missionaries and to provide new skills to be employed in the defence of the Christian world against the enmity of non-Christians and of the Antichrist." [1]

The Latin text of this volume is based on the 1953 edition by Eugenio Massa who completed the critical edition based on manuscript Vatican lat. 4295, in which he "collated with the other manuscripts [that the editors] cited above and accompanied by a critical note in which the sources are identified and the notations, corrections, and reference marks to the text are reported, largely in Baconian hand" (41). The Italian translation that appears alongside the Latin text, according to the editors of the volume, "is accompanied by a handy apparatus of limited notes on the same themes present in the Moralis Philosophia, providing some essential information for the understanding and contextualization of the text, and indicating the main and most recent bibliography on the subject" (41).

The Opus Maius is divided into seven parts: (1) real wisdom and truth: the causes and remedies of human ignorance and error (Causae Erroris); (2) the relationship of philosophy to theology (Philosophiae cum Theologia Affinitas); (3) the necessity and nature of languages for understanding revealed wisdom (De Utilitate Grammaticae); (4) mathematics (Mathematicae in Physicis Utilitas); (5) optics (De Scientia Perspectivae); (6) experimental science (De Scientia Experimentali); (7) and a discussion of moral philosophy and ethics (Moralis Philosophia).

The seventh and last part of the Opus Maius is the subject of this volume. The text of the Moralis Philosophia is divided into six parts, the first of which treats of the truth that must be known to become virtuous and reach the beatitudes. The second concerns the laws that allow coexistence between human beings. The third is the virtues to be practiced and the vices that need to be avoided. The last three parts are of an eminently practical nature and show how to persuade people to believe and love those truths, act accordingly, and exercise the justice of the courts through the use of oratory. This last part of the Opus maius covers, according to Bacon, the most important and noble of all parts of philosophy because it concerns, to the extent that philosophy can, the salvation of the human being. Morals has a close connection to the noblest sciences, metaphysics and theology. It also is the ultimate goal of all the sciences, including the study of languages, mathematics, optics (perspectiva), and the experimental sciences.

The introduction of the volume treats the history of the writing of the Opus and the manuscript tradition of the original Latin text. Each of the seven parts or chapters is introduced by the translators with a remarkable introduction (scheda) to the chapters. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography and three indices (names and anonymous texts, sources, and biblical passages).

The volume is a welcomed contribution to Roger Bacon studies, especially since it parallels other translations of the Moralis philosophia such as the English translation by Jeremiah Hackett and Thomas S. Maloney (Franciscan Institute Publications, 2022) and the German translation published by Pia A. Antolic-Piper. [2] The volume represents a significant contribution not only to the legacy of Roger Bacon but also its place in the history of Franciscan theology and philosophy. Auguri to the group of Italian scholars that have made Bacon's Moralis philosophia available to Italian readers of this work by a most significant thirteenth-century Franciscan scholar.

Notes:

[1] The English Historical Review 121 (2006), 692.

[2] Opus Maius. Eine moralphilosophische Auswahl, Lateinisch - Deutsch, Freiburg u.a. 2008.