The Greek Grammar of Roger Bacon and A Fragment of His Hebrew Grammar [PDF]

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THE GREEK GRAMMAR OF

ROGER BACON

UonUon

:

C.

J.

CLAY AND SONS,

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. 245 sq.). by is whether ;;// occurs of as vocative the metis, as question only ian

avers, or whether

it

is

also a dative of ego>

and we

"

Quod autem Priscianus dicit quod ei non placet quod dativi casus, non est vis de hoc. Non enim semper ;

sit

imitanchis antiqui

est,

licet

ut

dixerunt quod

in ;;//

(mam r.

Sol urn enii

pluribus. fuit ei 7-

1

I

-

5J'

l>y

K..-.T

B.i

INTRODUCTION.

xxxii

about which there can be no doubt that Bacon's

pp. 199 follows the

(cf.

Graecum

"

it

and remarks on Greek grammar are interwoven on Hebrew orthography, in such a manner time, only

same

work of

a

is

The line " Incipit Alphabetum 208). Hebrew Alphabet on the same sheet,

Bacon was capable

style, allusions

of.

Hebrew

to

There are in the

the rules

in

that

at

as,

also, after the "

Greek part

Sed

:

Latini corrumpunt hoc et sonant v vocalem, sed nee Graecus, " nee Hebraeus, sonat sic hanc literam (p. 187, cf. p. 88). "

Sciendum quod Graeci

et Hebraei computant per literas" have as We here, elsewhere, an allusion to French (p. 194). "Et distinguit casus, genera, et numeros, sicut in Gallico Hie la" :

The phraseology and

(p. 187).

similar to those in the

the illustrative examples are

Oxford grammar, and

in other

works

The complaint about the ignorance of the Greek Alphabet displayed by bishops when consecrating churches, occurs in the Cambridge fragment, almost in the same terms

of Bacon.

as

in the

Oxford grammar and the Opus Majus.

"

Nam

episcopus debet scribere alphabeti Graeci literas cum cuspide baculi pastoralis in sabulo etc... Sed omnes episcopi qui nesciunt Graecum estimant quod illae tres notae numerorum sunt

Et hoc

literae.

vile

est tantae

auctoritati

eorum

et

The figure 666, in reference (p. 195). name of the Beast, is discussed here (p. 194), in the Oxford Grammar (p. 81), and in the Compendium Studii indignum sacramento"

to the

Philosophiae

The

(vi.

437).

Greek words, as given

transliteration of

ment, shows to

again

the

that

Itacism.

author's

A

in this frag-

pronunciation was of the remarks on

according comparison vowels and diphthongs, as given in the Oxford grammar, with those of the Cambridge fragment, will show that they proceeded from the same hand. The reading lessons both here

and

in

the larger fragment are the Pater and the

were probably followed given

in the latter.

in

the former

by those

Ave\ these

pieces that are

INTRODUCTION.

xxxiii

The

pronunciation of the word etVei/ey/ci^ is explained in Oxford grammar thus " et cum scribitur curei/eyy/ci?? sonatur isenengis et non isenenkis, et non sonatur gamma in the

:

sono proprio sed

Et similiter in hoc eodem exsonum suum in gamma" (p. 48). Bacon cmplo kappa in reference to the same word in the Comp. Stn; Similiter cum antecedit kappa, ut eHrcveytcrjs, nam in loco ny.

amittit

'

)

(

:

Graecus

dicit

et

isenengis,

si:quitur...Et similiter in

suum sonum

isenengis, propter

in

///',

quia kappa

in

in

the

gamma." Our Cambridge same words " Sed sonant :

euphoniam, quando enim kappa sequitur et gamma habet sonum de

sonum de gamma,

rctinet

gamma,

gamma

hoc eodem exemplo kappa amittit

convcrtitur

et

says, almost

nient

mutat

;//"(p. 196).

Another striking proof of Bacon's authorship of the Cambridge fragment is the observation occurring on pp. 191, 192. "

Jeronimus saepe ponit in prologis, Jiexapla, et dativum casum hexaploist ab aplnn quod est simplex, sive ab apla quae sunt siinplicia, et ab hex quod est sex, quia sex simplicia continebantur

in

columna,

codice

illo

et

raeo in

;

scilicet ipse

tcxtus Hebraeus

in

una

tune quinque translationes factae in Graeco de singulis columnis ut translationes Aquilae, Sym-

LXX

machi, Theodotionis, ignoti auctoris,

quam

interpretum, et sexta translatio

invenit Origenes absconditam."

This

ription of the Hexapla would be quite superfluous here, were it not that Bacon, when in need of an illustration

membered what he had the various versions

the

when discussing of the Scriptures, taking at the same time written on the subject

opportunity of correcting an inaccuracy of which he

had previously been ;

guilty.

For

"Origenes famosissimos

in

the Opus

libros

Minns

(p.

337)

primo composuit

in

quibus per singulas columnellas scparatim c regionc opus interpret is cujuscunque descripsit, ut prima ipsa Hcbraica litrris

vi-iba

I

poneret, secundo loco per ordinem Graccis

Icbraica describe!

ct

;

tcrtio

Aquilae cditionem

INTRODUCTION.

xxxiv

quarto Symmachi, quinto Septuaginta, sexto subjungeret Theodotionis editionem collocaret. Et propter compositionem ;

id cst hex simul ordine ipsa exemplaria nominavit Hexapla, hex enim Graece idem est quod sex Latine, et conscripta ;

aplum idem quod simul"' the Cambridge fragment,

Bacon, when writing adhered to the erroneous notion

Although

still

"

hexapla" was a compound of hex and hapla, he had become aware that the latter word meant simplex and

word

that the

now

not simul, and he

meaning of

"

six

forces

upon the term Hexapla the one," and not, as he had

translations in "

simultaneously exhibited." Only in this way can the insertion of the wholly unnecessary passage in the fragment be explained. formerly taught,

versions

six

III.

RELATIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE FRAGMENT TO THE OXFORD GRAMMAR.

We

still to inquire what relation the Cambridge The question also bears to the Oxford grammar. fragment arises as to the connection of the former with the passages

have

on Greek grammar which are embodied in the Opus Majlis, the Opus Tertium^ and the Compendium. It is

doubtful whether

necessary tions.

for

There

we

are in possession of

all

the data

fixing the relative positions of these producis

especially one document, a

more complete

acquaintance with which will, no doubt, throw considerable light on the three fragments contained in this volume, and

on the passages on Greek and Hebrew grammar in Bacon's We have already mentioned a Toulouse manuother works. script

from which Samuel Berger has communicated a few There are so many points of resemblance between

extracts 1

.

1

V. supra,

p. xx. n.

XXXV

INTRODUCTION.

in the Opus Majns, the Comand the Cambridge fragment on pendium Hebrew grammar, that Berger's suggestion, that we have there a hitherto unknown work of Bacon's, appears probable

these and

various

passages

Stiuiii PkttosopkuUi

Closer inspection may also reveal many phrases, examples, and references similar to those in the Oxford and

enough.

Cambridge grammars. object in writing the Oxford

>n's

been alluded

He

to.

did not intend

it

grammar has already to be anything

more

than an elementary grammar. He wanted to compose, or, did an elaborate Greek grammar for perhaps, really compose, the use of advanced students. introductorius

Et quia hie tractatus

grammaticam Graecam quam

in

in

est

maiori

meo poterunt perspicere studiosi " (Oxford Grammar, The whole passage shows that Bacon acted up to

tractatu p.

"

171).

his views of that gradation in the

study of languages, to which he alludes elsewhere..." ejusmodi sunt Graecum, Hebraeum,

Arabicum,

et

Non tamen

Chaldaeum.

intelligo ut quilibet

has linguas sicut maternam in qua natus est, ut nos loquimur Anglicum, Gallicum, et Latinum, nee ut sciamus

sciat

tantum de possit

his linguis ut quilibet fiat interpres, et transferre

linguam maternam Latinam scientiam de linguis

in

Sed

gradus hie eligendus est, qui facillimus est habenti doctorem scilicet ut sciamus de his quantum sufficit illis.

tertius

ad intelligendum quae requirit Latinitas in hac parte ." >n clearly intended the Oxford grammar to assist 1

students

mastering "quantum sufficit ad intelligendum t>tK-'s Gasquet'- counts among the causes, why

rxxin.

i

s.

to the

.j6.

in

ilu-

thirteenth century," in the

INTRODUCTION.

xlii

of the use that had been

made

of his works by Arabian

writers, a disposition among Christians generally to avoid the influence of pagan writers, since the time when St Gregory

of

Nazianzum had

attributed the apostacy of Julian to the Soon after the establishment of

works of the philosophers."

a Latin kingdom at Constantinople in 1204 matters took a turn for the better. That great emporium of relics of ancient

and ancient learning was thrown open to the Latins. But, even then, the works of Aristotle were known only in " translations, and many of the recognized teachers were still art

suspicious of the growing influence of a pagan philosopher,"

and

his

Arabian followers, Averroes and Avicenna, who were

the intermediaries between ancient Greek philosophy, and

mediaeval scholasticism.

These various causes combined

in

keeping the Latin

student of that period away from the investigation of the writings of the Greeks and the Hebrews, and we can under-

stand the complaint, uttered in the twelfth century by Philip de Harveng, Abbot of Bonne-Espe'rance, who says: "etsi Hebraea et Graeca (linguae) eo datae sunt ordine patribus ab

tamen quia non usu sed fama sola ad nos quasi veniunt de longinquo, eisdem valefacto ad Latinam praeantique,

sentem noster utcunque se applicat

intellectus 1 ."

First attempts in the Twelfth Century. In England, no less than in the rest of Western Europe,

the knowledge of Greek had died away, and here also, it was only after the conquest of Constantinople that a change

was

possible.

to enrich his

Adelard of Bath,

knowledge by

Minor, and Spain, but he

and

his

guage. 1

it

is

true,

had already

tried

Egypt, Greece, Asia or nothing of Aristotle,

travelling in

knew

little

works show no acquaintance with Greek as a

The same remark

Migne, Patrol. Lat.

applies to

torn. 203, p. 154;

John of Salisbury.

quoted by Denifle,

/.

c.

p. 595.

lanIt

INTRODUCTION.

xliii

only an "isolated instance," that in 1167, "a certain William, a doctor of medicine and monk of St Denys, re-

is

turned from Constantinople, bringing with him many precious Greek codices, to seek for which he had been sent by his

abbot 1 ." TJic

The

thirteenth

Thirteenth Century.

century

witnessed

first

a

considerable

change, and yet a few names only can be connected with the new departure. When we have named Daniel de Morlai,

Michael Scot, Robert Grosseteste, Adam Marsh, John de Basingstoke, William de Mara, and Roger Bacon, we have exhausted the list of those English-born scholars who were

more or

less

acquainted with Greek language and literature

during the whole of the thirteenth century. This does not imply that there were no others in fact, we know that at ;

Roger Bacon's time the Latin world contained a goodly number of such as had a sufficient knowledge of Greek to "

Doctores language autcm non desunt....Graecum vero maxime concordat cum

serve as elementary teachers of that

Anglia et Francia qui hie satis Denifle is of opinion, that these "multi"

Latino, et sunt multi in instruct!

sunt

2

."

"

Corinclude for a certainty the authors of some of the such other Bacon rectoria." On the hand, had, perhaps, only

had come from Greece, and from those

scholars in view, as

parts of Italy "in qua clerus et populus sunt pure Graeci in multis locis," some of whom had found a home in England also.

Insufficiency

So much

is

Want of

of Teachers.

certain

Books.

many "Latins" knew some

that

"Multi vero invcniuntur, qui sciunt loqui Graecum, Hut what was et Arabicum, ct Hebracum inter Latinos'." k.

1

Gasquct,

/.

1

Cornf. Sin./.

*

Opus Tertium,

/V//7..J. vi. p.

x.

%

\-

434.

INTRODUCTION.

xliv their

knowledge worth

for educational

purposes ? Absolutely Paucissimi sunt qui sciunt rationem grammaticae These " paucissimi " were ipsius, nee sciunt docere eum." " nam non sunt quatuor Latini, qui sciant very few indeed "

nothing.

;

grammaticam Hebraeorum, et Graecorum, et Arabum." Bacon assures us that this is not a hap-hazard assertion, for he adds " bene enim cognosce eos, quia et citra mare et ultra diligenter feci inquiri, et multum in his laboravi." The worst of it was that not even born Greeks could be " Vidimus enim multos laicos, qui optime loquetrusted. bantur Latinum, et tamen nihil sciverunt de regulis gramet sic est modo de omnibus Hebraeis fere, et maticae :

;

similiter

de Graecis

veris,

non solum de Latinis qui scinnt

Graecum et Hebraeum" Two things were indispensable, if Greek was to take its proper place in the curriculum of a learned education, competent teachers and books. " Oportet habere homines peritos in linguis alienis et similiter libros aliarum habere oportet linguarum plurimos, scilicet de igitur

grammatica,

textum singularum partium philosophiae, ut

et

defectus

viderentur

et

falsitates

in

codicibus

Latinorum."

But these obstacles could only be removed at an enormous sacrifice of money, it was too much for private enterprise

:

"hi

libri

cipibus et

hae personae non possunt procurari sine prinAnd yet some good work was done in praelatis."

et

by the private efforts of learned Englishmen. Daniel de Morlai and John de Basingstoke were, during their

that direction

travels, actively

engaged

in

collecting

Greek books, which

they brought with them to England, whilst Robert Grosseteste exerted himself in procuring Greek teachers from distant parts.

Nicholas Graecus was one of these veri Graeci

that were fully competent to instruct like Grosseteste in his translations of

and

assist

even a

Greek books.

man

INTRODUCTION.

xlv

Bacon s estimate of amount of knowledge

linguistic

attainable.

On

inquiring what the knowledge acquired occupied themselves with that kind of study,

we must again take Roger Bacon the

amount of

for

our guide.

by those who amounted to,

He classifies

proficiency attainable in the learned languages

He

alone could be pronounced to have reached the highest degree who knew these languages as his own mother-tongue (" ut quilibet sciat has linguas sicut

under three heads

maternam et

licum,

1

.

qua natus est, ut nos loquimur Anglicum, GalLatinum "). The second degree ot knowledge

in

would enable the student to translate, in scientific style, works written in these languages (" ut sciamus tantum de his

linguis ut

quilibet fiat interpres, et transferre possit in

linguam maternam Latinam scientiam de linguis illis"). The third and lowest degree \vould stop at mastering so much of these languages, as to be able to read, to

know elementary

grammar, and to understand the references

to such languages

that

are found

(" ut sciamus

requirit

in

the Biblical expositions of the Fathers

de his quantum Latin itas in hac parte.

sufficit

Et

ad intelligendum quac

vis hujus rei stat in hoc,

homo sciat legere Graecum, et Hebraeum, et cetera et ut sccundum formam Donati sciat accidentia partium orationis"). ut

at (1

;

>n very earnestly warns the student against attempting once to reach the highest degree. " Stulti enim homines imperiti quum audiunt loqui de scientia linguarum, aesti-

mant et

sc obligari primo gradui ct secundo, contemnunt tcrtium gradum facillimum

Mdrrarent

1 1

dili

->scnt a

et idco di-spi-rant ;

quumvis

si

con-

juvcntute, ctiam post triginta

annos possent pcrtin^i-rc ad omnes gradus dictos, et saltern ad sccundum cum tcrtio. Nam tota difficultas consistit in primo

graclii, ut

nos qui talibus insistimus rxpcrimur." ;3

q.

Hacon

INTRODUCTION.

xlvi

of opinion that three days' close application under a competent teacher, and with the aid of a good manual, was

is

1

In lowest amount of proficiency would then be able the student et to Hebrew, "legere regard

sufficient

intelligere

to attain

this

.

quicquid sancti

dicunt, et

sapientes

antiqui, in

expositione sacri textus, et quicquid pertinet ad illius correctionem et expositionem." As for Greek the same amount " of application would suffice, so that the student non solum legere et intelligere quicquid pertinet ad theologiam, sed ad philosophiam et ad linguam Latinam." Bacon's distinction seems to have been the fruit as much sciret

It seems that, in his opinion, of experience as of reflection. " " Latin not one of his contemporaries had attained the

highest degree of linguistic knowledge, with the exception, " perhaps, of the homo sapientissimus," the unnamed scholar whose attainments in that direction he so highly extols. He

denies the second degree even to his revered master Grosse" As for the " multi inter Latinos who understood teste. " Greek, and even some of the veri Graeci," they did not, for the most part, possess even the lowest degree, for they knew

no grammar. Their empirical acquaintance with Greek, no doubt, enabled them to read Greek books, and to fairly understand them, provided their contents were not of an If it had been a question of translating esoteric character.

Xenophon's Anabasis, out a tolerable version.

example, they might have turned But in translating Aristotle, a facility

for

of speaking Greek would only have gone a very short way Bacon emphasizes the old canon, that translators indeed.

must have a thorough knowledge of the two languages and These qualities were not, according to Bacon, combined in any one of the translators, and some good of the subject.

versions were only obtained for instance,

by a fortunate conjuncture as, when Grosseteste collaborated with Nicholas the

Greek. 1

Opus Tertium

y

xx. p. 65.

INTRODUCTION.

xlvii

Daniel de Morlai.

Greek books seem

have been unknown

to

commencement

before the

of the

thirteenth

in

England 1

century

,

but

about that time Daniel de Morlai introduced some Greek

had brought with him from the South 2 He left England to pursue his studies abroad and, of course, stayed for a while at Paris. There he saw certain animals

codices, which he

.

(bestiales) teaching in the schools with great authority.

Dis-

gusted with their ignorance and their method of instruction he went to Toledo to become acquainted with the teaching

At the

of the Arabian masters. left

invitation of his friends he

Spain to return to England "with a precious number of But when he heard that there was in these parts no

books."

liberal education,

and that even Aristotle and Plato had been Western world, he almost made up where he understood that these studies

entirely forgotten in the

mind

his

to remain

flourished, for fear lest

the Romans," and

it

he should be

"

was only owing

the only Greek among to the encouragement

which he received from his friend John of Oxford, Bishop of Norwich, that he continued his journey. There can be no clearer testimony than

which Greek had

in

this

to the complete

oblivion

into

those days fallen in Western Europe,

including England.

John de Basingstoke.

A considerable impetus to the study of Greek in England was given by John de Basingstoke, He was a great scholar, thoroughly grounded in the Trivium and the Quadrivium, He and, Ix-sides, an excellent Greek and Latin scholar. >ce,

however, Alruin's J.IK-III, / -1538, and Mr K. I. './,

I

.

\.

!:>h

iKyM, p.

7-


. 55, Bridges. doubtful whether Alfred the Englishman

Opus Majus,

ii.

Isaac Israeli and Costa ben Luca,

may have been

who wrote

knew Greek.

in Arabic, his

As he quotes knowledge