although it was later than either in the date of its composition (Brewer, op. cit. p. xliv). Leland has said that it is easier to collect the leaves of the Sybil than the titles of all of Bacon's works. At pp. 218222, Vol. III. of the ninth edition "Encyclopædia Britannica" will be found a synopsis of the six parts into which Jebb divided the " Opus Majus" (pronounced by Whewell "at once the Encyclopædia and the Organum of the thirteenth century "), and likewise an account of his other works, besides numerous references to leading authorities. In the "Opus Tertium," the last of the series of three which, it is said, were all completed in about eighteen months, he speaks more than once of A.D. 1267 as being the then current year. This happens to be but two years prior to the date of the epistle of Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt, the great experimentalist (Petrus Peregrinus), whom he commends (p. lxxv) in the following words: "For there are only two perfect mathematicians, Master John of London 1 and Master Peter of Maricourt, the Picard . . . who is worth more than any of them . . . of whom I have fully written in my 'Opus Minus' and of whom I shall write more in its proper place." Of this Master Peter, whom he calls one of his most illustrious pupils, he further says that, being "struck with the genius that dawned in his countenance," he took him under his protection from his fifteenth year and instructed him so carefully that he outstripped all of his contemporaries both at Oxford and at Paris. "There is no one," adds he, "who knows so much of the root of Philosophy . . ." and one who," through experiment, gains such knowledge of things natural, medical, chemical; indeed, of everything in the heavens or earth.'

Gilbert states ("De Magnete," Book I. chap. i.) that many believe the work of Peter Peregrinus on the magnet owes its origin to the opinions of Roger Bacon. And in the Appendix I to Brewer's work-p. 537, chap. vi. "De Experimentis Mirabilibus "-will be found Bacon's views fully exposed on the operations of the magnet. REFERENCES. "Fratris Rogeri Bacon, O. M. Opus Majus," S. Jebb, Londini, 1733; L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes," Paris, 1860, by Louis Figuier, who, at p. 97, calls Roger Bacon La plus vaste intelligence que l'Angleterre ait possédée; Essai Théorique . des connaissances humaines,' par G. Tiberghien, Bruxelles, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 388-389; Dr. Geo. Miller, History Philosophically Illustrated," London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 112; Humboldt, "Cosmos," New York, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 43, 229, 241, 245, 318; "Journal des Savants" for March, April, May and August 1848, also for December 1859 and February 1891; Origin, Progress and Destiny of the English Language and Literature," by John A. Weisse, New York, 1879, pp. 28, 233-234, 236, 424; History of Latin Christianity," by Henry Hart Milman, London, 1857, Vol. VI.

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1 Identified by some authors as John Peckham, a disciple of St. Bonaventura, who became Archbishop of Canterbury from 1278 to 1293 ("Christian Schools and Scholars," by Augusta Th. Drane, London, 1867, Vol. II. p. 172).

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pp. 279-303; "Opus Majus," by John Henry Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. xxv-xxvi, and Vol. II. pp. 203-206, containing a valuable tabulated list of facts relating to Bacon's life; Roger Bacon," par Emile Charles, Paris, 1861, pp. 15-19, 339-391; "De Bibliorum Textibus," by Dr. Hody; Wm. Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences," 1858, Vol. I. pp. 512-522, or 1859, Vol. I. pp. 209-210, 245-246, 512522, Vol. II. P. 55; also " Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," London, 1840, Vol. II. pp. 323-337; The Philosophical Magazine," Vol. XII. pp. 327-337; Enfield, Book VII. chap. iii.; Catalogue Général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale," Paris, 1901, Vol. VI. pp. 256-259; "Encyclopædia Britannica," Edinburgh, 1842, seventh edition, Vol. I. as per Index at p. 17; Les Editions de Roger Bacon " in the " Journal des Savants for July 1905.

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A.D. 1260.-Brunetto Latini, b. 1230, d. 1294, "maestro del divino poeta Dante," celebrated Florentine encyclopædist, composes his "Tesoro," rewritten in French (" Livres dou Trésor "), wherein he speaks clearly of the compass as at some time likely to be useful. at sea. But he adds: "No master mariner dares to use it, lest he should fall under the supposition of being a magician; nor would even the sailors venture themselves out to sea under his command if he took with him an instrument which carries so great an appearance of being constructed under the influence of some infernal spirit.”

The "Tesoro " is said to be a kind of abridgment of the Bible, of Pliny, of Solinus, of the Ethics of Aristotle, of the rhetorical writings of Cicero and of the political works of Aristotle, Plato and Xenophon ("New Biog. Dict.," London, 1850, Vol. IX. p. 205). It would be well to consult “La Table Générale des bulletins . Sociétés Savantes," par M. Octave Teissier, Paris, 1873, p. 44, regarding the collection of different manuscripts of Brunetto's extensive work.

REFERENCES.-Davis, "The Chinese," 1844, Vol. III. p. xi; Venanson, Boussole," pp. 75, 148-154; Azuni, Boussole," p. 139; Klaproth, "Boussole,” pp. 45-46; Journal des Savants " for January 1865, also for January and February 1880; "The Monthly Magazine" for June 1802; Libri, "Hist. des Sciences Mathématiques," Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 64, 152-156.

A.D. 1265-1321.-Dante-Durante (Alighieri), illustrious Italian poet, regarded as the greatest poetical genius that flourished between the Augustan and Elizabethan ages, composed, during his exile, the "Divina Commedia," which was the first poem written in the Italian language. In Canto XII. vv. 28-30 of his "Paradiso," translated by Dr. Plumptre, he thus alludes to the mariner's compass:

"Then from the heart of one of those new lights,

There came a voice which made me turn to see,
E'en as the star the needle's course incites."

Guido Guinicelli (1240-1276), priest and scholar, and whom Dante considered not only the greatest of living Bolognese poets,

but his master in poetry (Note: "Purg.," XXVI. Vol. I. p. 327, v. 92) refers to the nautical compass in nearly the same terms as Dante ("Rime. Ant.," p. 295). He adds: "The mountains of loadstone give the virtue to the air of attracting iron, but, because it (the loadstone) is far off, (it) wishes to have the help of a similar stone to make it (the virtue) work, and to direct the needle toward the star" (P. L. Ginguené, "Hist. Lit. d' Italie," Vol. I. p. 413; Guido delle Colonne-Io Colonna da Messina-Mandella Lett. p. 81, Florence, 1856).

At pp. 35 and 130 of Bertelli's " Pietro Peregrino di Maricourt," Roma, 1868, Memoria prima, appear verses said to be by Guinicelli and by Guido delle Colonne, judge of Messina, who flourished about 1250, and which are translated literally into English as follows:

"In those parts under foreign skies
Are the mountains of loadstone,

Which give power to the air

To attract iron, but, because distant,

It requires to have assistance from similar stones,

To bring it into use,

And direct the needle towards the star.

The learned relate that the loadstone

Could not attract

Iron by its power,

Were it not that the air between them aids;

Although the calamite is a stone,

The other existing stones

Are not so powerful

To attract, because they have not the influence."

The "Paradiso," translated by A. J. Butler, London, 1885, Canto XII. v. 29, reads: "Si mosse voce, che l'ago (needle) alla stella,” and Fazio degli Uberti in the "Dittamondo" (about 1360) has "Quel gran disio, che mi, traeva addietro come ago a calamita" (III. 2).

REFERENCES.-Hoefer, "Nouv. Biog. Gén.," Vol. XIII. pp. 21-50, the last-named page containing an unusual number of citations; Biblogr. Dantesca," by Colomb de Batines, Prato, 1845-1846; La Grande Encyclopédie," Vol. XIII. pp. 887-901, embracing many additional references; the note at p. 154 of Plumptre's" Dante," also Humboldt's Cosmos," 1849, Vol. II. p. 629; Libri, Hist. des Sc. Math.," Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 164, etc.; Frederic C. Harrison, "The New Calendar of Great Men," London, 1892, pp. 310-315.

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A.D. 1266.-It is shown by Th. Torffæus (Latin for Thormodr Torfason), an Icelandic scholar (b. 1636, d. 1719), who published "Historia Rerum Norvegicarum" (Hafniæ, 1711, IV. c. 4, p. 345), that at this date the northern nations were acquainted with the mariner's compass. In the "History of Norway" here alluded to, he mentions the fact that the poem of the Icelandic historian, Jarl Sturla (Snorri Sturlason) written in 1213, on the death of the Swedish