Critical Bibliography, Volumes V-VI

VOLUME V.

The Little Natural Works: 1. On Sense and the Sensible. 2. On Memory and Recollection. 3. On Sleep and Waking, where in book 3 he treats of divination and prophecy. 4. On the Motions of Animals. 5. On Youth and Old Age. 6. On Spirit and Respiration. 7. On Death and Life, where in treatise 2 he treats of the causes of longer and shorter life. Perhaps that is the little work counted by certain men as distinct, On Length and Shortness of Life. 8. On Nourishment and the Nourishable. 9. On the Nature and Origin of the Soul. 10. On the Unity of the Intellect against Averroes. Albert himself (Summa, Part II, Question 77, member 3) testifies that he wrote this little work at Rome. 11. On Intellect and the Intelligible. Book 2 treats of the natural perfection of the intellect. 12. On the Nature of Places. 13. On the Causes and Properties of the Elements. 14. On the Passions of the Air. 15. On Vegetables and Plants. 16. On the Principles of Progressive Motion. 17. On the Causes and Process of the Universe from the First Cause. 18. The Astronomical Mirror, in which he treats of licit and illicit books. Pignon and Valladolid praise them, except 14 and 16, whether these escaped them or they included them under the title of someone else, as seems more true, as also they divide certain of these into two.

ANCIENT EDITIONS.

All these little works came forth in this same order at Venice, heirs of Scotus, 1517, folio, Gothic paper. This edition exists at Paris in Saint-Genevieve and in the Royal Library, R. 149. 12. On the Nature of Places came forth separately at Vienna, 1514, on the authority of Simler, and at Naples, 1592 quarto; this edition is at Rome in the Barberini. 18. The Mirror of Astronomy, with certain alien works about which later, Lyons, 1615, sextodecimo. This edition is in the Barberini.

MANUSCRIPT CODICES.

Peter of Prussia testifies that all these little works are held at Cologne among our men. From the cited book of the Rector, they were offered for sale at Paris in the year 1303: 1 and 3, fourteen pieces; 4, five pieces; 6, thirteen pieces; 5, 8, and 11 together, ten pieces; 9, eight pieces; 12, eight pieces; 13, nine pieces; 15, thirty-nine pieces; 16, five pieces. Florence in the Medicean, Pluteus LXXXIII, codex 1, large folio paper, almost all. In the same place, Pluteus LXXXIV, codex 20, paper: Albert the Great's contradiction against those who say that after the separation of the soul from the body there does not remain from all souls except one intellect and one soul. It is the tenth of the edited works, On the Unity of the Intellect against Averroes. Venice, at St. Anthony, most of them, and Bessarion, Pluteus 8, and 13 and 15 also mostly. English catalogue: all together, certain separately. See volume I, part I, numbers 1320, 1702, 1821, 1911; part II, numbers 213, 880, 1193, 1284; part III, 709, 951, 985, 1877; volume II, part I, numbers 68, 698, 1466. But I would think the excerpt from little work 15 on plants is what is reviewed in volume I, part I, 8345 under this title: Albert the Great's treatise on the planting of trees and on the preservation of wine, unless there is an error in the name of the author, for under this same title a little work of Arnold of Villanova is praised. See Lambecius, Imperial Library, book 2, page 841; and another, part II, 1592: Albert of Cologne's treatise on graftings and plantings of trees; yet the possessors of the codices will teach this more certainly. In Sanderus, Belgian Library, part II, in the valley of St. Martin, page 209, almost all these little works are praised, though not in the same order. Clairvaux: On Causes; On Sleep and Waking; On Spirit and Respiration. Paris: they exist in Victor, codices 29 and 38, folio paper, except a few. On the Unity of the Intellect separately, codex 930, medium folio parchment. Sorbonne: 9, On the Nature and Origin of the Soul, folio parchment codex, where also certain little works of Brother Thomas of Aquino are together from the legacy of Godfrey of Fontaines, Master of Sacred Theology and contemporary, and therefore thirteenth century. Again, in another large folio parchment codex, number 1, page 752, among other things of Peter of Auvergne and Brother Thomas of Aquino. Likewise 17, On the Causes and Process of the Universe, large folio parchment codex, number 1, page 877. Royal codices 4750 and 4859 cited above. 14, 15, 17, and 18 are excepted; the rest are there, but in another order than in the Lyons edition. But 14, On the Passions of the Air, is codex 6380. Concerning 18, namely the Astronomical Mirror, there is a certain difficulty: for there are men who adjudge it away from Albert. In the English catalogue, volume I, part I, number 1682, it is read thus: Philip the chancellor of Paris, On Licit and Illicit Books, falsely attributed to Albert. On the contrary, Naudé strives to assert this treatise for Brother Roger Bacon of the Order of Minors, a man learned in these matters. But the cited Pignon and Valladolid saw and praised it under the name of Albert the Great. Gerson, chancellor of Paris, has thus in the epilogue of his Trilogy: On this matter (concerning astrological books which are and are not to be tolerated) Albert the Great composed a little work which is called the Mirror of Albert, etc. Our Nicholas of Dacia, who wrote on this subject in the year 1456, also asserts this little work for the same Albert. In the cited English catalogue, volume II, part I, codex 6141, it is The Mirror of Albert the Great, and you may gather that it is astronomical from the following things. At Paris in the Royal Library, codex 5464, small folio, is Albert's Mirror of Astrology with other astrological authors. If you attend to style and method, you will vindicate it for Albert the Great. Certain men accuse the author because he judged that books of necromancy should be preserved, not abolished; but he has the praised Gerson agreeing in this judgment at the end of the cited Trilogy, speaking thus: It seems expedient, if they might be preserved without danger of abuse, that necromantic books be preserved. For knowledge of poisons is necessary for physicians, so that in a given case they may be able to apply remedies; especially since it cannot happen that these books be so abolished that some do not survive in the hands of impious men. Therefore, so that learned men may be able to refute them, they ought not to be ignorant of what folly or wickedness is contained in them. It came forth in print with the book On the Secrets of Women and other works about which later, Lyons, 1615, sextodecimo; this edition is in the Barberini.

VOLUME VI.

Twenty-six books On Animals. The end is to be noted: Now the book of animals has been completed, and in it the whole work of natures has been completed; in this I maintained such moderation that I expounded the sayings of the Peripatetics as well as I could, nor can anyone detect in it what I myself think in natural philosophy, etc. The cited Pignon and Valladolid praise it.

ANCIENT EDITIONS.

I. And it came forth on most elegant paper and type, without capitals, however, which were added by hand; likewise without numbers, signatures, and catchwords, in place of which at the end was added a register of the first word from which each folio begins, under the care of Hermandus Cordubensis, who dedicates it to Sixtus IV. At the end it is read thus: This present work of Albert the Great On the Properties of Things was printed by the distinguished man Lord Simon Nicolai of Lucca, lord of this workshop, at Rome, 1478, in the seventh year of the pontificate of Sixtus, on the second day of April, folio. It exists at Paris in the Royal Library, R. 147. II. Mantua, by Paul, son of John of Butschbach, a Mainz man, folio, 1479, on 12 January, which you should understand according to the old style, by the new 1480. It exists in the Royal Library, R. 146. III. Venice, 1495, folio, on the authority of Beughem. IV. Reviewed and corrected by Master Anthony Zimara, public professor of philosophy at Padua. Venice, Octavianus Scotus, 1519, folio, in the Royal Library, R. 148, and in the Sorbonne. Separately there came forth the Treatise on Falcons, Hawks, and Goshawks. Augsburg of the Vindelici, John Praetorius, 1596 octavo. Namely excerpted from book 23 On Animals. This edition is at Paris in the Royal Library, S. 856, and at Rome in the Barberini.

MANUSCRIPT CODICES.

Peter of Prussia says that the complete work is held at Cologne in the hand of the author himself. Paris: from the cited book of the Rector it was offered for sale in the year 1303, consisting of 121 pieces. Florence in the Medicean, Pluteus LXXXIV, codex 18, folio parchment, in which at the end of book 19 it is read thus: And here the whole book of Aristotle On Animals is ended, but the seven following books Albert added. In truth, Aristotle's are only ten books On the History of Animals, four on their parts, and five on the generation of the same; and the last chapter of book 19 of Albert is a commentary on the last chapter On the Generation of Animals of that philosopher. In the English catalogue, volume I, part II, 264, 733, 1702; part III, 1867. In Sanderus, part II in the valley of St. Martin, page 209, but only twelve. Paris, in Victor, in two codices, 30 and 31, parchment, medium folio, of the beginning of the fifteenth century, certainly before 1420. At the end is added: A chapter on those things concerning which it still remains to inquire in the science of animals. Sorbonne, codex number 1, page 874; this most elegant book, illustrated everywhere with images distinguished by gold, red, and blue, was bought in the year 1384. Royal codices 4965 and 1965, parchment, large folio, which books are elegant. The work is complete in each. Likewise codex 4843, large folio paper. Colbert codices 283 and 800, large folio parchment, of better note and among the more ancient. English catalogue, volume I, part II, codex 1193: On the Science of Falcons according to the ancients. And part III, codex 951: On the Anatomy of the Human Body. 2. On the Soul. 3. On the Monstrous Humans of the East. 4. On Quadruped Animals. 5. On Birds. 6. On Sea Monsters. 7. On River Fish. 8. On Serpents. 9. On Worms. 10. On Common Trees. 11. On Aromatic and Medicinal Trees. 12. On Herbs and their Powers. All these things you may easily gather were excerpted partly from these twenty-six books On Animals, partly from little work 15 On Vegetables and Plants reviewed in the preceding volume, and partly from other works of Albert, and thus collected into one by a certain curious person. To these must be added the testimony of Ptolemy of Lucca, New Ecclesiastical History, book 22, chapter 18, where he has thus: This man (Albert) commented on the whole logic of Aristotle and the whole natural philosophy, and as regards the particular experience of natures he handed it down most clearly and most excellently.