Opera et verba sapientiae: Astrology and Magic in Roger Bacon

Abstract

In order to explore the particular configuration of Roger Bacon’s views on what we call magic and thus complete Part III of volume I, I will now treat the second half of what Bridges printed as the last section of Opus Maius, Book IV, the section entitled ‘Astrologia’ (390–403). As we will recall, I discussed the first part of this section in the Excursus and in Chap. 2. The part of this section to be discussed here treats the uses of astrology that go beyond mere knowledge—what we would call “magic,” but which Roger decidedly does not, using instead the phrase ‘opera et verba sapientiae’ (“the works and words of wisdom”). It thus falls within the operative (operativa) part of the science of the stars, not the interpretive or judicial (iudiciaria) part that was explored in Chaps. 4 and 6. For Roger, as we saw, what he calls “magic” is entirely negative, as what they call “divination” is also for both him and Thomas, and “necromancy” is for the Magister Speculi and “nigromancy” for Thomas. This chapter should be read in relation to the contemporary discussion of talismans and the power of words in Albert’s authentic works, the Speculum astronomiae, and Thomas Aquinas’s discussions in Summa contra gentiles III.105, Summa Theologiae II.II.96.2 and the De operationibus occultis naturae as just discussed in Chap. 7.