Friar Bacon’s Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature and Magick

Name: Frier Bacon his Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magick
Author: Attributed to Roger Bacon

The Epistola de secretis operibus artis et naturae, et de nullitate magiae, a letter ascribed to the thirteenth-century Franciscan Roger Bacon and addressed to William of Paris (or of Auvergne), argues that art and nature can achieve wonders far beyond the tricks of conjurers. It dismisses invocations, charms and characters, and then imagines self-propelled ships and carriages, flying machines, diving apparatus and optical marvels, before discussing the prolonging of life and the veiled language of the alchemists, ending with cryptic chapters on the philosophers' egg. This translation by T. M., made from John Dee's own copy, was published in London in 1659 with testimonies of learned men about Bacon. The text follows the EEBO-TCP transcription.

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1.Title page41 w.
2.The translator to the reader; the judgment of learned men concerning Friar Bacon699 w.
3.Letter to William of Paris, chapters 1–75,788 w.
4.Letter to William of Paris, chapters 8–112,829 w.

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