Bacon compared with Rufus
Most of Bacon's citations of Rufus are paraphrases. However, at least one of his citations of Rufus' In Physicam includes a short verbatim quotation. According to Bacon, proponents of a position he rejects (alia positio) believe that a measure such as a denary does not number ten things because they are those ten things but because one is replicated ten times among them. At In Physicam 4.3.18 (p. 180), Rufus uses the same words to explain what appears to him (mihi videtur). The two statements are reproduced below using the stylistic conventions of the Bacon edition (Opera hactenus inedita (OHI) 13: 277).
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Bacon, OHI 13: 277
Similiter dicunt de denario quia non numerat hec .x. quia hec .x., sed quia in his est totius replicatum. |
Rufus, In Phys., p. 180
Propterea mihi videtur ... Denarius mensurat hec .x. non quia hec, sed quia in his est unum totius replicatum, et illud invenitur in omnibus decem. |