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Roger Bacon
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For other people named Roger Bacon, see Roger Bacon (disambiguation).

Roger Bacon
Order of Friars Minor

Born
c.1219/20[n 1]
near Ilchester, Somerset, England
Died
c.1292[2][3]
near Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Nationality
English
Othernames
Doctor Mirabilis
Almamater
University of Oxford
Occupation
Friar, scholar
Organization
Order of Friars Minor

Roger Bacon, OFM (Latin: Rogerus or Rogerius Bacon, also Frater Rogerus,
"Brother Roger"; c.1219/20 c.1292), also known by the scholastic accolade
Doctor Mirabilis (Latin for "wondrous doctor"), was an English philosopher

and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of

nature through empirical methods. In the early modern era, he was regarded
as a wizard and particularly famed for the story of his mechanical or
necromantic brazen head. He is sometimes credited (mainly since the 19th
century) as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific
method inspired by Aristotle and by later scholars such as the Arab scientist
Alhazen.[4] His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of a
universal grammar. However, more recent re-evaluations emphasise that
Roger Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his
"experimental" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition.[5]
He was, however, partially responsible for a revision of the medieval
university curriculum, which saw the addition of optics to the traditional
quadrivium.[6] A survey of how Bacon's work was received over the centuries
found that it often reflected the concerns and controversies that were central
to his readers.[7]
Bacon's major work, the Opus Majus, was sent to Pope Clement IV in Rome
in 1267 upon the pope's request. Although gunpowder was first invented and
described in China, Roger Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula.
Contents [hide]
1
Life
2
Works
2.1
Opus Majus
2.2
Secret of Secrets
2.3
Alchemy
2.4
Linguistics
2.5
Other works
2.6
Apocrypha
3
Legacy
4
In popular culture
5
See also
6
Notes
7

References
7.1
Citations
7.2
Bibliography
8
External links

Life[edit]

The memorial to Roger Bacon at StMary Major, Ilchester

Roger Bacon was born in Ilchester in Somerset, England, in the early 13th
century, although his date of birth is sometimes narrowed down to c.1210,[8]
"1213 or 1214",[9] or "1214 or 1215".[10] However, historians most agree on c.
1220.[8] The only source for his birth date is a statement from his 1267 Opus
Tertium that "forty years have passed since I first learned the Alphabetum".[11]
The latest dates assume this referred to the alphabet itself, but elsewhere in
the Opus Tertium it is clear that Bacon uses the term to refer to rudimentary
studies, the trivium or quadrivium that formed the medieval curriculum.[12] His
family appears to have been well off.[13]
Bacon studied at Oxford.[n 2] While Robert Grosseteste had probably left
shortly before Bacon's arrival, his work and legacy almost certainly influenced
the young scholar[8] and it is possible Bacon subsequently visited him and
William of Sherwood in Lincoln.[15] Bacon became a master at Oxford,
lecturing on Aristotle. There is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate.
(The title Doctor Mirabilis was posthumous and figurative.) A caustic cleric
named Roger Bacon is recorded speaking before the king at Oxford in 1233.
[16]

A diorama of Bacon presenting one of his works to the chancellors of Paris University

In 1237 or some time over the next decade, he accepted an invitation to

teach at the University of Paris.[17] While there, he lectured on Latin grammar,
Aristotelian logic, arithmetic, geometry, and the mathematical aspects of
astronomy and music.[18] His faculty colleagues included Robert Kilwardby,
Albertus Magnus, and Peter of Spain,[19] the future Pope John XXI.[20] The
Cornishman Richard Rufus was a scholarly opponent.[18] In 1247 or soon
after, he left his position in Paris.[20]

A 19th-century engraving of Bacon observing the stars at Oxford

As a private scholar, his whereabouts for the next decade are uncertain[21] but
he was likely in Oxford c.124851, where he met Adam Marsh, and in Paris
in 1251.[18] He seems to have studied most of the known Greek and Arabic
works on optics[19] (then known as "perspective", perspectiva). A passage in
the Opus Tertium states that at some point he took a two-year break from his
studies.[11]

By the late 1250s, resentment against the king's preferential treatment of his
migr Poitevin relatives led to a coup and the imposition of the Provisions of
Oxford and Westminster, instituting a baronial council and more frequent
parliaments. Pope Urban IV absolved the king of his oath in 1261 and, after
an initial abortive resistance, Simon de Montfort a forceenlarged due to
recent crop failuresthat prosecuted the Second Barons' War. Bacon's own
family were considered royal partisans:[22] De Montfort's men seized their
property[n 3] and drove several members into exile.[2]

Ernest Board's portrayal of Bacon in his observatory at Merton College

In 1256 or '57, he became a friar in the Franciscan Order in either Paris or

Oxford, following the example of scholarly English Franciscans such as
Grosseteste and Marsh.[18] After 1260, Bacon's activities were restricted by a
statute prohibiting the friars of his order from publishing books or pamphlets
without prior approval.[23] He was likely kept at constant menial tasks to limit
his time for contemplation[24] and came to view his treatment as an enforced
absence from scholarly life.[18]
By the mid-1260s, he was undertaking a search for patrons who could secure
permission and funding for his return to Oxford.[24] For a time, Bacon was
finally able to get around his superiors' interference through his acquaintance
with Guy de Foulques, bishop of Narbonne, cardinal of Sabina, and the papal
legate who negotiated between England's royal and baronial factions.[22]
In 1263 or '64, a message garbled by Bacon's messenger, Raymond of Laon,
led Guy to believe that Bacon had already completed a summary of the
sciences. In fact, he had no money to research, let alone copy, such a work

and attempts to secure financing from his family were thwarted by the civil
war in England. However, in 1265, Guy was summoned to a conclave at
Perugia that elected him Pope Clement IV.[25] William Benecor, who had
previously been the courier between Henry III and the pope, now carried the
correspondence between Bacon and Clement.[25] Clement's reply of 22 June
1266 commissioned "writings and remedies for current conditions", instructing
Bacon not to violate any standing "prohibitions" of his order but to carry out
his task in utmost secrecy.[25]
While faculties of the time were largely limited to addressing disputes on the
known texts of Aristotle, Clement's patronage permitted Bacon to engage in a
wide-ranging consideration of the state of knowledge in his era.[18] In 1267 or
'68, Bacon sent the Pope his Opus Majus, which presented his views on how
to incorporate Aristotelian logic and science into a new theology, supporting
Grosseteste's text-based approach against the "sentence method" then
fashionable.[18]
Bacon also sent his Opus Minus, De Multiplicatione Specierum,[26] De
Speculis Comburentibus, an optical lens,[18] and possibly other works on
alchemy and astrology.[26][n 4] The entire process has been called "one of the
most remarkable single efforts of literary productivity", with Bacon composing
referenced works of around a million words in about a year.[27]
Pope Clement died in 1268 and Bacon lost his protector. The Condemnations
of 1277 banned the teaching of certain philosophical doctrines, including
deterministic astrology. Some time within the next two years, Bacon was
apparently imprisoned or placed under house arrest. This was traditionally
ascribed to Franciscan Minister-General Jerome of Ascoli, probably acting on
behalf of the many clergy, monks, and educators attacked by Bacon's 1271
Compendium Studii Philosophiae.[2]
Modern scholarship, however, notes that the first reference to Bacon's
"imprisonment" dates from eighty years after his death on the charge of
unspecified "suspected novelties"[28][29] and finds it less than credible.[30]
Contemporary scholars who do accept Bacon's imprisonment typically
associate it with Bacon's "attraction to contemporary prophesies",[31] his
sympathies for "the radical 'poverty' wing of the Franciscans",[30] interest in
certain astrological doctrines,[32] or generally combative personality[29] rather
than from "any scientific novelties which he may have proposed".[30]
Sometime after 1278, Bacon returned to the Franciscan House at Oxford,
where he continued his studies[33] and is presumed to have spent most of the
remainder of his life. His last dateable writingthe Compendium Studii
Theologiaewas completed in 1292.[2] He seems to have died shortly
afterwards and been buried at Oxford.[3]

Works[edit]

A manuscript illustration of Bacon presenting one of his works to the chancellor of the
University of Paris.

Medieval European philosophy often relied on appeals to the authority of

Church Fathers such as StAugustine, and on works by Plato and Aristotle
only known at second hand or through (sometimes highly inaccurate) Latin
translations. By the 13th century, new works and better versionsin Arabic or
in new Latin translations from the Arabicbegan to trickle north from Muslim
Spain. In Roger Bacon's writings, he upholds Aristotle's calls for the collection
of facts before deducing scientific truths, against the practices of his
contemporaries, arguing that "thence cometh quiet to the mind".
Bacon also called for reform with regard to theology. He argued that, rather
than training to debate minor philosophical distinctions, theologians should
focus their attention primarily on the Bible itself, learning the languages of its
original sources thoroughly. He was fluent in several of these languages and
was able to note and bemoan several corruptions of scripture, and of the
works of the Greek philosophers that had been mistranslated or
misinterpreted by scholars working in Latin. He also argued for the education
of theologians in science ("natural philosophy") and its addition to the
medieval curriculum.

Opus Majus[edit]

Optic studies by Bacon

Main article: Opus Majus

Bacon's Greater Work, the Opus Majus or Opus Maius,[n 5] contains
treatments of mathematics, optics, alchemy, and astronomy, including
theories on the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies. It is divided into
seven sections: "The Four General Causes of Human Ignorance" (Causae
Erroris),[34] "The Affinity of Philosophy with Theology" (Philosophiae cum
Theologia Affinitas),[35] "On the Usefulness of Grammar" (De Utilitate
Grammaticae),[36] "The Usefulness of Mathematics in Physics" (Mathematicae
in Physicis Utilitas),[37] "On the Science of Perspective" (De Scientia
Perspectivae),[38] "On Experimental Knowledge" (De Scientia Experimentali),
[39] and "A Philosophy of Morality" (Moralis Philosophia).[40]
It was not intended as a complete work but as a "persuasive
preamble" (persuasio praeambula), an enormous proposal for a reform of the
medieval university curriculum and the establishment of a kind of library or
encyclopedia, bringing in experts to compose a collection of definitive texts on
these subjects.[41] The new subjects were to be "perspective" (i.e., optics),
"astronomy" (inclusive of astronomy proper, astrology, & the geography

necessary in order to use them), "weights" (like some treatment of mechanics

but this section of the Opus Majus has been lost), alchemy, agriculture
(inclusive of botany and zoology), medicine, and "experimental science", a
philosophy of science that would guide the others.[41] The section on
geography was allegedly originally ornamented with a map based on ancient
and Arabic computations of longitude and latitude, but has since been lost.[42]
His (mistaken) arguments supporting the idea that dry land formed the larger
proportion of the globe were apparently similar to those which later guided
Columbus.[42]
In this work Bacon criticises his contemporaries Alexander of Hales and
Albertus Magnus, who were held in high repute despite having only acquired
their knowledge of Aristotle at second hand during their preaching careers.[43]
[44] Albert was received at Paris as an authority equal to Aristotle, Avicenna,
and Averros,[45] a situation Bacon decried: "never in the world [had] such
monstrosity occurred before."[46]
Calendrical reform[edit]
Main: Calendrical reform and Gregorian calendar
In Part IV of the Opus Majus, Bacon proposed a calendrical reform similar to
the later system introduced in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII.[37] Drawing on
ancient Greek and medieval Islamic astronomy recently introduced to western
Europe via Spain, Bacon continued the work of Robert Grosseteste and
criticized the then-current Julian calendar as "intolerable, horrible, and
laughable".
It had become apparent that Eudoxus and Sosigenes's assumption of a year
of 365 days was, over the course of centuries, too inexact. Bacon charged
that this meant the computation of Easter had shifted forward by 9 days since
the First Council of Nicaea in 325.[47] His proposal to drop one day every 125
years[37][48] and to cease the observance of fixed equinoxes and solstices[47]
was not acted upon following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268. The
eventual Gregorian calendar drops one day from the first three centuries in
each set of 400 years.
Optics[edit]

Bacon's diagram of light being refracted by a spherical container of water

See also: History of optics

In Part V of the Opus Majus, Bacon discusses physiology of eyesight and the
anatomy of the eye and the brain, considering light, distance, position, and
size, direct and reflected vision, refraction, mirrors, and lenses.[38] His
treatment was primarily oriented by the Latin translation of Alhazen's Book of
Optics. He also draws heavily on Eugene of Palermo's Latin translation of the
Arabic translation of Ptolemy's Optics; on Robert Grosseteste's work based
on Al-Kindi's Optics; [4][49] and, through Alhazen, on Ibn Sahl's work on
dioptrics.[50]
Gunpowder[edit]

"Roger Bacon discovers gunpowder", "whereby Guy Fawkes was made possible",[51] an
image from Bill Nye's Comic History of England[52]

A passage in the Opus Majus and another in the Opus Tertium are usually
taken as the first European descriptions of a mixture containing the essential
ingredients of gunpowder. Partington and others have come to the conclusion
that Bacon most likely witnessed at least one demonstration of Chinese
firecrackers, possibly obtained by Franciscansincluding Bacon's friend
William of Rubruckwho visited the Mongol Empire during this period.[53][n 6]
The most telling passage reads:
We have an example of these things (that act on the senses) in [the sound
and fire of] that children's toy which is made in many [diverse] parts of the
world; i.e. a device no bigger than one's thumb. From the violence of that salt
called saltpetre [together with sulphur and willow charcoal, combined into a
powder] so horrible a sound is made by the bursting of a thing so small, no
more than a bit of parchment [containing it], that we find [the ear assaulted by
a noise] exceeding the roar of strong thunder, and a flash brighter than the
most brilliant lightning.[53]
At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry William Lovett Hime of the Royal
Artillery published the theory that Bacon's Epistola contained a cryptogram
giving a recipe for the gunpowder he witnessed.[55] The theory was criticized
by Thorndike in a 1915 letter to Science[56] and several books, a position
joined by Muir,[57] Stillman,[57] Steele,[58] and Sarton.[59] Needham & al.
concurred with these earlier critics that the additional passage did not
originate with Bacon[53] and further showed that the proportions supposedly
deciphered (a 7:5:5 ratio of saltpetre to charcoal to sulphur) as not even

useful for firecrackers, burning slowly with a great deal of smoke and failing to
ignite inside a gun barrel.[60] The ~41% nitrate content is too low to have
explosive properties.[61]

Friar Bacon in his study[62]

Secret of Secrets[edit]
Main article: Secretum Secretorum
Bacon attributed the Secret of Secrets (Secretum Secretorum), the Islamic
"Mirror of Princes" (Arabic: Sirr al-asrar), to Aristotle, thinking that he had
composed it for Alexander the Great. Bacon produced an edited edition
complete with his own introduction and notes and his writings of the 1260s
and 1270s cite it far more than his contemporaries did. This led Easton[63] and
others including Robert Steele[64] to argue that the text spurred Bacon's own
transformation into an experimentalist. (Bacon never described such a
decisive impact himself.)[64] The dating of Bacon's edition of the Secret of
Secrets is a key piece of evidence in the debate, with those arguing for a
greater impact giving it an earlier date,[64] but it certainly influenced the elder
Bacon's conception of the political aspects of his work in the sciences.[18]

Alchemy[edit]

A 19th-century etching of Bacon conducting an alchemical experiment

Bacon has been credited with a number of alchemical texts.[65]

The Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature and on the Vanity of
Magic (Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae),
[66] also known as On the Wonderful Powers of Art and Nature (De Mirabili
Potestate Artis et Naturae), dismisses practices such as necromancy[67] but
contains most of the alchemical formulae attributed to Bacon,[65] including one
for a philosopher's stone[68] and another possibly for gunpowder.[53] It also
includes several passages about hypothetical flying machines and
submarines, attributing their first use to Alexander the Great.[69] On the Vanity
of Magic or The Nullity of Magic is a debunking of esoteric claims in Bacon's
time, showing that they could be explained by natural phenomena.[70]

Linguistics[edit]
Main article: Summa Grammatica
See also: Universal grammar
Bacon's early linguistic and logical works are the Overview of Grammar
(Summa Grammatica), Summa de Sophismatibus et Distinctionibus, and the
Summulae Dialectices or Summulae super Totam Logicam.[18] These are
mature but essentially conventional presentations of Oxford and Paris's
terminist and pre-modist logic and grammar.[18] His later work in linguistics is
much more idiosyncratic, using terminology and addressing questions unique
in his era.[71]
In his Greek and Hebrew Grammars (Grammatica Graeca and Hebraica), in
his work "On the Usefulness of Grammar" (Book III of the Opus Majus), and
in his Compendium of the Study of Philosophy,[71] Bacon stresses the need for
scholars to know several languages.[72] Europe's vernacular languages are not
ignoredhe considers them useful for practical purposes such as trade,
proselytism, and administrationbut Bacon is mostly interested in his era's
languages of science and religion: Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.[72]
Bacon is less interested in a full practical mastery of the other languages than
on a theoretical understanding of their grammatical rules, ensuring that a
Latin reader will not misunderstand passages' original meaning.[72] For this
reason, his treatments of Greek and Hebrew grammar are not isolated works
on their topic[72] but contrastive grammars treating the aspects which
influenced Latin or which were required for properly understanding Latin
texts.[73] He pointedly states, "I want to describe Greek grammar for the
benefit of Latin speakers".[74][n 7] It is likely only this limited sense which was
intended by Bacon's boast that he could teach an interested pupil a new
language within three days.[73][n 8]
Passages in the Overview and the Greek grammar have been taken as an
early exposition of a universal grammar underlying all human languages.[75]
The Greek grammar contains the tersest and most famous exposition:[75]

Grammar is one and the same in all languages, substantially, though it may
vary, accidentally, in each of them.[78][n 9]
However, Bacon's disinterest in studying a literal grammar underlying the
languages known to him and his numerous works on linguistics and
comparative linguistics has prompted Hovdhaugen to question the usual
literal translation of Bacon's grammatica in such passages.[79] She notes the
ambiguity in the Latin term, which could refer variously to the structure of
language, to its description, and to the science underlying such descriptions:
i.e., linguistics.[79]

Other works[edit]

A portrait of Roger Bacon from a 15th-century edition of De Retardatione[80]

The first page of the letter from Bacon to Clement IV introducing his Opus Tertium[81]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Bacon states that his Lesser Work (Opus Minus) and Third Work (Opus
Tertia) were originally intended as summaries of the Opus Majus in case it
was lost in transit.[41] Easton's review of the texts suggests that they became
separate works over the course of the laborious process of creating a fair
copy of the Opus Majus, whose half-million words were copied by hand and
apparently greatly revised at least once.[27]
Other works by Bacon include his "Tract on the Multiplication of
Species" (Tractatus de Multiplicatione Specierum),[82] "On Burning
Lenses" (De Speculis Comburentibus), the Communia Naturalium and
Mathematica, the "Compendium of the Study of Philosophy" and "of
Theology" (Compendium Studii Philosophiae and Theologiae), and his
Computus.[18] The "Compendium of the Study of Theology", presumably

written in the last years of his life, was an anticlimax: adding nothing new, it is
principally devoted to the concerns of the 1260s.

Apocrypha[edit]
The Mirror of Alchimy (Speculum Alchemiae), a short treatise on the origin
and composition of metals, is traditionally credited to Bacon.[83] It espouses
the Arabian theory of mercury and sulphur forming the other metals, with
vague allusions to transmutation. Stillman opined that "there is nothing in it
that is characteristic of Roger Bacon's style or ideas, nor that distinguishes it
from many unimportant alchemical lucubrations of anonymous writers of the
thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries", and Muir and Lippmann also considered
it a pseudepigraph.[84]
The cryptic Voynich manuscript has been attributed to Bacon by various
sources, including by its first recorded owner,[85][86][87] but historians of science
Lynn Thorndike and George Sarton dismissed these claims as unsupported.
[88][89][90] and the vellum of the manuscript has since been dated to the 15th
century.[91]

Legacy[edit]

A woodcut from Robert Greene's play displaying the Brazen Head pronouncing "Time is.
Time was. Time is past."

"Friar Bacon's Study" in Oxford. By the late 18th century this study on Folly Bridge had
become a place of pilgrimage for scientists, but the building was pulled down in 1779 to
allow for road widening.[92]

The Westgate plaque at Oxford

Bacon was largely ignored by his contemporaries in favor of other scholars

such as Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas,[13] although his
works were studied by Bonaventure, John Pecham, and Peter of Limoges,
through whom he may have influenced Raymond Lull.[19] He was also partially
responsible for the addition of optics (perspectiva) to the medieval university
curriculum.[6]

By the early modern period, the English considered him the epitome of a wise
and subtle possessor of forbidden knowledge, a Faust-like magician who had
tricked the devil and so was able to go to heaven. Of these legends, one of
the most prominent was that he created a talking brazen head which could
answer any question. The story appears in the anonymous 16th-century
account of The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon,[n 10] in which Bacon speaks
with a demon but causes the head to speak by "the continuall fume of the six
hottest Simples",[95] testing his theory that speech is caused by "an effusion of
vapors".[96]
Around 1589, Robert Greene adapted the story for the stage as The
Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay,[97][98][99] one of the most
successful Elizabethan comedies.[98] As late as the 1640s, Thomas Browne
was still complaining that "Every ear is filled with the story of Frier Bacon, that
made a brazen head to speak these words, Time is".[100] Greene's Bacon
spent seven years creating a brass head that would speak "strange and
uncouth aphorisms"[101] to enable him to encircle Britain with a wall of brass
that would make it impossible to conquer.
Unlike his source material, Greene does not cause his head to operate by
natural forces but by "nigromantic charms" and "the enchanting forces of the
devil":[102] i.e., by entrapping a dead spirit[96] or hobgoblin.[103] Bacon collapses,
exhausted, just before his device comes to life and announces "Time is",
"Time was", and "Time is Past"[104] before being destroyed in spectacular
fashion: the stage direction instructs that "a lightening flasheth forth, and a
hand appears that breaketh down the Head with a hammer".[105]
A necromantic head was ascribed to Pope SylvesterII as early as the 1120s,
[106][n 11] but Browne considered the legend to be a misunderstanding of a
passage in Peter the Good's c.1335 Precious Pearl where the negligent
alchemist misses the birth of his creation and loses it forever.[100] The story
may also preserve the work by Bacon and his contemporaries to construct
clockwork armillary spheres.[109] Bacon had praised a "self-activated working
model of the heavens" as "the greatest of all things which have been
devised".[110]
As early as the 16th century, natural philosophers like Bruno, Dee,[111] and
Francis Bacon[6] were attempting to rehabilitate Bacon's reputation and to
portray him as a scientific pioneer who had avoided the petty bickering of his
contemporaries to attempt a rational understanding of nature. By the 19th
century, commenters following Whewell[112][6] considered that "Bacon... was not
appreciated in his age because he was so completely in advance of it; he is a
16th or 17th century philosopher, whose lot has been by some accident cast
in the 13th century".[13] His assertions in the Opus Majus that "theories
supplied by reason should be verified by sensory data, aided by instruments,

and corroborated by trustworthy witnesses"[113] were (and still are) considered

"one of the first important formulations of the scientific method on record".[70]
This idea that Bacon was a modern experimental scientist reflected two views
of the period: that the principal form of scientific activity is experimentation
and that 13th-century Europe still represented the "Dark Ages".[114] This view,
which is still reflected in some 21st-century popular science books,[117]
portrays Bacon as an advocate of modern experimental science who
emerged as a solitary genius in an age hostile to his ideas.[118] Based on
Bacon's apocrypha, he is also portrayed as a visionary who predicted the
invention of the submarine, aircraft, and automobile.[119]
However, in the course of the 20th century, Husserl, Heidegger, and others
emphasized the importance to modern science of Cartesian and Galilean
projections of mathematics over sensory perceptions of nature; Heidegger in
particular noted the lack of such an understanding in Bacon's works.[6]
Although Crombie,[120] Kuhn,[121] and Schramm[122] continued to argue for
Bacon's importance to the development of "qualitative" areas of modern
science,[6] Duhem,[123] Thorndike,[124][125] Carton,[126] and Koyr[127] emphasized
the essentially medieval nature of Bacon's scientia experimentalis.[126][128]
Research also established that Bacon was not as isolatedand probably not
as persecutedas was once thought. Many medieval sources of and
influences on Bacon's scientific activity have been identified.[129] In particular,
Bacon often mentioned his debt to the work of Robert Grosseteste:[130] his
work on optics and the calendar followed Grosseteste's lead,[131] as did his
idea that inductively-derived conclusions should be submitted for verification
through experimental testing.[132]
Bacon noted of William of Sherwood that "nobody was greater in philosophy
than he";[133][134] praised Peter of Maricourt (the author of "A Letter on
Magnetism")[135] and John of London as "perfect" mathematicians; Campanus
of Novara (the author of works on astronomy, astrology, and the calendar)
and a Master Nicholas as "good";[136] and acknowledged the influence of
Adam Marsh and lesser figures. He was clearly not an isolated genius.[130] The
medieval church was also not generally opposed to scientific investigation[137]
and medieval science was both varied and extensive.[n 12]
As a result, the picture of Bacon has changed. Bacon is now seen as part of
his age: a leading figure in the beginnings of the medieval universities at
Paris and Oxford but one joined in the development of the philosophy of
science by Robert Grosseteste, William of Auvergne, Henry of Ghent, Albert
Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.[139]
Lindberg summarised:
Bacon was not a modern, out of step with his age, or a harbinger of things to
come, but a brilliant, combative, and somewhat eccentric schoolman of the
thirteenth century, endeavoring to take advantage of the new learning just

becoming available while remaining true to traditional notions... of the

importance to be attached to philosophical knowledge".[140]
A recent review of the many visions of Bacon across the ages says
contemporary scholarship still neglects one of the most important aspects of
his life and thought: his commitment to the Franciscan order.
His Opus maius was a plea for reform addressed to the supreme spiritual
head of the Christian faith, written against a background of apocalyptic
expectation and informed by the driving concerns of the friars. It was
designed to improve training for missionaries and to provide new skills to be
employed in the defence of the Christian world against the enmity of nonChristians and of the Antichrist. It cannot usefully be read solely in the context
of the history of science and philosophy.[7]
With regard to religion's influence on Bacon's philosophy, Charles Sanders
Peirce noted, "To Roger Bacon,... the schoolmen's conception of reasoning
appeared only an obstacle to truth... [but] Of all kinds of experience, the best,
he thought, was interior illumination, which teaches many things about Nature
which the external senses could never discover, such as the
transubstantiation of bread."[141]
In Oxford lore, Bacon is credited as the namesake of Folly Bridge for having
gotten himself placed under house arrest nearby.[142] Although this is probably
untrue,[143] it had formerly been known as "Friar Bacon's Bridge".[144] Bacon is
also honoured at Oxford by a "concrete slab breeze-blocked to the wall of the
Westgate car park, behind a tree renowned for being carpeted with dog
mess".[142]

In popular culture[edit]

William Blake's visionary head of "Friar Bacon"

To commemorate the 700th anniversary of Bacon's approximate year of birth,

Prof. J. Erskine wrote the biographical play A Pageant of the Thirteenth
Century, which was performed and published by Columbia University in 1914.

A fictionalized account of Bacon's life and times also appears in the

second book of James Blish's After Such Knowledge trilogy, the 1964 Doctor
Mirabilis.[147] Bacon serves as a mentor to the protagonists of Thomas
Costain's 1945 The Black Rose,[148][149] Umberto Eco's 1980 The Name of the
Rose,[150] and David Flusfeder's John the Pupil. He is the protagonist's
sidekick in John Bellairs's The Face in the Frost.
Greene's play prompted a less successful sequel John of Bordeaux and was
recast as a children's story for James Baldwin's 1905 Thirty More Famous
Stories Retold.[151] "The Brazen Head of Friar Bacon" also appears in Daniel
Defoe's 1722 Journal of the Plague Year, Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1843 "The
Birth-Mark" and 1844 "The Artist of the Beautiful", William Douglas
O'Connor's 1891 "The Brazen Android" (where Bacon devises it to terrify King
Henry into accepting Simon de Montfort's demands for greater democracy),
[152][153] John Cowper Powys's 1956 The Brazen Head, and Robertson Davies's
1970 Fifth Business.[154]
[145][146]

See also[edit]

Oxford Franciscan school

History of geomagnetism, of translation, of the scientific method, & of
science in the Middle Ages
List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
Witelo
Baco, a lunar crater named for Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon High School

Notes[edit]
1

Jump up
^ In a 1267 statement from Opus tertium, Bacon claimed that it was forty
years since he had learned the alphabet and that for all but two of these he
had been in studio. Assuming that Bacon started his education at age
seven or eight, Crowley estimated his birthdate to be 1219 or 1220.[1]
Jump up
^ Bacon has been claimed as an alumnus by both Merton and Brasenose,
despite having attended before the establishment of the collegiate system.[14]
Jump up
^ Though probably granting it to a partisan of their own cause, rather than
razing it to the ground as is sometimes reported.[22]
Jump up
^ It is still uncertain whether the Opus Tertium was sent with the others or
kept for further revision and development.[18]
Jump up
^ In his works, Bacon also refers to it as his "primary writing" (scriptum
principale).[25]
Jump up
^ "Europeans were prompted by all this to take a closer interest in

happenings far to the east. Four years after the invasion of 1241, the pope
sent an ambassador to the Great Khan's capital in Mongolia. Other travellers
followed later, of whom the most interesting was William of Rubruck (or
Ruysbroek). He returned in 1257, and in the following year there are reports
of experiments with gunpowder and rockets at Cologne. Then a friend of
William of Rubruck, Roger Bacon, gave the first account of gunpowder and
its use in fireworks to be written in Europe. A form of gunpowder had been
known in China since before AD 900, and as mentioned earlier... Much of this
knowledge had reached the Islamic countries by then, and the saltpetre used
in making gunpowder there was sometimes referred to, significantly, as
'Chinese snow'."[54]
Jump up
^ Latin: Cupiens igitur exponere gramaticam grecam ad vtilitatem latinorum.
[74]

Jump up
^ It has been claimed that the copies of Bacon's grammars which have
survived was not their final form, but Hovdhaugen considers thateven if
that were the casethe final form would have been similar in scope to the
surviving texts and mostly focused on improving a Latinate reader's
understanding of texts in translation.[73]
9 Jump up
^ Latin: ...grammatica vna et eadem est secundum substanciam in omnibus
linguis, licet accidentaliter varietur....[74]
10 Jump up
^ Although the manuscript was circulated in by c.1555, it was not published
until 1627.[93] It was republished in the mid-19th century.[94]
11 Jump up
^ Malmesbury even notes that "probably some may regard all this as a
fiction, because the vulgar are used to undermine the fame of scholars,
saying that the man who excels in any admirable science, holds converse
with the devil"[107] but professes himself willing to believe the stories about
Sylvester because of the (spurious) accounts he had of the pope's "shameful
end".[108]
12 Jump up
^ "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed in the Age of Reason,
they were only made possible because of the long medieval tradition that
established the use of reason as one of the most important of human
activities."[138]

References[edit]
Citations[edit]
1

Jump up
^ Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons.
2008.
^ Jump up to:
a b c d EB (1878), p.220.

^ Jump up to:
ODNB (2004).
^ Jump up to:
a b Ackerman (1978), p.119.
Jump up
^ MSTM (2005).
^ Jump up to:
a b c d e f SEP (2013), 1.
^ Jump up to:
a b Power (2006).
^ Jump up to:
a b c Hackett (1997), "Life", p.10.
Jump up
^ James (1928).
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", p.11.
^ Jump up to:
a b Hackett (1997), "Life", p.9.
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1011.
^ Jump up to:
a b c EB (1878), p.218.
Jump up
^ Clegg (2003), p.111.
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", p.12.
Jump up
^ Paris, Chron. Maj., Vol. III, pp. 244245.
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1314.
^ Jump up to:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m SEP (2013), 2.
^ Jump up to:
a b c SEP (2013), Intro..
^ Jump up to:
a b Hackett (1997), "Life", p.14.
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", p.15.
^ Jump up to:
a b c Clegg (2003), p.63.
Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1317.
^ Jump up to:
a b Clegg (2003), p.62.
a b

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

25 ^ Jump up to:
a b c d Clegg (2003), p.64.
26 ^ Jump up to:
a b Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1719.
27 ^ Jump up to:
a b Clegg (2003), p.67.
28 Jump up
^ Chronicle of the 24 Generals, late 14th c.
29 ^ Jump up to:
a b Maloney (1988), p.8.
30 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Lindberg (1995), p.70.
31 Jump up
^ Shank (2009), p.21.
32 Jump up
^ Sidelko (1996).
33 Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1920.
34 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), Vol.I, Pt.I & (1900), Vol.III, Pt.I.
35 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), Vol.I, Pt.II & (1900), Vol.III, Pt.II.
36 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), Vol.I, Pt.III & (1900), Vol.III, Pt.III.
37 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Bridges (1897), Vol.I, Pt.IV
38 ^ Jump up to:
a b Bridges (1897), Vol.II, Pt.V
39 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), Vol.II, Pt.VI
40 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), Vol.II, Pt.VII
41 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Clegg (2003), p.66.
42 ^ Jump up to:
a b Worthies (1828), pp.4546
43 Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Classification", pp.4952.
44 Jump up
^ Hackett (1980).
45 Jump up
^ Easton (1952), pp.210219.
46 Jump up
^ LeMay (1997), pp.4041.

47 ^ Jump up to:
a b Duncan (2011), The Calendar, pp.12
48 Jump up
^ North (1983), pp.75, 8284.
49 Jump up
^ Ptolemy (1996), Optics, (Smith trans.), p.58
50 Jump up
^ El-Bizri (2005).
51 Jump up
^ Bill Nye's Comic History of England, 1896, p.136
52 Jump up
^ Bill Nye's Comic History of England, 1896, p.137
53 ^ Jump up to:
a b c d Needham, Lu & Wang (1987), pp.4850.
54 Jump up
^ Pacey (1991), p.45.
55 Jump up
^ Hodgkinson, William Richard Eaton (1911), "Gunpowder", in Chisholm,
Hugh, Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press
56 Jump up
^ Thorndike (1915).
57 ^ Jump up to:
a b Stillman (1924), p.202.
58 Jump up
^ Steele (1928).
59 Jump up
^ Sarton (1948), p.958.
60 Jump up
^ Needham, Lu & Wang (1987), Vol.V, Pt.7, p.358.
61 Jump up
^ Hall (1999), p.xxiv.
62 Jump up
^ Baldwin (1905), p.64.
63 Jump up
^ Easton (1952).
64 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Williams (1997).
65 ^ Jump up to:
a b Bartlett (2006), p.124.
66 Jump up
^ Brewer (1859), pp.523 ff.
67 Jump up
^ Zambelli (2007), pp.4849.
68 Jump up
^ Newman (1997), pp.328329.

69 Jump up
^ Gray (2011), pp.185186.
70 ^ Jump up to:
a b Borlik (2011), p.132.
71 ^ Jump up to:
a b Hovdhaugen (1990), p.121122.
72 ^ Jump up to:
a b c d Hovdhaugen (1990), p.128.
73 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Hovdhaugen (1990), p.129.
74 ^ Jump up to:
a b c Hovdhaugen (1990), p.123.
75 ^ Jump up to:
a b Murphy (1974), p.153.
76 Jump up
^ Nolan & al. (1902), p.27.
77 Jump up
^ Murphy (1974), p.154.
78 Jump up
^ Nolan,[76] cited in Murphy.[77]
79 ^ Jump up to:
a b Hovdhaugen (1990), p.127128.
80 Jump up
^ MS Bodl. 211.
81 Jump up
^ Brewer (1859), Plate III.
82 Jump up
^ Bridges (1897), p.405552.
83 Jump up
^ Zwart (2008), Understanding Nature, p.236
84 Jump up
^ Stillman (1924), p.271.
85 Jump up
^ Newbold & al. (1928).
86 ^ Jump up to:
a b Goldstone & al. (2005).
87 Jump up
^ Steele (20 Feb 2005), "The Bacon Code", NY Times
88 Jump up
^ Thorndike (Jan 1928), "Review of The Cipher of Roger Bacon", The
American Historical Review, Vol.34, No.2, pp.317319, JSTOR1838571
89 Jump up
^ Sarton (Sep 1928), "Review of The Cipher of Roger Bacon", Isis, Vol.11,
No.1, pp.141145, doi:10.1086/346365, JSTOR224770

90 Jump up
^ Foster (1999), "William Romaine Newbold", American National Biography
91 Jump up
^ "UA Experts Determine Age of Book 'Nobody Can Read'". University of
Arizona. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
92 Jump up
^ Fauvel & al. (2000), p.2.
93 Jump up
^ Fryer Bacon (1627).
94 Jump up
^ Early English Prose Romances: With Bibliographical and Historical
Introductions, London: Nattali & Bond, 1858
95 Jump up
^ Fryer Bacon (1627).
96 ^ Jump up to:
a b Borlik (2011), p.134.
97 Jump up
^ Greene (1594).
98 ^ Jump up to:
a b Borlik (2011), p.129.
99 Jump up
^ Kavey (2007), pp.3839.
100 ^ Jump up to:
a b Browne, Pseud. Epid., Bk.VII, Ch.xvii, 7.
101 Jump up
^ Greene, Fr. Bacon, iii.168.
102 Jump up
^ Greene, Fr. Bacon, xi.15 & 18.
103 Jump up
^ Greene, Fr. Bacon, xi.52.
104 Jump up
^ Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix.5373.
105 Jump up
^ Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix.72.
106 Jump up
^ Malmesbury, Chron., Bk.II., Ch. x., p.181.
107 Jump up
^ Malmesbury, Chron., Bk.II., Ch. x., p.174.
108 Jump up
^ Malmesbury, Chron., Bk.II., Ch. x., p.175.
109 Jump up
^ Borlik (2011), p.138.
110 Jump up
^ Bacon, De Null. Mag., 29.

111 Jump up
^ Borlik (2011), p.1324.
112 Jump up
^ Whewell (1858).
113 Jump up
^ Bacon, Opus Majus, Bk.&VI.
114 Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Scientia Experimentalis", p.279.
115 Jump up
^ Clegg (2003).
116 Jump up
^ Wooley (17 May 2003), "Review of The First Scientist", The Guardian
117 Jump up
^ E.g., Clegg's 2003 treatment of Roger Bacon, entitled The First Scientist.[115]
[116][86]

118 Jump up
^ Gray (2011), p.184.
119 Jump up
^ Mayer (1966), pp.500501.
120 Jump up
^ Crombie (1953).
121 Jump up
^ Kuhn (1976).
122 Jump up
^ Schramm (1998).
123 Jump up
^ Duhem (1915), p.442.
124 Jump up
^ Thorndike (1914).
125 Jump up
^ Thorndike (1916).
126 ^ Jump up to:
a b Hackett (1997), "Scientia Experimentalis", p.280.
127 Jump up
^ Koyr (1957).
128 Jump up
^ Lindberg (1996), p.lv.
129 Jump up
^ Hackett (1997), "Scientia Experimentalis", pp.279284.
130 ^ Jump up to:
a b Hackett (1997), "Life", pp.1112.
131 Jump up
^ Crombie (1990), p.129.
132 Jump up
^ Gauch (2003), p.222.

133 Jump up
^ Brewer (1859).
134 Jump up
^ Wood (1786), p.38.
135 Jump up
^ Turner (2010), North Pole, South Pole
136 Jump up
^ Molland (1997).
137 Jump up
^ Lindberg (2003).
138 Jump up
^ Grant (2001), p.9.
139 Jump up
^ Gauch (2003), p.51.
140 Jump up
^ Lindberg (1987), p.520.
141 Jump up
^ Peirce, Charles Sanders (1877), The Fixation of Belief
142 ^ Jump up to:
a b Smith (2010), "Bacon Friar".
143 Jump up
^ Thacker (1909), The Stripling Thames, Ch. 2
144 Jump up
^ C. (Aug 1829), "Friar Bacon's, or Folly Bridge, Oxford", Gentleman's
Magazine, p.105
145 Jump up
^ Erskine (1914).
146 Jump up
^ Baker (1933), Dramatic Bibliography, p.180
147 Jump up
^ Blish (1964).
148 Jump up
^ "Roger Bacon". The Black Rose. Google Sites. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
149 Jump up
^ "The Black Rose". Brandeis University. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
150 Jump up
^ Scult, A. (1985), "Book Reviews", The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol.71,
No.4, pp.489506, doi:10.1080/00335638509383751
151 Jump up
^ Baldwin (1905).
152 Jump up
^ Anders, Charlie Jane (18 May 2009), "Walt Whitman's Best Friend Wrote
the First Robot Revolution Story", io9
153 Jump up
^ O'Conner, "The Brazen Android" (audiobook hosted at Internet Archive).

154 Jump up
^ "Fifth Business". Study Mode. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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Primary sources[edit]

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Bacon, Roger (1859), Brewer, J.S., ed., Opera Quaedam Hactenus Inedita,
Vol.I: Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, Compedium Philosophiae, & De Nullitate
Magiae, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the
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Bacon: Edited, with Introduction and Analytical Table, Vols.I & II, Oxford:
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[Greek Grammar], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Latin)& (Greek)
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External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roger Bacon.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Roger Bacon

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Roger Bacon

Hackett, Jeremiah. "Roger Bacon". Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy.
"Roger Bacon". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Roger Bacon on Language". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913), "Roger Bacon", Catholic
Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company
19011906 Jewish Encyclopedia: Bacon, Roger
Roger Bacon Quotes at Convergence
Roger Bacon: On Experimental Science, 1268
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Roger Bacon", MacTutor
History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Brehm, Edmund A., Roger Bacon's Place in the History of Alchemy

"Roger-Bacon". Britannica Encyclopeda.
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