Roger Bacon

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Redirect Template:Distinguish Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox philosopher Roger Bacon Template:Post-nominals (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>"Bacon" Template:Webarchive entry in Collins English Dictionary.</ref> Template:Langx or Template:Lang, also Template:Wikt-lang Rogerus; Template:Circa), also known by the scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis, was a medieval English polymath, philosopher, scientist, theologian and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism. Intertwining his Catholic faith with scientific thinking, Roger Bacon is considered one of the greatest polymaths of the medieval period.

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 credited as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method, along with his teacher Robert Grosseteste. Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle. Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of a universal grammar, and 21st-century re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his "experimental" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition.Template:Sfnp He was, however, partially responsible for a revision of the medieval university curriculum, which saw the addition of optics to the traditional Template:Lang.Template:Sfnp

Bacon's major work, the Template:Lang, was sent to Pope Clement IV in Rome in 1267 upon the pope's request. Although gunpowder was first invented and described in China, Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula. Template:TOClimit

Life

Roger Bacon was born in Ilchester in Somerset, England, in the early 13th century. His birth is sometimes narrowed down to 1210,Template:Sfn 1213 or 1214,Template:Sfnp 1215Template:Sfn or 1220.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The only source for his birth date is a statement from his 1267 Template:Lang that "forty years have passed since I first learned the Template:Lang".Template:Sfn The latest dates assume this referred to the alphabet itself, but elsewhere in the Template:Lang it is clear that Bacon uses the term to refer to rudimentary studies, the trivium or quadrivium that formed the medieval curriculum.Template:Sfn His family appears to have been well off.Template:Sfnp

Bacon studied at Oxford.Template:Refn While Robert Grosseteste had probably left shortly before Bacon's arrival, his work and legacy almost certainly influenced the young scholarTemplate:Sfn and it is possible Bacon subsequently visited him and William of Sherwood in Lincoln.Template:Sfn Bacon became a Master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. There is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate. (The title Template:Lang was a posthumous scholastic accolade.) A caustic cleric named Roger Bacon is recorded speaking before the king at Oxford in 1233.<ref>Paris, Chron. Maj., Vol. III, pp. 244–245.</ref>

File:Roger Bacon Wellcome M0005408.jpg

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

In 1237 or at some point in the following decade, he accepted an invitation to teach at the University of Paris.Template:Sfn While there, he lectured on Latin grammar, Aristotelian logic, arithmetic, geometry, and the mathematical aspects of astronomy and music.Template:Sfnp His faculty colleagues included Robert Kilwardby, Albertus Magnus, and Peter of Spain,Template:Sfnp who may later become Pope as Pope John XXI.Template:Sfn The Cornishman Richard Rufus was a scholarly opponent.Template:Sfnp In 1247 or soon after, he left his position in Paris.Template:Sfn

File:Bacon 1867.jpg

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

As a private scholar, his whereabouts for the next decade are uncertainTemplate:Sfn but he was likely in Oxford Template:Circa–1251, where he met Adam Marsh, and in Paris in 1251.Template:Sfnp He seems to have studied most of the known Greek and Arabic works on optics Template:Sfnp (then known as "perspective", Template:Lang). A passage in the Template:Lang states that at some point he took a two-year break from his studies.Template:Sfn

By the late 1250s, resentment against the king's preferential treatment of his émigré 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 initial abortive resistance, Simon de Montfort led a force, enlarged due to recent crop failures, that prosecuted the Second Barons' War. Bacon's own family were considered royal partisans:Template:Sfnp De Montfort's men seized their propertyTemplate:Refn and drove several members into exile.Template:Sfnp

Wellcome Library, oil

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

In 1256 or 1257, 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.Template:Sfnp After 1260, Bacon's activities were restricted by a statute prohibiting the friars of his order from publishing books or pamphlets without prior approval.Template:Sfn He was likely kept at constant menial tasks to limit his time for contemplationTemplate:Sfnp and came to view his treatment as an enforced absence from scholarly life.Template:Sfnp

By the mid-1260s, he was undertaking a search for patrons who could secure permission and funding for his return to Oxford.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

In 1263 or 1264, 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 Second Barons' War. However, in 1265, Guy was summoned to a conclave at Perugia that elected him Template:Nowrap.Template:Sfnp William Benecor, who had previously been the courier between Henry III and the pope, now carried the correspondence between Bacon and Clement.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp In 1267 or '68, Bacon sent the Pope his Template:Lang, 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.Template:Sfnp

Bacon also sent his Template:Lang, Template:Lang,Template:Sfn Template:Lang, an optical lens,Template:Sfnp and possibly other works on alchemy and astrology.Template:Sfn Template:Refn 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.Template:Sfnp

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 Template:Lang.Template:Sfnp

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"<ref>Chronicle of the 24 Generals, late 14th century.</ref>Template:Sfnp and finds it less than credible.Template:Sfnp Contemporary scholars who do accept Bacon's imprisonment typically associate it with Bacon's "attraction to contemporary prophesies",Template:Sfnp his sympathies for "the radical 'poverty' wing of the Franciscans",Template:Sfnp interest in certain astrological doctrines,Template:Sfnp or generally combative personalityTemplate:Sfnp rather than from "any scientific novelties which he may have proposed".Template:Sfnp

Sometime after 1278, Bacon returned to the Franciscan House at Oxford, where he continued his studiesTemplate:Sfn and is presumed to have spent most of the remainder of his life. His last dateable writing—the Template:Lang—was completed in 1292.Template:Sfnp He seems to have died shortly afterwards and been buried at Oxford.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Works

File:Roger Bacon Wellcome M0004484.jpg

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 St Augustine, and on works by Plato and Aristotle only known at second hand or through Latin translations. By the 13th century, new works and better versions – in Arabic or in new Latin translations from the Arabic – began 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

File:Roger Bacon optics01.jpg

Optic studies by Bacon

Template:Main Bacon's 1267 Greater Work, the Template:Lang,Template:Refn 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" (Template:Lang),<ref name="baconI1">Template:Harvp & [[#Template:Harvid|(1900)]], Vol. III, Pt. I.</ref> "The Affinity of Philosophy with Theology" (Template:Lang),<ref name="baconI2">Template:Harvp & [[#Template:Harvid|(1900)]], Vol. III, Pt. II.</ref> "On the Usefulness of Grammar" (Template:Lang),<ref name="baconI3">Template:Harvp & [[#Template:Harvid|(1900)]], Vol. III, Pt. III.</ref> "The Usefulness of Mathematics in Physics" (Template:Lang),<ref name=baconI4/> "On the Science of Perspective" (Template:Lang),<ref name=baconII5>Template:Harvp</ref> "On Experimental Knowledge" (Template:Lang),<ref name=baconII6>Template:Harvp</ref> and "A Philosophy of Morality" (Template:Lang).<ref name=baconII7>Template:Harvp</ref>

It was not intended as a complete work but as a "persuasive preamble" (Template:Lang), 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.Template:Sfnp The new subjects were to be "perspective" (i.e., optics), "astronomy" (inclusive of astronomy proper, astrology, and the geography necessary to use them), "weights" (likely some treatment of mechanics but this section of the Template:Lang has been lost), alchemy, agriculture (inclusive of botany and zoology), medicine, and "experimental science", a philosophy of science that would guide the others.Template:Sfnp 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.<ref name=worthy>Template:Harvp</ref> 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.<ref name=worthy/>

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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfnp Albert was received at Paris as an authority equal to Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes,Template:Sfnp a situation Bacon decried: "never in the world [had] such monstrosity occurred before."Template:Sfnp

In Part I of the Opus Majus Bacon recognises some philosophers as the Sapientes, or gifted few, and saw their knowledge in philosophy and theology as superior to the vulgus philosophantium, or common herd of philosophers. He held Islamic thinkers between 1210 and 1265 in especially high regard calling them "both philosophers and sacred writers" and defended the integration of philosophy from apostate philosopher of the Islamic world into Christian learning.Template:Sfnp

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Spine of a 1750 edition of Opus majus
File:Bacon - Opus maius, 1750 - 4325246.tif

Title page of 1750 edition of Opus majus
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First page of 1750 edition of Opus majus

Calendrical reform

Template:Hatnote In Part IV of the Template:Lang, Bacon proposed a calendrical reform similar to the later system introduced in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII.<ref name=baconI4/> Drawing on ancient Greek and medieval Islamic astronomy recently introduced to western Europe via Spain, Bacon continued the work of Robert Grosseteste and criticised the then-current Julian calendar as "intolerable, horrible, and laughable".

It had become apparent that Eudoxus and Sosigenes's assumption of a year of 365¼ 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.<ref name=dunkin>Template:Citation</ref> His proposal to drop one day every 125 years<ref name=baconI4>Template:Harvp</ref>Template:Sfnp and to cease the observance of fixed equinoxes and solstices<ref name=dunkin/> 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

File:Optics from Roger Bacon's De multiplicatone specierum.jpg

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

Template:See also In Part V of the Template:Lang, 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.<ref name=baconII5/> 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;Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and, through Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), on Ibn Sahl's work on dioptrics.Template:Sfnp

Gunpowder

File:137-ROGER BACON DISCOVERS GUNPOWDER.jpg

"Roger Bacon discovers gunpowder", "whereby Guy Fawkes was made possible",<ref>Template:Citation</ref> an image from Bill Nye's Comic History of England<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

A passage in the Template:Lang and another in the Template:Lang 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 Franciscans—including Bacon's friend William of Rubruck—who visited the Mongol Empire during this period.Template:Sfnp Template:Refn 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.Template:Sfnp

At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry William Lovett Hime of the Royal Artillery published the theory that Bacon's Template:Lang contained a cryptogram giving a recipe for the gunpowder he witnessed.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> The theory was criticised by Thorndike in a 1915 letter to ScienceTemplate:Sfnp and several books, a position joined by Muir,Template:Sfnp John Maxson Stillman,Template:Sfnp Steele,Template:Sfnp and Sarton.Template:Sfnp Needham et al. concurred with these earlier critics that the additional passage did not originate with BaconTemplate:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp The ~41% nitrate content is too low to have explosive properties.Template:Sfnp

File:Friar Bacon.png

Friar Bacon in his studyTemplate:Sfnp

Secret of Secrets

Template:Main Bacon attributed the Secret of Secrets (Template:Lang), the Islamic "Mirror of Princes" (Template:Langx), to Aristotle, thinking that he had composed it for Alexander the Great. Bacon produced an edition of Philip of Tripoli's Latin translation, 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 Template:Sfnp and others, including Robert Steele,Template:Sfnp to argue that the text spurred Bacon's own transformation into an experimentalist. (Bacon never described such a decisive impact himself.)Template:Sfnp 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;Template:Sfnp but it certainly influenced the elder Bacon's conception of the political aspects of his work in the sciences.Template:Sfnp

Alchemy

J. Nasmyth (1845)

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

Bacon has been credited with a number of alchemical texts.Template:Sfnp

The Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature and on the Vanity of Magic (Template:Lang),Template:Sfnp also known as On the Wonderful Powers of Art and Nature (Template:Lang), a likely-forged letter to an unknown "William of Paris," dismisses practices such as necromancy Template:Sfnp but contains most of the alchemical formulae attributed to Bacon,Template:Sfnp including one for a philosopher's stone Template:Sfnp and another possibly for gunpowder.Template:Sfnp It also includes several passages about hypothetical flying machines and submarines, attributing their first use to Alexander the Great.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

He wrote on the medicine of Galen, referring to the translations of Avicenna. He believed that the medicine of Galen belonged to an ancient tradition passed through Chaldeans, Greeks and Arabs.<ref>Template:Cite journal (here cited p. 126).</ref> Although he provided a negative image of Hermes Trismegistus, his work was influenced by the Renaissance Hermetic thoughtTemplate:Dubious Template:What?.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Bacon's endorsement of Hermetic philosophy is evident, as his citations of the alchemical literature known as the Secretum Secretorum made several appearances in the Opus Majus. The Secretum Secretorum contains knowledge about the Hermetic Emerald Tablet, which was an integral component of alchemy, thus proving that Bacon's version of alchemy was much less secular, and much more spiritual than once interpreted. The importance of Hermetic philosophy in Bacon's work is also evident through his citations of classic Hermetic literature such as the Corpus Hermeticum. Bacon's citation of the Corpus Hermeticum, which consists of a dialogue between Hermes and the pagan deity Asclepius, proves that Bacon's ideas were much more in line with the spiritual aspects of alchemy rather than the scientific aspects. However, this is somewhat paradoxical as what Bacon was specifically trying to prove in the Opus Majus and subsequent works, was that spirituality and science were the same entity. Bacon believed that by using science, certain aspects of spirituality such as the attainment of "Sapientia" or "Divine Wisdom" could be logically explained using tangible evidence. Bacon's Opus Majus was first and foremost, a compendium of sciences which he believed would facilitate the first step towards "Sapientia". Bacon placed considerable emphasis on alchemy and even went so far as to state that alchemy was the most important science. The reason why Bacon kept the topic of alchemy vague for the most part, is due to the need for secrecy about esoteric topics in England at the time as well as his dedication to remaining in line with the alchemical tradition of speaking in symbols and metaphors.<ref>Template:Cite book (degree thesis)</ref>

Linguistics

Template:Main Template:See also Bacon's early linguistic and logical works are the Overview of Grammar (Summa Grammatica), Template:Lang, and the Template:Lang or Template:Lang.Template:Sfnp These are mature but essentially conventional presentations of Oxford and Paris's terminist and pre-modist logic and grammar.Template:Sfnp His later work in linguistics is much more idiosyncratic, using terminology and addressing questions unique in his era.<ref name=hovd1>Template:Harvp.</ref>

In his Greek and Hebrew Grammars (Template:Lang and Template:Lang), in his work "On the Usefulness of Grammar" (Book III of the Template:Lang), and in his Compendium of the Study of Philosophy,<ref name=hovd1/> Bacon stresses the need for scholars to know several languages.<ref name=hovd8/> Europe's vernacular languages are not ignored—he considers them useful for practical purposes such as trade, proselytism, and administration—but Bacon is mostly interested in his era's languages of science and religion: Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin.<ref name=hovd8>Template:Harvp.</ref>

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.<ref name=hovd8/> For this reason, his treatments of Greek and Hebrew grammar are not isolated works on their topic<ref name=hovd8/> but contrastive grammars treating the aspects which influenced Latin or which were required for properly understanding Latin texts.<ref name=hovd9>Template:Harvp.</ref> He pointedly states, "I want to describe Greek grammar for the benefit of Latin speakers".<ref name=hovd3/>Template:Refn 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.<ref name=hovd9/>Template:Refn

Passages in the Overview and the Greek grammar have been taken as an early exposition of a universal grammar underlying all human languages.<ref name=lawman>Template:Harvp.</ref> The Greek grammar contains the tersest and most famous exposition:<ref name=lawman/> Template:Blockquote However, Bacon's lack of interest 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 Template:Lang in such passages.<ref name=hovd7/> 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.<ref name=hovd7>Template:Harvp.</ref>

Other works

File:Roger Bacon Wellcome M0004130.jpg

A portrait of Roger Bacon from a 15th-century edition of Template:Lang<ref>MS Bodl. 211.</ref>

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The first page of the letter from Bacon to Template:Nowrap introducing his Template:LangTemplate:Sfnp

Bacon states that his Lesser Work (Template:Lang) and Third Work (Template:Lang) were originally intended as summaries of the Template:Lang in case it was lost in transit.Template:Sfnp 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 Template:Lang, whose half-million words were copied by hand and apparently greatly revised at least once.Template:Sfnp

Other works by Bacon include his "Tract on the Multiplication of Species" (Template:Lang),Template:Sfnp "On Burning Lenses" (Template:Lang), the Template:Lang and Template:Lang, the "Compendium of the Study of Philosophy" and "of Theology" (Template:Lang and Template:Lang), and his Computus.Template:Sfnp 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

The Mirror of Alchimy (Template:Lang), a short treatise on the origin and composition of metals, is traditionally credited to Bacon.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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.Template:Sfnp

The cryptic Voynich manuscript has been attributed to Bacon by various sources, including by its first recorded owner,Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Citation</ref> but historians of science Lynn Thorndike and George Sarton dismissed these claims as unsupported,<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> and the vellum of the manuscript has since been dated to the 15th century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

File:Friar Bacon's Brazen Head.png

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

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"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.Template:Sfnp

File:Roger Bacon Plaque.jpg

The Westgate plaque at Oxford

Bacon was largely ignored by his contemporaries in favour of other scholars such as Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas,Template:Sfnp although his works were studied by Bonaventure, John Pecham, and Peter of Limoges, through whom he may have influenced Raymond Lull.Template:Sfnp He was also partially responsible for the addition of optics (Template:Lang) to the medieval university curriculum.Template:Sfnp

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,Template:Refn in which Bacon speaks with a demon but causes the head to speak by "the continuall fume of the six hottest Simples",<ref name=fryer>Template:Harvp.</ref> testing his theory that speech is caused by "an effusion of vapors".Template:Sfnp

Around 1589, Robert Greene adapted the story for the stage as The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay,Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp one of the most successful Elizabethan comedies.Template:Sfnp 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".<ref name=girlscout>Browne, Pseud. Epid., Bk. VII, Ch. xvii, §7. Template:Webarchive</ref> Greene's Bacon spent seven years creating a brass head that would speak "strange and uncouth aphorisms"<ref>Greene, Fr. Bacon, iii.168.</ref> 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":<ref>Greene, Fr. Bacon, xi.15 & 18.</ref> i.e., by entrapping a dead spirit Template:Sfnp or hobgoblin.<ref>Greene, Fr. Bacon, xi.52.</ref> Bacon collapses, exhausted, just before his device comes to life and announces "Time is", "Time was", and "Time is Past"<ref>Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix.53–73.</ref> 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".<ref>Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix.72.</ref>

A necromantic head was ascribed to Pope Sylvester II as early as the 1120s,<ref>Malmesbury, Chron., Bk. II., Ch. x., p. 181.</ref>Template:Refn but Browne considered the legend to be a misunderstanding of a passage in Peter the Good's Template:Circa Precious Pearl where the negligent alchemist misses the birth of his creation and loses it forever.<ref name=girlscout/> The story may also preserve the work by Bacon and his contemporaries to construct clockwork armillary spheres.Template:Sfnp Bacon had praised a "self-activated working model of the heavens" as "the greatest of all things which have been devised".<ref>Bacon, De Null. Mag., 29.</ref>

As early as the 16th century, natural philosophers such as Bruno, Dee Template:Sfnp and Francis Bacon Template:Sfnp 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 Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp 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".Template:Sfnp His assertions in the Template:Lang that "theories supplied by reason should be verified by sensory data, aided by instruments, and corroborated by trustworthy witnesses"<ref>Bacon, Opus Majus, Bk.&VI.</ref> were (and still are) considered "one of the first important formulations of the scientific method on record".Template:Sfnp

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".Template:Sfn This view, which is still reflected in some 21st-century popular science books,Template:Refn portrays Bacon as an advocate of modern experimental science who emerged as a solitary genius in an age hostile to his ideas.Template:Sfnp Based on Bacon's apocrypha, he is also portrayed as a visionary who predicted the invention of the submarine, aircraft, and automobile.Template:Sfnp Consistent with this view of Bacon as a man ahead of his time, H. G. Wells's Outline of History attributes this prescient passage to him:

Machines for navigating are possible without rowers, so that great ships suited to river or ocean, guided by one man, may be borne with greater speed than if they were full of men. Likewise, cars may be made so that without a draught animal they may be moved cum impetu inaestimabili, as we deem the scythed chariots to have been from which antiquity fought. And flying machines are possible, so that a man may sit in the middle turning some device by which artificial wings may beat the air in the manner of a flying bird.<ref name=Wells>Wells, H. G., The Outline of History, Vol. 2, Ch. 33, §6, p. 638 (New York 1971) ("updated" by Raymond Postgate and G. P. Wells).</ref>

However, in the course of the 20th century, Husserl, Heidegger and others emphasised the importance to the 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.Template:Sfnp Although Crombie,Template:Sfnp Kuhn Template:Sfnp and Template:Ill Template:Sfnp continued to argue for Bacon's importance to the development of "qualitative" areas of modern science,Template:Sfnp Duhem,Template:Sfnp Thorndike,Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Carton Template:Sfn and Koyré Template:Sfnp emphasised the essentially medieval nature of Bacon's Template:Lang.Template:Sfn Template:Sfnp

Research also established that Bacon was not as isolated—and probably not as persecuted—as was once thought. Many medieval sources of and influences on Bacon's scientific activity have been identified.Template:Sfn In particular, Bacon often mentioned his debt to the work of Robert Grosseteste:Template:Sfn his work on optics and the calendar followed Grosseteste's lead,Template:Sfnp as did his idea that inductively-derived conclusions should be submitted for verification through experimental testing.Template:Sfnp

Bacon noted of William of Sherwood that "nobody was greater in philosophy than he";Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp praised Peter of Maricourt (the author of "A Letter on Magnetism")<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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";Template:Sfnp and acknowledged the influence of Adam Marsh and lesser figures. He was clearly not an isolated genius.Template:Sfn The medieval church was also not generally opposed to scientific investigationTemplate:Sfnp and medieval science was both varied and extensive.Template:Refn

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.Template:Sfnp 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".Template:Sfnp

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 Template:Lang 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 non-Christians and of the Antichrist. It cannot usefully be read solely in the context of the history of science and philosophy.Template:Sfnp

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."<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Later scholars have therefore viewed him as a proto-protestant.<ref name="Porterfield 2006 p. 136">Template:Cite book</ref>

In Oxford lore, Bacon is credited as the namesake of Folly Bridge for having been placed under house arrest nearby.Template:Sfnp Although this is probably untrue,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> it had formerly been known as "Friar Bacon's Bridge".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Bacon is also honoured at Oxford by a plaque affixed to the wall of the new Westgate shopping centre.Template:Sfnp

In popular culture

File:William Blake, Visionary Heads of Friar Roger Bacon and Poet Gray.jpg

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.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Citation</ref> A fictionalised 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.Template:Sfnp Bacon serves as a mentor to the protagonists of Thomas Costain's 1945 The Black Rose,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Umberto Eco's 1980 The Name of the Rose.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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.Template:Sfnp "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),<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>O'Conner, "The Brazen Android" (audiobook hosted at Internet Archive).</ref> John Cowper Powys's 1956 The Brazen Head, and Robertson Davies's 1970 Fifth Business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bacon appears in Rudyard Kipling's 1926 story 'The Eye of Allah'.

Notes

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References

Citations

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Sources

External links

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