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The 13th-century friar Roger Bacon has a good claim to be known as the West's first true scientist. Born in 1219, he was passionately interested in the natural world and how things worked. In this age of religious intolerance and superstition he was banned from writing on such dangerous topics by his Order, and it was only when a new Pope proved sympathetic that he began his encyclopedia of knowledge, on everything from optics to alchemy. Sadly the enlightened Pope died before he could read it; and Bacon was tried as a magician and incarcerated for 10 years. After his death, legend transformed Bacon into a mythical sorcerer "Doctor Mirabilis", but we recognize that his books were the first flowering of the scientific knowledge that would transform our world. This work is both a biography and a picture of the times - an intellectual map of the medieval world in which advances were made and controversies flourished.
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The First Scientist A Life of Roger Bacon
BRIAN CLEGG
CONSTABLE • LONDON
Constable & Robinson Ltd 55–56 Russell Square London WC1B 4HP www.constablerobinson.com First published in the UK by Constable, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2003 Copyright © Brian Clegg 2003 The right of Brian Clegg to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library ISBN 1-84119-618-5 eISBN: 978-147211-212-5 Printed and bound in the EU Cover copyright © Constable & Robinson
For David Ball (1955–2001), another magister
Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface 1 Dust Motes 2 Scholar! 3 The Secret of Secrets 4 The Order 5 Time and the Antichrist 6 Opus majus 7 De profundis 8 Into the Light 9 The Smokescreen 10 Magister Notes and References Bibliography Bacon’s Books Appendix I: Extract from The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon Appendix II: Extracts from the Opus majus Index
Illustrations Between pages 84 and 85 Roger Bacon. Photo: AKG London. The George and Pilgrim Inn at Glastonbury. Paris in 1550 from Cosmographia Universalis. Notre Dame, Paris. St Francis, Bonaventura and Albertus Magnus. Photo of Bonaventura: AKG London. Optical diagrams from Bacon’s De multiplicatione specierum. By permission of the British Library. King Louis IX. Louis’ great seal. Pope Clement IV Photo: AKG London. Between pages 148 and 149 Early copy of part of Bacon’s great works. Extract from Bacon’s Opus Majus. Illustration from the mid-15th century shows Roger Bacon with an unnamed pupil. Early chemical equipment including alembics for distillation. Miles and Bacon in an illustration from The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon. The tower in Oxford alleged in the 17th century to be Bacon’s study. Pages from the Voynich manuscript. A medieval alchemical laboratory. Bacon and John Dee as members of the Illuminati.
Acknowledgements Many thanks to all those who have helped me bring this book into its final form. Specifically to Peter Cox, my agent, for his help in clarifying my ideas and selling the concept; to Vasko Kohlmeyer for many detailed thoughts on approach; to Nick Robinson, Jan Chamier, Carol O’Brien, and Pete Duncan at Constable & Robinson for their enthusiasm; and to Lizzie Hutchins and particularly John Woodruff for making the copy-editing process a revelation.
Preface The year 1992 should have been remembered as the 700th anniversary of the death of a man who