BACON, ROGER

born c. 1220, , Ilchester, Somerset, or Bisley, Gloucester?, Eng. died 1292, Oxford? byname Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: Wonderful Teacher) English Franciscan philosopher and educational reformer who was a major medieval proponent of experimental science. Bacon studied mathematics, astronomy, optics, alchemy, and languages. He was the first European to describe in detail the process of making gunpowder, and he proposed flying machines and motorized ships and carriages. Bacon (as he himself complacently remarked) displayed a prodigious energy and zeal in the pursuit of experimental science; indeed, his studies were talked about everywhere and eventually won him a place in popular literature as a kind of wonder worker. Bacon therefore represents a historically precocious expression of the empirical spirit of experimental science, even though his actual practice of it seems to have been exaggerated. Additional reading Andrew G. Little (ed.), Roger Bacon Essays (1914, reprinted 1972), is a still-valuable commemorative collection of contributions by eminent scholars. Two complementary works with extensive bibliographies are Theodore Crowley, Roger Bacon: The Problem of the Soul in His Philosophical Commentaries (1950), presenting his philosophical positions; and Stewart C. Easton, Roger Bacon and His Search for a Universal Science: A Reconsideration of the Life and Work of Roger Bacon in the Light of His Own Stated Purposes (1952, reprinted 1971). A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 11001700, pp. 139162 (1953, reprinted 1971), includes a balanced account of Bacon's contributions to science. Later research, adding contemporary insight to the aforementioned important studies, is offered in David C. Lindberg, Roger Bacon's Philosophy of Nature: A Critical Edition, with English Translation, Introduction, and Notes, of De Multiplicatione Specierum, and De Speculis Comburentibus (1983).