The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon - Hardcover

Clegg, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786711167 ISBN 13: 9780786711161

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2003

Synopsis

The First Scientist is the first full-length biography in 50 years of the medieval monk who brought science out of the Dark Ages. Legend transformed the thirteenth-century English friar Roger Bacon into the Faustlike sorcerer "Doctor Mirabilis," but today he is recognized as science's first pioneer in Europe. Science writer Brian Clegg bypasses the vicissitudes of Bacon's reputation, which range from miracle-worker to charlatan, and places the true individual in the often contentious intellectual atmosphere of the late medieval era. In this vivid biography, he portrays Bacon as not only a lucid observer of nature, rigorous experimenter, and gifted mathematician, but also an original theologian and philosopher—a man who, like Galileo, would suffer imprisonment in his quest for the true nature of the world. Clegg traces Bacon's career from his popularity as a teacher at Oxford and Paris, through his innovations in calendar reform, optics, a flying machine (over 200 years before Leonardo da Vinci's), and, most famously, development of the principle of inductive experimental science. Clegg narrates how Bacon, once censored by his order, briefly wrote on experimental science and natural philosophy under Pope Clement IV's patronage, but then was imprisoned as a margician by the church after Clement's death. Clegg also unravels the controversy over the "Voynich" cypher manuscript—which some claimed Bacon wrote in code to detail his experiments with microscopes and astronomy—and the subsequent backlash against Bacon's reputation as a scientist ahead of his time.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has written a number of popular science books including A Brief History of Infinity, Light Years, The God Effect and Before the Big Bang.

Reviews

When science and Bacon occur in the same sentence, the Bacon meant is usually Francis (1561-1626), said to have formulated the scientific method. Clegg says it should be Roger (c.1220-92), the first person to argue that "natural philosophy" (i.e., science) should be based in mathematics, undertaken with an open mind, communicated to others, and, most important, conducted by experimentation. A son of wealth, Roger went to Oxford at 13 to prepare for a calling. He became an experimenter, theorist, and writer who, disdaining magic, expected phenomena to be rationally explicable. He spent a fortune, presumably his family's, on books and equipment. When the Bacons lost their holdings, Roger joined the Franciscans, which required giving his belongings away but opened the door to church sponsorship. A friendly pope's death and the accession of a hostile general of the Franciscans put Roger in solitary confinement. Released, he wrote one more innovative book before dying and becoming a Faust-like figure of legend. The Victorians revived interest in him, but twentieth-century carpers demurred. Clegg's enthralling book launches Roger Bacon's re-revival. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0786711167
• ISBN 13: 9780786711161
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288