Roger Bacon

Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

Born c. 1210
Died c. 1292
Activity c. 1240-c. 1292

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Natural scientist

Other

Teacher/ Professor

Resources

One of the most inquisitive minds of his time, Roger Bacon had a deep influence on medieval theology, philosophy, and science, but we have to be careful in our assessment of his mindset since he was, despite his many amazingly forward-looking ideas, clearly a medieval man and a devout Christian. He was born in England sometime between 1210 and 1220 near Ilchester in Somerset, or perhaps in Bisley in Gloucestershire, as the son of a wealthy family. Throughout his life he spent an enormous amount of money on books and his experiments. Around 1227 Bacon began his studies at the University of Oxford under Adam of Marsh and Thomas of Wales, focusing on Aristotelian philosophy and mathematics. He probably received his Magister Artium at …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2440 words

Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Roger Bacon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 February 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=210, accessed 23 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here