Roger Bacon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss medieval English scholar Roger Bacon, an early pioneer of science who became known as Doctor Mirabilis.
The 13th-century English philosopher Roger Bacon is perhaps best known for his major work the Opus Maius. Commissioned by Pope Clement IV, this extensive text covered a multitude of topics from mathematics and optics to religion and moral philosophy. He is also regarded by some as an early pioneer of the modern scientific method. Bacon's erudition was so highly regarded that he came to be known as 'Doctor Mirabilis' or 'wonderful doctor'. However, he is a man shrouded in mystery. Little is known about much of his life and he became the subject of a number of strange legends, including one in which he allegedly constructed a mechanical brazen head that would predict the future.
With:
Jack Cunningham
Academic Coordinator for Theology at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln
Amanda Power
Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford
Elly Truitt
Associate Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Amanda Power at the University of Oxford
Elly Truitt at Bryn Mawr College
Jack Cunningham at Bishop Grosseteste University
Roger Bacon – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon – volume 2, translated by Robert Belle Burke (1928)
‘A Mirror for Every Age: The Reputation of Roger Bacon’ by Amanda Power
Roger Bacon by Jeremiah Hackett - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The International Robert Grosseteste Society
The Ordered Universe Project - Interdisciplinary Readings of Medieval Science: Robert Grosseteste
Ibn al-Haytham - Muslim Heritage website
Al-Kindi – Muslim Heritage website
READING LIST:
Robert Belle Burke (trans.), The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, volumes 1 and 2 (first published 1928; Kessinger Publishing, 2010)
Jeremiah Hackett (ed.), Roger Bacon and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays (Brill, 1997)
James Hannam, God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (Icon Books, 2010)
Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
James McEvoy, Robert Grosseteste: Great Medieval Thinkers (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Amanda Power, Roger Bacon and the Defence of Christendom (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Catherine Rider, Magic and Religion in Medieval England (Reaktion Books, 2012)
Neslihan Senocak, The Poor and the Perfect: The Rise of Learning in the Franciscan Order, 1209-1310 (Cornell University Press, 2012)
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Melvyn Bragg |
Interviewed Guest | Jack Cunningham |
Interviewed Guest | Amanda Power |
Interviewed Guest | Elly Truitt |
Producer | Victoria Brignell |
Broadcasts
- Thu 20 Apr 2017 09:00BBC Radio 4
- Thu 20 Apr 2017 21:30BBC Radio 4
Featured in...
Medieval—In Our Time
Browse the Medieval era within the In Our Time archive.
Philosophy—In Our Time
From Altruism to Wittgenstein, philosophers, theories and key themes.
History—In Our Time
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
Podcast
-
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.