The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon - Hardcover

Clegg, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786711167 ISBN 13: 9780786711161

Publisher: Da Capo Pr, 2003

Synopsis

The first comprehensive biography of the medieval monk chronicles the life and accomplishments of Roger Bacon, whose experiments helped bring Europe out of the Middle Ages by pioneering an inductive approach to experimental science.

About this title

Review

"[An] immensely likeable work of pop science."

From the Author

I first came across Roger Bacon when writing Light Years, my earlier book on humanity’s fascination with light. I was amazed that a man with such a remarkable story was often forgotten or confused with the Elizabethan Francis Bacon.

Roger Bacon's life was a rollercoaster of triumph and disaster, risking all for knowledge. What shines through is his delight in what would become science. His was an amazing period with pinpoints of fact beginning to shine through the clouds of mysticism, and Bacon was determined that experiment should be put alongside the revered wisdom of the ancients to clarify what was truth and what was myth.

Finding the real Roger Bacon meant exploring the life of a student in the thirteenth century – riotous, dangerous and exciting – alongside the more subtle, but equally dangerous, struggles for power in the new Franciscan order he was to join.

I hope that you will find the mix of Roger’s story and the insight his writing gives us into medieval science as exciting as I did when researching this book.

Edition details

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