Summary
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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 1:00.0 | We are just Roger Bacon and Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford. |
| 1:05.0 | And it's through it, Associate Professor of Medieval History at Brin Moore College. |
| 1:09.0 | And Jack Cunningham, Academic Coordinator for Theology at Bishop Grusters University, Lincoln. |
| 1:15.0 | Amanda Power, what do we know about Roger Bacon's family background? |
| 1:18.0 | Well, we don't know a great deal as this common with most medieval figures. |
| 1:23.0 | What we do know comes from a couple of passages in his writings, which were not intended to tell us biographical information. |
| 1:29.0 | So the first of them talks about how he has been, this was written in 1267, how he's been constantly in study for the last 40 years ever since he learnt the alphabet. |
| 1:37.0 | The other piece of information that relates to his family background comes later when he's talking about his family's background in English politics. |
| 1:46.0 | And he talks about how he has a brother who's a knight who fights on the side of the king during the Civil War later in the century. |
| 1:54.0 | And he has another brother who is a scholar. |
| 1:57.0 | And also the financial means that he appears to have to devote to studies. |
| 2:02.0 | We assume that he is a member of the lesson ability. |
| 2:06.0 | His family is proved impossible to track down in any of the records that we have precisely. |
| 2:11.0 | But there are a lot of Bacon's in prominent positions in this period. |
| 2:14.0 | But we do know that at the customary for those people from that background at that time, at a young age you went to Oxford. |
| 2:22.0 | Yes, so we think probably he would have gone to Oxford at about the age of 13. |
| 2:26.0 | We don't know precisely what he studied except that in Oxford at this time there was a greater emphasis on natural sciences than perhaps in some of the other universities in Europe. |
| 2:37.0 | But you said that the classics first of all wouldn't he? |
| 2:40.0 | As a child, as a child. |
| 2:42.0 | He said that he studied Seneca in infancy, which possibly means before the age of eight. |
| 2:48.0 | I see, Seneca deep breath here. |
... |
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