- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Constable (27 Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841196185
- ISBN-13: 978-1841196183
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 825,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'In this extraordinary book... Clegg's accessible writing style manages to encapsulate the lives of light's disciples with humorous and interesting anecdotes... quite awesome.' - New Scientist
Product Description
The 13th-century friar Roger Bacon has a good claim to be known as the West's first true scientist. Born in 1219, he was passionately interested in the natural world and how things worked. In this age of religious intolerance and superstition he was banned from writing on such dangerous topics by his Order, and it was only when a new Pope proved sympathetic that he began his encyclopedia of knowledge, on everything from optics to alchemy. Sadly the enlightened Pope died before he could read it; and Bacon was tried as a magician and incarcerated for 10 years. After his death, legend transformed Bacon into a mythical sorcerer "Doctor Mirabilis", but we recognize that his books were the first flowering of the scientific knowledge that would transform our world. This work is both a biography and a picture of the times - an intellectual map of the medieval world in which advances were made and controversies flourished.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous account of an absorbing period in history,
By
This review is from: The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon (Hardcover)
I really loved this book. If you saw (or read!) Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", you'll know that its hero, William of Baskerville, was a student of Roger Bacon. Well, here is the real-life story of this unjustly-nelgected genius. In Eco's book, William himself demonstrates a deductive ability reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and his celebrated scientific method... if you revel in Holmes and his epoch, I think you'll also find this extraordinary earlier period of history just your cup of tea!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction,
By L. J. McKinnon "Christian Platonist" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The First Scientist: The Life of Roger Bacon (Hardcover)
I found Brian Clegg's biography of Roger Bacon to be a good introduction for anyone wishing to understand the great man's life and work, and the times in which he lived. However, this book seemed to me to be too focused on Bacon as a precursor of the Scientific Revolution, and at times I would question the depth (although not necessarilly the breadth) of Clegg's understanding of ancient and medieval science. Whilst the author has obviously done a lot of research, and his admiration for his subject shines through at every page, this is not a truly scholarly life of Bacon that would be of great use to academics. But, having said this, I would still recommend this book for anyone coming at Bacon for the first time.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Yes and No.,
By oh, just some guy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon (Paperback)
I really wanted to like this book: Mr. Clegg obviously has a deep respect for his subject and is eager to share it with the reader. Unfortunately, a combination of sometimes sloppy writing skills and a dearth of information add up to a mostly mediocre biography. When I say information is scarce, I mean it: very, very little is known about the specifics of Bacon's life; the vast majority of this book is conjecture. We know Bacon went from A to B to A to C, and that's more or less it--Clegg sees fit to fill in the details again and again. This would be okay if it weren't pure guesswork most of the time. On top of this, particularly toward the end, the writing style becomes strained and stretched out like a college term-paper. It's as if the author is grabbing at straws to convince you that Bacon was indeed the first scientist. It's a shame that these problems overshadow what is otherwise a very interesting book on a very interesting subject from a very interesting time period. I hope one day we'll see a major biography of this strange, precocious man with the proper research to back it up. Until then, The First Scientist will do, if you keep in mind its flaws.
Although I really do love the book design. 1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Connecting The Dots,
By Robert Carlberg - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The First Scientist: A Life of Roger Bacon (Paperback)
So little is known about the real life of Friar Bacon that the author is obliged to make up many details of his life, based on speculation and inference. The stories feel like they could be credible, but one is reminded that the subtitle of this book is "A Life of Roger Bacon" not "THE Life of Roger Bacon."
In order to fill out a scanty bushel of facts the author delves into Medieval politics, alchemy, early church struggles et cetera, giving the reader a fairly good grounding in the times of Roger Bacon. Nevertheless, I think it would have been very possible to delve deeper into Bacon's five known works to dissect where he anticipated Renaissance science, where he hewed to Bible-based orthodoxy, and where he went off on flights of fancy. The analysis of his works -- which ARE known -- is a bit light in the loafers. |
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