Doctor Mirabilis
DOCTOR MIRABILIS
James Blish
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of how the death came to visit Robert Grosseteste, and in what mind it found him: and of a letter from Ilchester to Roger Bacon, and in what mind it found him: and, how the Frideswyde Chest was opened
of a meeting with a falconer of fells upon Salisbury Plain, and the deception practised upon the knights of Hubert de Burgh by Wulf the peasant: and what manner of treasure trove Roger Bacon found at Yeo Manse.
of the fall of Hubert de Burgh and all his purposings at Henry the King’s hands, and how Adam Marsh discoursed with the Lady Eleanor: in which doth appear a clerk before these courtiers
of a suasion from Paris addressed to no man that befell Roger Bacon, and in what manner Henry the King warred with Richard Marshall: also divers other matters presaging a departure
of a voyage of the
Maudelayne,
and how Roger Bacon became a yellowbeak: and how a cat played at dice: in which doth appear Albertus Magnus, who exhibiteth several
quaestiones
of how Adam Marsh further contrived to rid him of his cross, and in what wise he fared: and how Simon de Montfort reaped the fruits of his high alliance: wherein is seen a prognostick in the Dragon’s tail
of how Roger Bacon entered into the college of Peter the Peregrine with an Arabic word, and there breathed sweet vitriol: in which also is disclosed the Secret of Secrets
wherein Robert Grosseteste unwittingly doth bring the Inquisition into England: and Henry the King reviveth therewith an old quarrel: with table talk between Eleanor of Leicester and her confessor
O
F
H
EM
T
HAT
Y
AF
H
YM
W
HERWITH
T
O
S
COLEYE
wherein Roger Bacon
is
delivered of one of his illnesses: and readieth for all the world the
ignis volans:
with ensamples of fire of several other sorts
of how the learned Richard of Cornwall was baited after the fashion of Paris: and how he failed at first to requite it: wherein also a saint dieth, and Gerard of San Borgo doth cast a long shadow
of the manner in which Adam Marsh confronted his judgment: in which also
is
called a Mad Parliament at Oxford: and how Henry the King dashed a taper to the floor
wherein is seen how Roger Bacon changed straw, and wrote a letter unto the Pope: and of the apprentice Joannes, and how he assisted at the Peregrine college: and how a barber read a conclave of blazons
of how Roger Bacon became a mendicant, and from whom he begged: and of a plea which became an encyclopedia: and in which Joannes is sent forth to cross the Alps
wherein Roger Bacon is exiled home, and undertaketh to pay a debt: and is sent to Paris once more: and in which Jerome of Ascoli exhibiteth certain
quaestiones
of how Roger Bacon glossed the
Consolations
of Boethius: and gained and lost an apprentice: wherein intrudeth also one Raymond de Gaufredi, with a hammer
wherein Thomas Bungay doth read at a certain work, and forbeareth to weep: and heareth a cry in the street, and asketh help of it: and of how the page was turned by the Most High
Truth is the daughter of time
ROGER BACON
And now through every window came a light into the chamber as of skies paling to the dawn. Yet not wholly so; for never yet
came dawn at midnight, nor from all four quarters of the sky at once, nor with such swift strides of increasing light so ghastly
… The King cried terribly, ‘The hour approacheth!’
E. R. EDDISON:
The Worm Ouroboros
We are as dwarfs mounted on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more and farther than they; yet not by virtue of the
keenness of our eyesight, nor through the tallness of our stature, but because we are raised and borne aloft upon that giant
mass.
BERNARD OF CHARTRES
There are no dead
MAURICE MAETERLINCK
in order of their appearance
R
OGER
. B
ACON
of Ilchester, clerk.
A
DAM
M
ARSH
(or, de Marisco) of Wearmouth, Franciscan, lecturer in theology at Oxford until 1250, confessor of Eleanor of Pembroke and
later of her husband.
R
OBERT
G
ROSSETESTE
, Bishop of Lincoln.
W
ILLIAM
B
USSHE
of Dorset, Merchant of the Staple.
W
ULF
, a serf of the Bacon estate.
T
IBB
, a thief.
S
IMON DE
M
ONTFORT
, Earl of Leicester.
E
LEANR OF
P
EMBROKE
, sister of the King, widow of the Earl of Pembroke, wife to Simon de Montfort.
H
ENRY
III of W
INCHESTER
, King of England, son of King John.
P
ETER DES
R
OCHES
, tutor to the King, Bishop of Winchester.
E
DMUND
R
ICH
of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury (later canonized).
G
UY DE
F
OULQUES
, papal legate in England and Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina; from 1265, Pope Clement IV.
P
ETER DE
R
IVAULX
(or, des Rievaux), nephew to Peter des Roches.
J
OHANN
B
UDRYS
of Livonia, clerk.
A
LBERTUS
called M
AGNUS
, Dominican, regent master at Paris, sometime Bishop of Ratisbon (later canonized).
R
AIMUNDO DEL
R
EY
, clerk.
P
IERRE DE
M
ARICOURT
(Petrus Peregrinus), a noble of Picardy.
J
ULIAN DE
R
ANDA
, clerk.
M
ATTHEW
, P
ARIS
, Benedictine, historian to Henry III.
L
UCA DI
C
OSMATI
, artist.
L
ORENZA
A
RNOLPO
P
ICCOLOMINMI
, Marquis of Modena, and patron of Luca.
O
LIVIA
P
ICCOLOMINI
, daughter to the Marquis of Modena.
T
HOMAS
B
UNGAY
, provincial minister to the Franciscans in England 1271–75.
R
ICHARD
R
UFUS
of Cornwall, regent master in theology at Paris and Oxford.
J
OANNES
, a clerk, apprenticed to Roger Bacon.
R
AYMOND OF
L
AON
, clerk to Guy de Foulques.
S
IR
W
ILLIAM
B
ONECOR
, emissary of the King to Clement IV.
J
EROME DI
A
SCOLI
, minister-general to the Franciscans 1274–89; thereafter Pope Nicholas IV.
O
TTO
, a gaoler.
A
DRIAN
, a voice.
R
AYMOND DE GAUFREDI
, minister-general to the Franciscans from 1289.
Time:
1231–94
A.D.
Place:
England, France, Italy
Though Roger Bacon is generally acknowledged to be one of the great figures in medieval history, and in particular, one of
the forerunners of modern science, astonishingly few facts about his life are known. There is a sizable Bacon legend, but
of this the historical Bacon was only temporary custodian: the famous story of the brass head, for instance, is an ancient
Arabic legend, which first appeared in Europe in the tenth century as a tale about the mighty Gerbert (later Pope Sylvester
II) from the potent hand of William of Malmesbury. In Roger Bacon’s own time, it was being told about Albertus Magnus. It
became attached to Bacon only late in the sixteenth century, via a play called
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
by Shakespeare’s forgotten rival Robert Greene. (The play itself has been called an attempt to imitate Marlowe’s
Doctor Faustus,
but there seems to be good evidence that Greene’s work was first; in any event, it is still worth reading.) Since 1589, the
brazen head has lived an underground life as the golem, Frankenstein’s monster, Karel Capek’s robots and their innumerable
spawn, and today, perhaps, as Dr. Claude Shannon’s mechanical player (after Poe) of indifferent chess. Tomorrow, Dr. Norbert
Weiner warns us, it may be outthinking us all – and Dr. Isaac Asimov thinks that will probably be a good thing.
The appearance of Roger Bacon as the hero of the Greene play, however, is no accident of legend. The historical Doctor Faustus
– a dim figure indeed – became in the same way a vehicle for timeless preoccupations of the human mind, which tell us a great
deal about ourselves but almost nothing about Faustus himself. The Bacon legend, which is
not
the subject of this novel, haunted Europe in the same way until the end of the seventeenth century.
What remains behind as reasonably certain knowledge about Roger Bacon’s life would hardly fill a small pamphlet;
and the more intensively the man is pursued, the more what was once thought certain about him tends to melt into doubt. What
little we know about him personally comes entirely from his own testimony, particularly in the
Opus Tertium,
the
Compendium studii theologiae
and an untitled work, evidently intended as a covering letter for the works for the Pope, which is usually called ‘the Gasquet
fragment’. The
Compendium, as my
last chapter indicates, shows clear signs that his memory is failing; and as for the other two, they were intended to impress
his patron and hence are not wholly reliable as autobiography, as well as being riddled with contradictions.