Science as Handmaiden: Roger Bacon and the Patristic Tradition
@article{Lindberg1987ScienceAH, title={Science as Handmaiden: Roger Bacon and the Patristic Tradition}, author={David C. Lindberg}, journal={Isis}, year={1987}, volume={78}, pages={518 - 536} }
E VERY HISTORIAN OF MEDIEVAL SCIENCE must sooner or later confront the enigma of Roger Bacon, the thirteenth-century Franciscan renowned for his attack on authority and his defense of mathematics and experimental science. Bacon has become the symbol, not exactly of medieval science, but of modern science struggling to emerge during the medieval period-prevented from doing so by ecclesiastical repression. Symbolism, of course, can be a vehicle for misunderstanding as well as understanding, and…
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