Roger Bacon (c. 1214–92)

Philosopher and Franciscan friar. Studied and lectured at the universities of Oxford and Paris; entered the Franciscan order, c. 1257. Emphasised the study of nature through empirical methods and re-interpreted Aristotelian and later pseudo-Aristotelian works in the scholastic tradition, but seen by nineteenth-century writers as a champion of the modern, experimental scientific method.