Bacon, Roger, * ca. 1215 (place unknown), † ca. 1292 (place unknown)

English philosopher, educated at the Universities of Oxford and Paris (where he lectured on Aristotle in the 1240s), author of works on a broad array of topics including optics, semantics, physics, and theology. Bacon entered the Franciscan Order in the late 1250s, perhaps after returning to Oxford. Between 1265 and 1268, he compiled his encyclopedic and ambitious works, the Opus Maius, Opus Minus and Opus Tertium, undertaken for Pope Clement IV (Pope from 1265-1268) in the hope of persuading him to aut…