Roger Bacon and the Incorruptible Human, 1220-1292

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 1-12

3. Roger Bacon and the (Un)Natural State of Man

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 13-37

4. Learning to Prolong Life

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 39-80

5. The Corpus Equale

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 81-103

6. Medicines and Their Effects on the Body

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 105-142

7. Reshaping Medical Knowledge in Bacon’s Milieu

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 143-182

8. The Prolongatio Vitae and the Resurrection Body

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 183-202

9. Conclusion

   • Meagan S. Allen

   Pages 203-215

10. Back Matter

    Pages 217-296

    PDF

This book examines the Franciscan alchemist Roger Bacon’s (1220-1292) interest in the role of alchemy in medicine, and how this interest connected with the thirteenth-century milieu in which he was writing. Though twelfth-century Latin alchemy had largely been concerned with transmuting base metals into noble ones, Bacon believed that the natural principles taught in alchemy would be better used in medicine. In an age where many physicians were theorizing about ways to prevent the effects of aging, Bacon held that combining alchemy and humoral medicine would allow one to extend their life by decades, even centuries. By examining Bacon’s alchemical, medical, and mathematical works, this book argues that Bacon combined a number of sources to create a unique plan for prolonging human life. His understanding of disease and aging was ultimately Galenic in nature, and his understanding of how pharmaceuticals work can be traced back to his mathematical theories, especially that of the multiplication of species. The book provides a new system for organizing Bacon’s alchemically-produced medicines, and explains what Bacon saw as the difference between each, and how they could have different physiological effects. Bacon is situated within the thirteenth-century contexts in which he was writing – that of the university-educated and newly professionalized medical practitioners, who were invested in finding ways to extend human life; and the Franciscan order, with their understanding of the innate goodness of the physical body, the resurrection, and corporeal union with God. Filling a major lacuna in scholarship on the history of medieval medical writings, this book provides vital reading for historians of medicine, pre- and early modern European science, and medieval philosophy and religion.

• Alchemy
• History of alchemy
• Medieval medical writings
• Roger Bacon
• Franciscan
• History of religion
• Thirteenth century
• Humoral medicine
• Incorruptible human
• Prolonging life
• History of disease
• History of ageing
• Natural philosophy

“This is a very comprehensive and careful study of the Medical Writings of Roger Bacon. This study for the first time fills a major lacuna in the scholarship on the history of medieval medical writings.” (Jeremiah Hackett, Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina)

“Roger Bacon is a remarkable figure of perennial interest to a wide range of readers. Allen’s book provides a fresh and comprehensive view of Bacon’s endeavor to reextend human lifespans to those of the Biblical patriarchs by means a new approach to medicine based in alchemy, experimental observation, and Franciscan spirituality and theology. This book represents an important and new contribution to scholarship.” (Lawrence M. Principe, Johns Hopkins University)

• Science History Institute, Philadelphia, USA

  Meagan S. Allen

​Meagan S. Allen is the 2021-2023 Cain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, PA. She has previously held a visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a Huntington Exchange Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

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