Читать книгу Magic Shadows. The Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures онлайн

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Alhazen did valuable work himself but was far more important as the inspiration for study in optics for the greatest scientist of the Middle Ages, the first experimental scientist and one of the greatest Englishmen of all time, Roger Bacon.

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Roger Bacon, English monk of the 13th Century, studies the ancients—and the Greeks—and inaugurates the scientific study of magic shadows and devices for creating them.

Roger Bacon made a great contribution to human knowledge, especially in scientific matters. Yet this great philosopher and scientist was generally regarded as “Friar Bacon,” a mad monk who played with magic and dealt with the powers of darkness. This myth persisted even though Bacon’s contemporaries had bestowed upon him the title of “Doctor Mirabilis.” Studies made in the 19th century and the first part of this century have tended to confirm him in his proper high place in history.

Roger Bacon was born at Ilchester in Somersetshire, England, about 1214, the year before the Magna Charta was signed. In those days serious education began early. When Bacon was 12 or 13 he was sent to Oxford. Later on he continued his studies at Paris. In his youth Bacon’s family gave him the considerable sums he needed for his education.