Bacon and the Hermetic Tradition in Medieval Science
Roger

GEORGE MOLLAND

• Bacon would no
• have
• to be called a
• Hermeticist
• more
• wished

Roger

• to
• a
• its
• nature

very

• than
• be called
• For him
• was

• by
• magician.

him from magic

• but this did not
• beliefs and
• that

• bad,
• stop

magical. Similarly, although of

• practices
• indulging

• the
• he had no
• or
• bordered on

great

are very his

• favourable
• Hermes
• infused

• image
• Trismegistus,
• writings

• a
• in a

in

• of
• term have
• with

been called Hermetic trends

• akin to what
• loose
• the

• understanding
• spirit

• Renaissance
• and

1to thought,

Science" .1 especially the ` `Hermetic

In

• Tradition
• in Renaissance

• back some
• and
• a

• more,
• exciting scholarship
• thirty years

associated with the dating

• of
• some
• Institute

scholars,

demonstrated traditions attributed and closely the

• Warburg
• group

• in
• in
• Renaissance

rather of

• London,
• vitality
• thought
• quasi-

• associated
• with

Hermes sage magical writings Trismegistus,

• (sometimes
• remotely)

• to the
• ancient

supposed

their
Egyptian

• for
• a
• historical

• importance
• proper
• urged

• assessment of the nascent
• The
• made
• Scientific Revolution.2

• impact
• by

these studies has produced

• the
• that "Hermetic"

influences impression

• science were in essence a Renaissance
• and had

• upon
• phenomenon

Iis from

in:
Baltimore

• A.
• in

• The
• Frances
• Yates' oft-cited
• The HermeticTradition

ed. Charles S.
Renaissance, article, the phrase in
Renaissance Singleton, North

• and
• Science,

• Science,
• Art,

1968, 255-74,
History

• in F. A.
• Ideas and
• in the

Ideals

• Yates,
• reprinted

• Volume
• Renaissance.C- ollected

European Essays,
London with some more critical of Tradition, and
Slbiritual
227-46.

• III,
• 1984,

• in this
• I

it,

The

• 2 Among important writings
• genre, together

cite here: F. A. Rosicrucian

• GiordanoBrunoand theHermetic
• London

Yates,

Enlightenment,
1964; id.,

• Demonic
• London
• D. P.

The Ancient London

• 1972;
• Walker,

Theology:
C. B.
Magic,from
Ficinoto

from ophy: fromAgostino 32, in

• London
• Studies ChristianPlatonism

• 1958; id.,
• Campanella,

Fifteenth

• the
• to the
• PerennialPhilos-

1972;

of the
Schmitt, Ideas,

• Century,
• Eighteenth

• Steucoto
• in:
• of
• 505-

P.
(originally

• 27
• Leibniz,

History

and

• Journal
• (1966),

in Bacon: in

• Studies Renaissance
• London

• Schmitt,
• Science,
• Philosophy

tr. S. London 1968
Rabinovitch,

• 1981 ;
• reprinted

• Francis
• From
• to

• Science,
• Magic
• Rossi,

The

• in Italian
• P.
• Dee:
• World an Elizabethan

BetweenScienceand

• French,
• published

London London and J.

• 1957); J.
• John
• of Magus,

• N. H.
• Dee'sNatural

1972;

1988;

• Clulee,
• Religion,
• John
• Philosophy:

M. of
E. McGuire &P. the

• Newtonand the
• in: Notes

• Rattansi,
• J.
• 'Pipesof Pan',

• S.
• R.

108-43;

• of
• &
• Records

E.

• 21
• Westman

1977.
London,

• Royal Society
• (1968),

• Hermeticismand the
• Los

Angeles

• McGuire,
• Revolution,

Scientific

140
The while

• of the
• article is

medieval the

• aim
• to

as

• negligible
• precedents.

and, that
Renaissance, consider present

• redress
• no means
• Renaissance

• balance,
• help
• by
• denying

• show
• now often
• ideas

much to

• originality,
• important

were regarded the Middle alive in very

two characteristically

• I
• facets of the work of

or
To this end role that he ascribed his to naturalise shall
Roger

ancient
Ages.

• Bacon:
• to
• the

and auctoritas, prisca

some apparently magical prac-

of

• authority,
• attempt

• the
• of

multiplication

• tices
• means of
• doctrine

• species.
• by

• 1.
• Auctoritas
• Prisca

• The
• role
• to this
• of
• ancient-I
• adhere
• translation

thought

• things
• against

• has been
• Schmitt's
• "venerable" -in
• Renaissance

preferred

• well summarised
• the late Charles B. Schmitt in an article centred

by

• on
• Steuco:

Agonisto

• as
• is one which

• recurs
• The word
• best translated

"venerable",

in former priscus, probably

• He
• often in Steuco.

• saeculis,
• centuries,

• prisci philosophi,
• speaks of priscis

• and
• to "the venerable
• and

alone, prisca theologians".

• philosophers
• philosophia,
• firisci
• referring

Truth

• in various
• forms.

• None of this is accidental.
• flows from a
• as

fountain, single

• it
• revelation of
• but is manifested
• the
• truth

and we can find truth saecula,

• were,
• Moreover,

• dates back to the most ancient
• to the

times,

this centuries, prisca

• wisdom of earliest times is then
• The
• in the
• derived
• from

• period.
• writings

• as
• man
• transmitted to the later

himself.3

• truth and wisdom
• as old

being
3

• for all its other
• Schmitt's
• article
• scant attention to

But,

the

• virtues,
• paid

• after
• In like vein D.P.

called Ancient

• the for-
• Middle

Ages.

tunes of what he
Walker, Theology
"When in the Renaissance discussing

• in
• Christian
• the

early

the Ancient scholars were continued,

• period,
• Theology

• was
• It is as if Renaissance
• a
• revived... "4

launching

which would have and in this less counter-attack antedated to the "revolt of the medievalists"5 of the Renaissance's or rather more traditional rebirth,
But here virtues, many

a claim for genuine

territory. the

• staking
• originality,

• familiar and
• rather "irrational"

prima facie

be again

• their claim
• as I
• of
• must
• that

modified,

• hope
• example
• Roger

Bacon will demonstrate.

• The
• occurs in
• auctoritas
• the
• of

• phrase prisca
• opening
• passage

345

• Perennial
• 520.

Schmitt,

Walker,
Philosophy,

• Ancient
• 2.

Theology,

of

• To use the
• Wallace K.
• in
• The Renaissance Historical

• Ferguson,
• phrase

MA
Thought,
141

• ch.
• 11.

• 1948,
• Cambridge,