English theologian and scholar who fought for the inclusion of more science in the university curriculum. He studied at Oxford and became its first chancellor. He was one of the earliest to introduce Aristotle and the Greek corpus to Europe. He was also the teacher of Roger Bacon. Grosseteste went back to the original Greek to make new translations not suffering from the corruption produced by translating first to Arabic then to Latin.

He was particularly interested in optics, using Alhazen as a guide. He experimented with mirrors and lenses, and proposed a complicated explanation for the rainbow. With experimentation and use of the hypothetico-deductive method, he began the modern scientific tradition. He had a mystic cosmology and cosmogony, in which light was divided into its original divine form ("lux") and its material corrupted form ("lumen").

Bacon (Roger)

Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)