Roger Bacon opens his Excellent Discourse of the Admirable Force and Efficacie of Art and Nature by asserting that “Art using Nature for an instrument, is more powerfull then naturall vertue” (from The Mirror of Alchimy, ed. Stanton J. Linden, 49). Through viewing Art and Nature as complementary and potentially cooperative forces – rather than as sharply opposing ones – Bacon opened the way for envisioning a host of futuristic technological inventions: large ships and chariots that steered themselves, flying machines, underwater craft, and powerful optical instruments. Bacon's fertile scientific imagination, the products of which anticipate the “miracles” Francis Bacon foresaw in Salomon's House in the New Atlantis four centuries later, also resulted in unfounded accusations of witchcraft and black magic, charges that survived into the Renaissance through, to cite but one channel, his portrayal in Robert Greene's comedy Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (composed ca. 1589).

The Franciscan friar's education and subsequent lectureships at Oxford and the University of Paris reveal keen interest and proficiency in scholarly languages, mathematics, and natural philosophy; and his principal writings, the Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium (ca. 1267-68), range over these as well as Aristotelian philosophy, astrology, alchemy, and optics. Scientific experimentation and means of achieving educational reform are also frequent themes; however, the size and originality of Bacon's contributions to these subjects is still open to debate.