The friar and the cipher : Roger Bacon and the unsolved mystery of the most unusual manuscript in the world / Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone.

New York ; London : Doubleday, 2005.

xi, 320 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 21 cm

Turmoil and opportunity : Roger Bacon's England -- Logic and mysticism : Aristotle, Plato, and Christianity -- Logic and theology : the evolution of scholasticism -- Dogma, drink, and dissent : the University of Paris -- Rebels in gray robes : Oxford -- Science goes mainstream : the rise of Albertus Magnus -- The dumb ox : Thomas Aquinas -- The miraculous doctor : Roger Bacon at Oxford -- Autocracy in the Order of St. Francis -- Theology becomes a science : the logic of Thomas Aquinas -- The great work -- Seeing the future : the Scientia Experimentalis of Roger Bacon -- Knowledge suppressed : the conservatives -- Enigmas and espionage : the strange journey of Dr. Dee -- Brilliant braggart : Francis Bacon -- The trail of the cipher manuscript -- The making of the most mysterious manuscript in the world -- MS 408 -- The unfinished legacy of Roger Bacon.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 304-308) and index.