Roger Bacon experiments with gunpowder at Oxford
1249
The Franciscan friar, drawing on Arabic alchemical texts, recorded the first European formula for gunpowder in an anagram hidden within his Epistola de Secretis. His mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur was more scientific curiosity than weapon, but the genie had entered European consciousness and would not go back in the bottle.
In context
Also in 1249 (3 other events on record)
- Louis IX captures Damietta · Middle East · War
- Universities at Oxford issue early statutes · Europe · Culture
- Alphonse de Poitiers administers southern France · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.