John Pecham Quotes
John Pecham was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic theologian, and natural philosopher, and from 1279 archbishop of Canterbury. After studies at Paris and Oxford and a long teaching career as a Franciscan master, he produced his influential Perspectiva Communis, a textbook of geometrical optics that synthesized the work of Alhazen, Roger Bacon, and earlier Western writers and remained a standard introduction to the science of vision into the seventeenth century. The quotes below are attributed to John Pecham, organized by topic.
John Pecham on God
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Attributed to John Pecham:
“Theology must remain faithful to the wisdom of Augustine.”
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Attributed to John Pecham:
“Franciscan poverty is a witness to the freedom of the Christian.”
John Pecham on Nature
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Attributed to John Pecham:
“Light is the common bond between the eye and the world.”
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Attributed to John Pecham:
“Optics shows that the visible world is shaped by mathematical law.”
John Pecham on Truth
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Attributed to John Pecham:
“Truth is one, but the paths to it are many.”