罗伯特·格罗斯泰斯特Robert Grosseteste

罗伯特·格罗斯泰斯特在牛津大学接受教育。他于1215年成为牛津大学校长，担任此职直到约1221年。此后他担任了若干教会职位，然后从1229年到1235年担任方济各会的神学讲师。

他于1235年成为林肯主教，并一直担任此职直到去世。作为林肯主教，他出席了里昂会议（1245年），并于1250年在里昂向教宗会众发表讲话。

格罗斯泰斯特研究几何学、光学和天文学。在光学中，他用镜子和透镜做实验。他相信必须通过检验理论的推论来用实验验证理论。在他的著作De Iride中，他写道：-

光学的这一部分，如果被充分理解，就向我们表明我们如何能使极远处的事物看起来仿佛置于很近处，使近处的大事物看起来很小，以及我们如何能使置于远处的小事物看起来具有我们想要的任何大小，从而我们有可能在不可思议的距离上阅读最小的字母，或数清沙粒、种子或任何种类的微小物体。

格罗斯泰斯特意识到，欧几里得想象其图形的假设空间在各处、各个方向上都相同。他随后假设光的传播也是如此。他撰写了关于光的论著De Luce Ⓣ（论光）。

在De Natura Locorum Ⓣ（自然集）中，他给出了一幅图，显示光被一个装满水的球形玻璃容器折射。

格罗斯泰斯特还做了许多希腊语和阿拉伯语科学著作的拉丁语翻译。他写了一部对亚里士多德的Posterior Analytics和Physics的评注，以及许多关于科学主题的论著，包括De Generatione Stellarum, Theorica Planetarum Ⓣ（论恒星的生成，行星理论）和De astrolabio Ⓣ（论星盘）。在一篇天文学文本中，他声称银河是来自许多小而近的恒星的光的融合。

罗吉尔·培根是格罗斯泰斯特的学生。

Robert Grosseteste was educated at Oxford University. He became Chancellor of Oxford University in 1215 remaining in this post until about 1221. After this he held a number of ecclesiastical positions, then from 1229 to 1235 he was a lecturer in theology to the Franciscans.

He became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235 and remained in this position until his death. As Bishop of Lincoln he attended the Council of Lyon (1245) and addressed the papal congregation at Lyon in 1250.

Grosseteste worked on geometry, optics and astronomy. In optics he experimented with mirrors and with lenses. He believed that experimentation must be used to verify a theory by testing its consequences. In his work De Iride he writes:-

This part of optics, when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort or minute objects.

Grosseteste realised that the hypothetical space in which Euclid imagined his figures was the same everywhere and in every direction. He then postulated that this was true of the propagation of light. He wrote the treatise De Luce Ⓣ on light.

In De Natura Locorum Ⓣ he gives a diagram which shows light being refracted by a spherical glass container full of water.

Grosseteste also made Latin translations of many Greek and Arabic scientific writings. He wrote a commentary on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and Physics and many treatises on scientific subjects including De Generatione Stellarum, Theorica Planetarum Ⓣ and De astrolabio Ⓣ. In an astronomy text he claimed that the Milky Way was the fusion of light from many small close stars.

Roger Bacon was Grosseteste's student.