Thomas Bungay

Not to be confused with St Thomas Bungay, martyred 17 February 1511, or with Thomas de Bungeye the Currier, the 16th-century resident of London.

Friars Bacon and Bungay sleep through the activation of their brazen head while their manservant Miles plays a pipe and drum.[1]

Thomas Bungay (Latin: Thomas Bungeius or Bungeyensis;[2] c. 1214 – c. 1294),[3] also known as Thomas of Bungay[4] (Latin: Thomas de Bungeya;[5] French: Thomas de Bungeye) and formerly also known as Friar Bongay,[1] was an English Franciscan friar, scholar, and alchemist.[3]

## Life

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Thomas was born in Bungay, a market town in Suffolk.[6] He was educated at Oxford and Paris in the mid-13th century[6] and, at an unknown date, entered the Order of the Friars Minor (Franciscans) at Norwich.[7] He lectured as the 10th Franciscan "Reader in Divinity" at Oxford,[6] certainly in the years 1270–72,[8] before leaving to serve as the 8th Minister Provincial of the Franciscans in England during the years 1272–75.[7][9] (He was succeeded at Oxford by John Peckham.)[6] From around 1275[7] to at least 1283,[8] he served as the 15th Franciscan master at Cambridge.[10][7] He wrote Quaestio in Aristotelis de Caelo et Mundo, a commentary on Gerard's edition[11] of Aristotle's work On the Heavens.[5][12] Other questions are attributed to him in MS Assisi 158, in the Palazzo Giacobetti in Assisi.[7] He died at Northampton, England.[7]

Despite their roughly contemporaneous studies and later legends, no real evidence of a relationship between Bungay and Roger Bacon has yet been discovered.[13]

## Legend

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He is better known from later English legend, which made him Roger Bacon's sidekick in the stories that developed around that scholar's knowledge of alchemy and supposed mastery of magic.[1][14][15] In some versions, he is killed by the German mage Vandermast.[14]

The most famous version of the legend is the Elizabethan play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay by Robert Greene.

Bungay may owe his magical reputation to a separate Friar Bungay, who seems to have been a magician in the 15th century.[16]

## Legacy

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Bungay serves a similar sidekick role in Doctor Mirabilis, James Blish's fictional biography of Roger Bacon.

## References

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### Citations

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1. ^ a b c The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay.
2. ^ Personal Names of the Middle Ages, p. 653.
3. ^ a b Carr-Gomm; et al., The Book of English Magic, p. 223.
4. ^ Hartsiotis (2013), p. 59.
5. ^ a b Cambridge Gonville & Caius MS 509 (XIII), f. 208–252.
6. ^ a b c d Serjeantson (1911), p. 27.
7. ^ a b c d e f CE (2003).
8. ^ a b Galle (2003), p. 38.
9. ^ Goad (1979), p. 207.
10. ^ Little, The Friars and Faculty of Theology at Cambridge, pp. 131 ff.
11. ^ Wingate (1931), p. 28.
12. ^ Parker (1968).
13. ^ Little, A.G.; et al. (1934), Oxford Theology and Theologians, Oxford, p. 75`{{citation}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
14. ^ a b The Famous Historie of Frier Bacon.
15. ^ Hartsiotis (2013).
16. ^ Traditio, 1974, p. 449.

### Bibliography

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* Bungay, Thomas (1968), "Thomas de Bungeye's Commentary on the First Book of Aristotle's De Caelo", in Parker, Bernard Street (ed.), Dissertation Abstracts, Vol. XXIX, No. 5, pp. 105–281.
* "Thomas of Bungey", New Catholic Encyclopedia, Gale Group, 2003.
* Galle, Griet (2003), "The Reception of De Caelo in the Thirteenth Century", Peter of Auvergne: Questions on Aristotle's De Caelo: A Critical Edition with an Interpretative Essay, Leuven: Leuven University Press, ISBN 90-5867-322-7.
* Goad, Harold Elsdale (1979), Grey Friars: The Story of St. Francis and his Followers, Franciscan Herald Press, ISBN 9780819907790.
* Hartsiotis, Kirsty (2013), "Friar Bungay and the Fair Maid of Fressingfield", Suffolk Folk Tales, History Press, pp. 59–65, ISBN 9780752492940.
* Serjeantson, Robert Meyricke (1911), A History of the Six Houses of Friars at Northampton: The Black, White, Grey, and Austin Friars, the Friars of the Sack, and the Poor Clares, J. Tebbutt.
* Wingate, S.D. (1931), The Mediaeval Latin Versions of the Aristotelian Scientific Corpus, with Special Reference to the Biological Works, London: Courier Press.

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