Doctor Mirabilis, by James Blish

I've been reading James Blish's 1964 novel Doctor Mirabilis, which has a certain amount in common with Michael Flynn's Eifelheim. Blish's book is set a century earlier than Flynn's, in the 1200s, but both are concerned with the roots of modern science in medieval Europe. In Eifelheim, the intellectual giants are William of Ockham, Jean Buridan, and Nicole Oresme; in Mirabilis, they are Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste, Thomas Aquinas, and the protagonist himself, Friar Roger Bacon. In the endnotes Blish argues the case for Bacon being a very important influence on the overall development of the scientific method.

Mirabilis isn't exactly science fiction, except in the literal sense of being fiction about science. I suppose it's technically historical fiction. It's interesting that Blish considered it to be Volume 1 of a trilogy, along with his most enduring book, the science fiction classic (and Hugo winner) A Case of Conscience, as Volume 3, and two horror/fantasy novellas, Black Easter and The Day After Judgement together constituting Volume 2. He called this genre-spanning trilogy "After Such Knowledge," which is, I believe, a quote from T.S. Eliot: "After such knowledge, what forgiveness?"

What links the trilogy? Wikipedia says that each deals with "an aspect of the price of knowledge." The other connecting thread is Catholicism. This part is a little unusual, since James Blish was an atheist (or according to Ken MacLeod, an agnostic) when he wrote them. I once mentioned Blish in a letter to Gene Wolfe. Wolfe replied that he had known Blish slightly, and gotten the impression that he was a contrarian. If you were a Christian, Blish would take the position of an atheist; if you were an atheist, he was a Christian. Adherents.com writes of Blish: "His was an Anglican background, and he embraced Anglicanism late in life and was buried Anglican. But he apparently was an atheist during most of his SF-writing career." But there's no reference cited. The Day After Judgement, published first in 1970 (Blish died in 1975), concludes with a poetic description of an unusual theology. I'm don't know if it represents Blish's personal religious beliefs late in life or if he became an orthodox Anglican.

In any case, I'm quite enjoying Doctor Mirabilis. It's well-written (in that sharp-edged Blish style), highly intelligent, and very evocative of the era. It can also be pretty funny. I particularly liked the young, irritable Roger's clashes with his mentor Adam Marsh:

"'Tis but a Jew."

"As were three of the nine worthies of the world," Adam said gently, "and among Christians there were eke but three, as among the paynims. Since Our Lord was a Jew as well, that giveth the Jews somewhat the advantage."

Or...

"Swef, swef," Adam said. "'Twas not meant to be a test, Roger, only a diversion; whyfore so savage? A peasant girl is not a pestilence."

"Devils live in them," Roger said, the sullen fumes in his head seeming to issue forth in wreaths with the words. "They are all thieves and whores, to the Last Judgement."

"No Christian may declare another eternally damned except on pain of sin," Adam said. "How wilt thou preach, and yet have naught to do with women? They are the half of mankind."