 The true beginnings of Polish philosophy, however, reach back to the thirteenth century and Witelo (c. 1230 – c. 1314), a Silesian born to a Polish mother and a Thuringian settler, a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas who had spent part of his life in Italy at centers of the highest intellectual culture.In addition to being a philosopher, he was a scientist who specialized in optics.His famous treatise, "Perspectiva", while drawing on the Arabic "Book of Optics" by Alhazen, was unique in Latin literature, and in turn helped inspire Roger Bacon's best work, Part V of his "Opus maius", "On Perspectival Science," as well as his supplementary treatise "On the Multiplication of Vision".