An Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot

FOOTNOTES

[1] De Michaele Scoto Veneficii injuste damnato, Lipsiae, 1739.

[2] Some account of Scottish grammar-schools in the twelfth century will be found in Sir James Dalrymple’s Collections, pp. 226, 255 (Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh); also in Chalmers’s Caledonia, vol. i. p. 76.

[3] Compendium Studii, vol. i. p. 471, ed. Master of the Rolls. London, Longmans, 1859.

[4] Boncompagni Vita di Gherardo Cremonense, Roma, 1851, and the De Astronomia Tractatus x. of Guido Bonatti, printed at BÂle, 1550.

[5] Historia Ecclesiastica, xii. 494.

[6] In the last edition of Chambers’s EncyclopÆdia, sub nomine.

[7] See infra, ch. vii.

[8] Leland’s work was published in 1549.

[9] Comento alla Divina Commedia, Inf., canto xx. Bologna, Fanfani, 1866-74.

[10] The Scotorum Historia of BoËce in which this statement appears was published at Paris in 1526.

[11] Between 1260 and 1280. See Cartulary of Dunfermline.

[12] Exchequer Rolls.

[13] See infra, p. 55.

[14] Bulaeus Historia Univ. Paris., vol. iii. pp. 701, 702.

[15] Sir James Dalrymple’s Collections, pp. 226, 255. There was also a school at Dryburgh, where Sibbald says Sacrobosco studied, but had Scot entered here he would hardly have been distinguished in later years as a man in close relation with another order—the Cistercian.

[16] Not excepting the north. ‘Morebatur eo tempore (c. 1180) apud Oxenfordiam studiorum causa clericus quidam Stephanus nomine de Eboracensi regione oriundus,’ Acta Sanctorum, Oct. 29, p. 579. At the exodus in 1209, no less than three thousand students are said to have left Oxford.

[17] Opus Majus, ed. Jebbi, pp. 36, 37. The words are ‘Tempore Michaelis Scoti, qui, annis 1230 transactis, apparuit, deferens librorum Aristotelis partes aliquas,’ etc. See infra, ch. viii.

[18] See Anderson, Scottish Nation, sub nomine.

[19] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note Y. See infra, ch. x.

[20] See infra, p. 18.

[21] Romance of Elinando.

[22] He probably joined the Cistercian Order.

[23] Compendium Studii, p. 425.

[24] In the printed edition of Dempster, the reference is ‘lib. 3 sententiarum, quaest. iii.,’ but I have not been able to verify it.

[25] Hist. Litt. de la France, vol. ix. p. 65.

[26] Opus Majus, p. 84.

[27] Elinando.

[28] Decamerone, viii. 9.

[29] See infra, chap. x.

[30] The MS. of Scot’s Physionomia in the Vatican Library (Fondo della Regina di Svezia 1151, saec. xvi?) has joined to it some extravagant lines in praise of the Parisian schools, where the writer compares them to Paradise. There is no reason to suppose Scot wrote these verses, but they fully support the statement made in the text.

[31] Pl. lxxxix. sup. cod. 38. See Appendix, No. 1.

[32] See p. 244 of the MS.

[33] Domini Magistri.

[34] Philipo.

[35] Coronato.

[36] Destinavit sibi.

[37] See Ducange, sub voce.

[38] Huillard-BrÉholles, Hist. Dip. Frid. II., vol. i. pp. 44, 68, 242, 255.

[39] No. 354.

[40] See infra, p. 37.

[41] L’Anonimo Fiorentino, Comento alla Divina Commedia. Bologna, Fanfani, 1866-74.

[42] See especially the preface to the Physionomia.

[43] Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, sub voce ‘Magister.’

[44] From August 1200 to January 1208. See Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia.

[45] See the Hist. Dip. Frid., passim.

[46] Amari.

[47] See infra, pp. 26, 59, and ch. vi.

[48] Compendium Studii, p. 434.

[49] See the preface to the Secreta.

[50] Amari. See infra, p. 83.

[51] Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Canon Misc. 555; cod. memb. in 4to ff. 97, saec. xiv. ineunt., with a portrait of Michael Scot in one of the initials. The preface opens thus:—‘Cum ars astronomie sit grandis sermonibus philosophorum.’ The book begins:—‘Cronica Grece Latine dicitur series ut temporis temporum sicut dominorum,’ and closes thus:—‘De expositione fundamenti terrae volentes his finere secundum librum quem incepimus in nomine Dei, Cui ex parte nostra sit semper grandis laus et gloria, benedictio et triumphus in omnibus per infinita saecula saeculorum Amen.’ Other MSS. of the Astronomia are found at Milan, Bibl. Ambros. L. 92, sup. cum figuris; and at Munich, see Halm and Meyer’s Catalogue, vol. ii. part i. p. 156, No. 1242, saec. xviii.

[52] ‘Quasi vulgariter.’

[53] Bodl. MS. 266, chart. in fol. saec. xv. 218 leaves; Bibl. Nat. Paris, Nouv. acq. 1401; the Escorial has another MS. of this work on paper, in writing of the fourteenth century. The Liber Introductorius commences thus: ‘Quicumque vult esse bonus astrologus’—an expression which betrays the churchman in Scot. It closes with these words: ‘finitur tractatus de notitia pronosticorum.’ Extracts from the Liber Introductorius are found in the MS. Fondo Vaticano 4087, p. 38, ro. and vo., MS. in fol. chart. saec. xvi., and in the Bibl. del Seminario Vescovile, Padua, MS. 48, in fol. chart. saec. xiv.; also Bibl. Ambros, Milan, MS. I. 90.

[54] The Paris MS. reads ‘in Astronomia,’ a good example of the confusion mentioned above.

[55] ‘Leviter.’

[56] This is a mistake common to both the MSS. Innocent IV. did not begin to reign till 1243, when Scot was long in his grave. Innocent III., who was Pope from 1198-1216, is the person meant. He was guardian to Frederick II. during his minority.

[57] According to the line: ‘Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astra,’ in which the Trivium and Quadrivium were succinctly and memorably expressed.

[58] His mother was nearly fifty years old at his birth.

[59] See the description of this palace in the poem by Peter of Eboli.

[60] Zurita says that Sancia, the Queen Dowager of Aragon, claimed the crown of Sicily for her son Fernando, in case there were no heir of Frederick II. by Constance.

[61] See on this whole subject three most learned and satisfactory works by Prof. R. Foerster of Breslau—De Arist. quae feruntur physiognomonicis recensendis, Kiliae, 1882; De trans. lat. physiognomonicorum, Kiliae, 1884; and especially his Scriptores Graeci Physiognomonici, Teubner, 1894.

[62] A Physionomia ascribed to Al Mansour himself was commented on by Jacopo da Samminiato. It is preserved in the Bibl. Naz. of Florence, MS. xx. 55.

[63] See Book II. chap. xxvi. et seq.

[64] B. J. II., 8. § 6. See also the Church Histories of Neander (i. 61, 83) and Kurtz (i. 65).

[65] The word ????a? read numerically gives the total of 365 = the number of days in which the sun completes his circle through the twelve signs. In this way it is equivalent to Mithras. These gems often bear the figure of a cock = the sun-bird, not without reference to Æsculapius. They were worn to recover or preserve health.

[66] This reminds one of the somewhat similar introduction to the alchemy of Crates, which speaks of a youth called Rissoures, the scion of a family of adepts, who made love to a maid-servant of Ephestelios, chief diviner in the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, thus inducing her to steal the book and fly with him. The tradition of discovery is common to both legends, but the Crates has a colour of worldly passion and the Sirr-el-Asrar a shade of ascetic practice which agrees admirably with what we know of the Therapeutae. Crates is probably Democritus. The Arabic version was due to Khalid ben Yezid, and bears the title of Kenz el Konouz, or treasure of treasures. It is found in MS. 440 of Leyden. In a later chapter we shall recur to this subject with the view of showing that alchemy as well as physiognomy owed much to the Therapeutic philosophy.

[67] The printed copy—in fol. Venice, Bernardinus de Vitalibus, s. a. but probably 1501—reads ‘romanam,’ which would be neo-Greek or Romaic.

[68] See on this whole subject the excellent remarks of Foerster in his treatise De Aristotelis quae feruntur Secretis Secretorum, Kiliae, 1888, pp. 22-25.

[69] Wright’s Cat. of the Syriac MSS., Nos. 250 and 366.

[70] Recherches, pp. 117, 118.

[71] Op. cit. pp. 26, 27.

[72] Viz., P. xiii. sin. cod. 6; P. xxx. cod. 29; and P. lxxxix. sup. cod. 76. There is also one at Paris, Fonds de Sorbonne, 955.

[73] See the MS. of the Laurentian Library, p. lxxxviii. cod. 24.

[74] By transposition ‘G. de Valentia vere civitatis,’ etc. (Bibl. Naz. Flor. xxv. 10, 632); by corruption ‘vere de violentia’ (Barberini MS.), or ‘grosso pontifici’ (Fondo Vaticano, 5047). This bishop has not yet been identified.

[75] MSS. of the Secreta Secretorum are found in Florence, Bibl. Naz., xxv. 10, 632, chart. saec. xv.; Bibl. Laur. (S. Crucis) xv. sin. 9; Rome, Fondo Vaticano, 5047; Oxford, Bibl. Bod. Can. Misc., 562; Troyes and St. Omer, v. Cat. MSS. des Depart., vol. ii. pp. 517, 518, and iii. 295; Berne, v. Sinner’s Cat., vol. iii. p. 525. It is interesting to note that the title of this last MS. is Physionomia, just as the Physionomia of Scot is called De Secretis in the editions of 1584 and 1598. This confirms the relation between his work and that of Philippus Clericus. MSS. of the Italian version of the Secreta Secretorum are found at Florence, Bibl. Riccard., Q. I. xxii. 1297; R. I. xx. 2224; L. I. xxxiv. 108. The first of these is dated 1450. In the Bibl. Naz., Florence, there is another, and a similar one of the Physionomia Aristotelis. In the Chigi Library of Rome there is a MS., chart. saec. xvii., with the curious title: ‘Migel franzas, auctor obscurioris nominis, ad Physionomiam Aristotelis Commentarium.’ It is numbered E. vi. 205, and consists of 326 pages. The Secreta Secretorum with the De Mineralibus was printed at Venice (? 1501), by Bernardinus de Vitalibus, and a new version by G. Manente, comprehending the Morals and the Physionomia as well as the Secreta, issued from the same place in 1538. It was printed in 4to by Tacuino da Trino.

[76] MSS. of the Physionomia: Oxford, Bibl. Bod. MSS. Canon. Misc. 555 (with the Liber Particularis) saec. xiv.; Milan, Bibl. Ambros. L 92 sup. (with the Liber Particularis); Padua, Bibl. Anton. xxiii. 616, chart. saec. xvii; Vatican, Fondo della Regina 1151 perhaps saec. xvi. Printed editions: 1477 perhaps double; 1485 Louvain and Leipsic; 1499 s. l. and five or six others of this century in 4to, s. l. et a.; 1508 Cologne, Venice, and Paris, the last in 8vo; 1514 Venice 8vo; 1515 s. l.; 1519 Venice 8vo; 1584 Lyons 24mo along with the Abbreviatio Avicennae and the De animalibus ad Caesarem under the general title of De Secretis Naturae; 1598 Lyons, De Secretis Naturae cum tractatu De Secretis Mulierum Alberti Magni; 1615 Frankfort 8vo; 1655 and 1660 Amsterdam 12mo. Editions of the Italian version appeared at Venice in 1533, 8vo, and 1537. During the sixteenth century an edition of the Latin text in 8vo appeared from the press of Pietro Gaudoul without date.

[77] Histoire LittÉraire de la France. The list given above will show that this statement rather falls short of the truth than exceeds it.

[78] See Ticknor’s History of Spanish Literature, p. 395.

[79] Recherches sur l’Âge et l’origine des trad. latines d’Aristote, Paris, 1843, chap. iii. passim.

[80] The bones of Aristotle were said to lie in the Mosque of Palermo, where they were highly reverenced. See Charles III. of Naples, by St. Clair Baddeley, London, 1894, p. 122.

[81] Notices et extraits des Mss., vol. vi. p. 412.

[82] Die Uebersetz. Arabischer Werke, GÖttingen, 1877, p. 99.

[83] See Lane’s Modern Egyptians, vol. i. p. 197 note.

[84] We should remember, however, the Emperor’s instructions to his translators: ‘verborum fideliter servata virginitate.’ See his circular of 1230 to the Universities.—Jourdain, Recherches, p. 133.

[85] De Animalibus ad Caesarem, chap. ix.

[86] Bibl. Laur. Pl. xiii. sin. cod. 9 in fol. perg. This MS. was written in 1266.

[87] Fifteenth Century s. l. et a. in fol. pp. 54. There are also Venice editions of 1493 and 1509.

[88] Fondo Vaticano 4428 in fol. perg. saec. xiii. See a complete inventory of this MS. in Appendix II.

[89] See Roger Bacon, Opus Majus, p. 37.

[90] P. 158 recto, the last line of the third column.

[91] Recherches, p. 133.

[92] See ante, p. 10.

[93] There is an evident reference to Prov. i. 9 in these words which accords well with Scot’s usual style.

[94] Printed, but very incompletely, at Augsburg in 1596 in 8vo.

[95] Hist. Dip. Frid. II. vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 381, 382.

[96] Can this have been Cologna, a village about four miles north of Salerno?

[97] Fondo Vaticano 4428.

[98] The words are: ‘Ex libro animalium Aristotelis Domini Imperatoris in margine’ (p. 158 recto): see facsimile at p. 55.

[99] Bibl. Chisiana E viii. 251, at p. 41 bottom margin.

[100] P. 158, recto col. 1.

[101] p. 164.

[102] Pl. xiii. sin. cod. 9. Other MSS. of the Abbreviatio Avicennae are these: Fondo Vaticano 7096; Fondo Regina di Svezia 1151; Bibl. Burgensis 8557 in 8vo memb. saec. xiii. vel xiv.; Bibl. Pommersfeld, saec. xiv.; Paris, Anc. Fonds 6443; Venice, Bibl. St. Marc. 171 memb. saec. xiv. (the same library has another MS. in 4to memb. saec. xiv., see the Catalogue by Valentinelli, vol. v. p. 58). Bologna, Bibl. Univ. 1340 in fol. chart. saec. xiv. doubtful; Oxford, Bodl. MSS. Canon. Misc. 562 saec. xiv. et xv.; Merton Coll. MS. 277 saec. xiv.; All Souls MS. 72 saec. xiv.

[103] Recherches, p. 133.

[104] P. 13, recto et verso, in the undated fifteenth century edition of the Abbreviatio.

[105] Ibid. pp. 33 verso, 34 recto.

[106] See ante, p. 32.

[107] La Chimie au Moyen Age, Paris, 1893. One cannot praise too highly the interest and value of this monumental work. I am greatly indebted to it for many of the facts and conclusions here repeated.

[108] The Mappae Clavicula (Key to Painting) belongs to the tenth century; the Compositiones ad Tingenda is of the age of Charlemagne. A MS. of the eighth century (not the ninth as Berthelot says) is extant at Lucca (Bibl. Capit. Can. I. L.). Muratori has printed it in his Antiquitates Italicae, ii. 364-87. It contains receipts for the colours used in making tesserae for mosaic, for dyeing skins, cloth, bone, horn and wood; for making parchment; for various processes such as gold and silver beating and drawing, and the gilding of iron; for chrysography and the gilding of leather; ‘quomodo eramen in colore auri transmutetur,’ ‘operatio Cinnaberim,’ a perfume for the hands called lulakin, and for certain amalgams of gold and silver called glutina.

[109] See Chwolson, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus. The Egyptians extended this correspondence to the members of the human body.

[110] Sp??d????s?? ??t?p?? pe?? t? t?? pa?a??? s?????ata, ???sta t? p??? ?f??e?a? ????? ?a? s?at?? ???????te?. ???e? a?t??? p??? ?e??pe?a? pa??? ???a? te ??e??t????? ?a? ????? ?d??t?te? ??e?e????ta?.—Bell. Jud., ii. 8. § 6.

[111] Roma, Vincentio Accolti, 1587. My copy is the one presented by the author to the great Aldrovandus of Bologna, with whom he seems to have been on intimate terms.

[112] See the Paris MS. 6514, pp. 133-35.

[113] Of Pannopolis, a chemist of the fourth century.

[114] 6514.

[115] Fondo Vaticano, 4428, p. 114. This treatise is the same as the De mineralibus published along with the De Secretis at Venice (? 1501) by Bernardinus de Vitalibus.

[116] Speciale MS. No. vi. See the work by Sac. I. Carini, Sulle Scienze Occulte nel Medio Evo, Palermo, 1872. ‘Kalid Rex’ was Khaled ben Yezid ibn Moauia, and ‘Morienus’ was Mar Jannos, his Syrian master.

[117] Gayangos, i. 8. Eighty thousand books are said to have been burned in the squares of Granada alone.

[118] In the editions of 1622 and 1659, Argentorati. It has been stated that the Quaestio Curiosa is a chapter taken from the Liber Introductorius of Michael Scot. The alternative title of that work, Judicia Quaestionum would seem to favour this idea, and may in fact have suggested it. But an examination of the Liber Introductorius (MS. Bodl. 266), which I have caused to be made, proves that the statement referred to is without foundation. It was advanced in a paper read before the Scottish Society of Antiquaries by Mr. John Small, and printed in their Proceedings, vol. xi. p. 179.

[119] See the note to p. 75 supra.

[120] Inf. iv. 131.

[121] In the Theatrum of Zetzner there is a tract: ‘Aristoteles de perfecto Magisterio,’ and the Bibl. Naz. of Florence has a MS., ‘De Tribus Verbis,’ ascribed to the same author.

[122] Sic pro indagine, v. cod. xvi. 142 of the Bibl. Naz. Florence, where this treatise is given to Alfidius, i.e. Al Kindi. In it occur the significant words: ‘est (alchimia) de illa parte physice quae Metheora nuncupatur.’

[123] No. 6514.

[124] ‘Penitus denegatam,’ see infra, p. 89.

[125] It is remarkable in this connection that ‘Transubstantiation’ was finally imposed on the faithful by the Lateran council of 1215. The term had not been previously used in theology. This was the very epoch of Michael Scot and of the introduction of alchemy in the West.

[126] MS. Ricc. L. iii. 13. 119, p. 35vo.

[127] ‘In quo talia continentur, Intencio, Causa Intencionis et Utilitas,’ etc.

[128] See Appendix, No. III.

[129] Pp. 192vo.-195vo.

[130] The Paris MS. 6514 has these words: ‘Magister Galienus scriptor qui utitur in Episcopatu est alkimista et scit albificare eramen ita quod est album ut argentum commune.’

[131] Pp. 190ro.-192vo.

[132] Pp. 185vo.-190ro.

[133] Manuel Comnenus reigned as Emperor of the East from 1143 to 1180, while Frederick I. was Emperor of the West from 1152 to 1190. This would seem to indicate the twelfth century as the time when these works of the Pseudo Archelaus were produced. It is curious to notice that Manuel was the Emperor who suffered defeat by sea at the hands of George of Antioch the Sicilian admiral (Gibbon, chap. lvi.) This brave seaman was the same who founded the library of the Martorana in Palermo (see above, p. 25), and enriched it with the literary spoils of his conquests. It is highly probable that it was in this way the scholars of Sicily became acquainted with the Byzantine alchemy.

[134] MS. Ricc. L. iii. 13. 119. pp. 19vo.-29ro.

[135] Titles resembling this are not uncommon in the literature of alchemy. Thus the Paris MS. 6514 has two treatises, both called Lumen Luminum and both ascribed to Rases. The latter of these, the Liber Lumen Luminum et perfecti Magisterii, is that which has been printed by Zetzner in the Theatrum Chemicum, under the name of Aristotle. It contains, as we have already observed, the Liber XII. aquarum and other material derived from the Liber Emanuelis. The former treatise bearing the name of the Liber Lumen Luminum in the Paris MS. (pp. 113-120) is remarkable on account of the words with which it closes: ‘explicit liber autoris invidiosi,’ which Berthelot notes, but does not attempt to explain. The Mappa of the Pseudo-Archelaus mentions the ‘Liber invidiosus’ (‘quia liber iste invidiosus est ab omnibus hominibus’), but what may be the true reading of the matter is found in the Liber Dyabesi or book of the distillation of the land-tortoise (MS. Ricc. p. 4ro.) where these words occur: ‘Omnia ista pondera fuerunt occulta a philosophis, et dederunt nobis alia pondera … quia fuerunt invidiosi,’ i.e. unwilling to make public the secrets of their art. In later days the title Lumen Luminum is found in use by Raymond Lull and his school.

[136] Liber Luminis Luminum, ii. 1.

[137] Corpus Christi MS. cxxv. pp. 116-119.

[138] In MS. Ricc. L. iii. 13, 119, No. 37.

[139] See on the whole subject the Annales Minorum of Wadding, especially vol. i. p. 109. In vol. ii. p. 242, we find the reproof addressed by the Pope to Fra Elias. The words referred to above are these: ‘mutari color optimus auri ex quo caput (i.e. Franciscus) erat compactum.’

[140] For example, ‘quaedam gumma quae invenitur in alumine de pluma, et ista gumma est rubea, et gumma quae invenitur in alumine rubeo et ista gumma est preciosa et bona valde.’ The word becomes intelligible when read as ‘gemma.’

[141] Such as ‘Yader saracenus,’ ‘Arbaranus,’ ‘Theodosius saracenus,’ ‘Medibibaz,’ and ‘Magister Jacobus Judaeus.’ The name of the place ‘halaph’ which is probably Aleppo, and of the herb ‘carcha’ point in the same direction.

[142] Bibl. Naz. Flor. MS. xvi. 142, see supra, p. 79.

[143] Romanus de Higuera, a very doubtful authority.

[144] This village gave name to another Moorish writer, Abu Gafar Ahmed ben Abd-el-Rahman ben Mohammed, also surnamed el Bitraugi. He died in 1147 and his fame survives as that of the author of an encyclopedia of science.

[145] For the unfavourable judgment of Mirandola on this astronomer, see infra, p. 143.

[146] See the excellent account in Munk.

[147] Recherches, p. 133.

[148] These are Ancien Fonds 7399 and Fonds de Sorbonne 1820.

[149] ‘Qui vivit in aeternum per tempora.’

[150] There is a copy in the Barberini library (ix. 25 in fol. chart. saec. xv.) which reads ‘cum abuteo lenite.’ Another at Paris, MSS. lat. 1665 (olim Sorbonicus) has ‘c. Abuteo Levite.’ It would be rash to conjecture the sense of this curious phrase. It is evidently a sign of time, and perhaps astrological.

[151] The Barberini MS. (ix. 25) gives 1221 as the date of the version, but the consensus of the other copies shows this to be a mistake. Almost all the MSS. mention that the work was done at Toledo.

[152] See the references made to this work of Scot by Albertus Magnus and Vincent of Beauvais.

[153] For the life and opinions of AverroËs, see the excellent monograph AverroËs et l’AverroÏsme, which Renan published at Paris in 1866. I have drawn largely upon it in composing this chapter.

[154] See infra, p. 128. Nicolas Damascenus was born B.C. 64.

[155] This was purely Alexandrian doctrine: ‘enseÑaron Plotino, Porfirio y Iamblico, que, en la union extatica, el alma y Dios se hacen uno, quedando el alma como aniquilada por el golpe intuitivo.’ Pelayo, Heterodoxos EspaÑoles, vol. ii. p. 522.

[156] Albertus Stadensis speaks of a heretical sect which appeared at Halle in 1248. They abused the clergy, the monastic orders and the Pope, but their preachers exhorted them to pray for the Emperor Frederick and his son Conrad, qui perfecti et justi sunt. Among the Albigenses and Cathari generally the word perfecti was used in a technical sense to indicate those who had been received into complete fellowship as opposed to the credentes who were still on probation. As applied therefore to the Emperor and his son it would seem to indicate at least certain leanings to these opinions on Frederick’s part. This might explain the action he certainly took in trying to detach the Sicilian clergy from the see of Rome and to set up a national or imperial church in which he pretended to the earthly headship.

[157] Opera, p. 102.

[158] AverroËs, pp. 28, 254, 291.

[159] See ante, p. 18.

[160] This inquiry was afterwards interpreted to Scot’s disadvantage and in a way that heightened his necromantic fame. See infra, ch. ix.

[161] See Appendix, No. I. AverroËs had maintained in opposition to Galen that the best of all climates was that of the fifth terrestrial region: that in which Cordova was situated.—Colliget, ii. 22. Michael Scot can hardly have shared this opinion.

[162] St. Victor, 171.

[163] De Rossi MS. 354. See ante, p. 20.

[164] See preface to the De Anima of Avicenna, MSS. Fondo Vaticano 4428, p. 78vo, and 2089, p. 307ro. Jourdain has reprinted this preface in his Recherches, p. 449, from the MSS. Fonds de Sorbonne 1793 and Ancien Fonds 6443.

[165] Bibl. Rabb. i. p. 7. ‘Eiusdem Avicennae Physicorum lib. iv., Magistro Johanne Gunsalui et Salomone interpretibus, No. 449,’ i.e. of the Fondo Urbinate.

[166] Bibl. EspaÑola, ii. pp. 643-4. ‘Conhesso’ may be a mistake for converso. There is reason to think that Andrew had embraced the Christian faith.

[167] ‘Michael Scotus, ignarus quidem et verborum et rerum, fere omnia quae sub nomine ejus prodierunt, ab Andrea quodam Judaeo mutuatus est.’—Opus Majus. In his Compendium Studii, a much later work, Bacon repeats the accusation in a milder form: ‘Michael Scotus ascripsit sibi translationes multas. Sed certum est quod Andreas quidam Judaeus plus laboravit in his.’ It has been conjectured that Andrew was a convert to Christianity, v. Renan, who cites the preface to Jebb’s edition of the Opus Tertium of Bacon. It is curious at any rate that the name given him was that of Scotland’s patron saint.

[168] Bibl. Max. Vett. Patrum, Lugduni, 1677, vol. xxii. p. 1030.

[169] The letter, namely, of Pope Gregory IX.

[170] Paris, Fonds de Sorbonne 924, 950; St. Victor, 171; Navarre, 75; Venice, St. Mark, vi. 54; Fondo Vaticano, 2184, 2089, p. 6ro.

[171] See ‘Proviniana’ in the Feuille de Provins for 7 FÉvrier 1852; also the Hist. Litt. de la France, xvii. 232; the Bibl. Imp. Colb. Suite du Reg. Princ. Campan, III. 50ro. and 199vo.; and the letters of Gregory IX., anni v. 9 kal. Maii (1231 or 1232), anni vii. kal. Feb., and 3 kal. Martii in the collection of Laporte du Theil.

[172] See ante, p. 6.

[173] Paris, Sorbonne, 932, 943; St. Victor, 171; Ancien Fonds, 6504; Venice, St. Mark, vi. 54.

[174] Vita di Gherardo Cremonense, Roma, 1851. The distinction between the elder and younger Gerard had been noticed by Flavio Biondo (1388-1463); by Zaccharia Lilio (obiit c. 1522) and by Giulio Faroldo in the sixteenth century. I have found the same accuracy in the Risorgimento d’Italia of the Abate Saverio Bettinelli, which appeared at Bassano in 1786 (vol. i. p. 81). Only foreigners, therefore, seem to have overlooked it.

[175] Compendium Studii, p. 471.

[176] No. 354; see ante, pp. 20, 116.

[177] See the list of MSS. already given, p. 123.

[178] De la Philosophie Scolastique, i. 470.

[179] Opera, ii. 140.

[180] AverroËs, p. 108.

[181] See Metaphysica, xii. 334.

[182] Avicenna. See Destruction of Destruction, iii. 350.

[183] The doctrine of spontaneous generation, common among the Arabian Philosophers, and specially taught by Ibn Tofail.

[184] This is a notable saying which may well have given rise to the legend of a book De Tribus Impostoribus. It was certainly one of the foeda dicta blamed by Albertus Magnus.

[185] St. Mark, vi. 54 memb. saec. xiv. The De Substantia Orbis is said to have been completed by AverroËs in Morocco in 1178.

[186] Also Fondo Vaticano, 2089, p. 1, with commentary by Alfarabius.

[187] This title recalls a passage in the De Anima of AverroËs as reproduced by Pendasius: ‘Si intellectus esset numeratus ad numerum individuorum, esset aliquod hoc (i.e. aliquod particulare) determinatum, corpus aut virtus in corpore. Si hoc esset, esset quid intellectum potentia.’

[188] No. 620. See Cat. Gen. des Bibl. des Dep. vol. iii. Paris, 1855.

[189] See ante, p. 125.

[190] Colophon to cod. lxxix. 18 of the Laurentian Library.

[191] See ante, p. 59.

[192] Opus Tertium, Master of the Rolls ed. p. 91.

[193] Compendium Studii, p. 467. The De Plantis is found at p. 83 of MS. Fondo Vaticano 4087.

[194] Namely the novel called Il Paradiso degli Alberti (Bologna, Wesseloffsky, 1867, vol. ii. pp. 180-217), and No. xx. of the Cento Novelle Antiche (Testo Borghiniano).

[195] Inferno, xx. 115, 116.

[196] The faja still worn in Spain is a direct survival of this custom.

[197] According to ecclesiastical reckoning; the direction of the altar being taken as eastward. The frontispiece reproduces part of this fresco.

[198] See infra, chap. ix.

[199] The fact that AverroËs himself is painted on the opposite wall holding in his hand the Great Commentary seems highly to increase the probability that the figure here described was meant for Michael Scot, the recognised interpreter of that forbidden philosophy. AverroËs occupies a similar position in Orgagna’s fresco in the Campo Santo of Pisa.

[200] Scot reckoned twelve signs in augury answering to the twelve celestial houses. Six came from the right hand: Fernova, fervetus, confert, amponenth, scimasarnova, scimasarvetus; and six from the left: Confernova, confervetus, viaram, harenan, scassarnova, scassarvetus. See the Physionomia, chap. lvi.

[201] Unless indeed these, or some of them, should prove to be merely detached fragments of the Liber Introductorius itself, like those at Milan, Padua, and Rome. See ante, p. 27.

[202] No. 1091. It is perhaps the same as the Astrologorum Dogmata, which appears in the lists of Bale and Pitz.

[203] No. 3124. Incipit: ‘Primum signum duodecim signorum.’ Explicit: ‘principio motus earum.’

[204] As a characteristic specimen, we may take the chapter of the Liber Introductorius on the moon as it is given in the Roman MS. (Fondo Vaticano 4087, p. 38ro.). It commences thus: ‘Luna terris vicinior est omnibus planetis.’ Some passages are curious, as when Scot says that the moon has her light from the sun and he again receives his ‘a summo coelo in quo Trinitas residet.’ The heathen, he adds, used to call the moon Diana, and the sister of the sun, whom they named Apollo. Her proper figure is that of a virgin with a torch in either hand whereof the flames are triple to signify the Trinity, that ‘true light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world’ (S. John i. 9). ‘Virgil saith of her “tria Virginis ora Dianae,” that is heavenly, earthly, and infernal. Her power causes hunters to profit more by night than by day, and the owl and night-hawk sleep all day that they may follow their prey by night. Such creatures of the night are hated by the rest and hate them in return. The wolf hates the sheep, and birds the owl. This last is of use in fowling when they use a night-hawk. Builders, too, know that wood must be felled in the wane of the moon or it will warp.’ It ends thus: ‘Explicit Liber quem edidit micael scotus de signis et ymaginibus celi, qui scriptum (sic) et exemplatum fuit per me baltasaram condam (quondam) Domini Dominici in mcccxx de mense Aprilis Deo gratias Amen.’

[205] Opera Omnia, Bale, 1527. In Astrologiam, lib. viii. chap. vi. and lib. xii. chap. vii.

[206] In No. 1 of the Cento Novelle Antiche Frederick answers the ambassadors of Prester John by saying that the best thing in the world ‘si È misura.’ This may possibly refer to his passion for mathematics.

[207] MSS. of this work are in Paris, Ancien Fonds, 7310; Milan, Ambrosiana, T. 100; Florence, Bibl. Naz. xi. D. 64, II. ii. 35, and Rome, Fondo Vaticano, 2975.

[208] See Narducci’s Catalogue of the Boncompagni MSS., Rome, 1862.

[209] Histoire des Sciences MathÉmatiques.

[210] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Author’s Edition, Note 3 I.

[211] Lenormant, Quest. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 144, 145.

[212] Cento Novelle Antiche, No. C.

[213] 22 July 1232. See ‘Ann. Colon. Max.’ in Pertz, Scriptores Rei Germanicae, xvii. 843.

[214] ‘Physicorum motuum.’ The passage will be found in the De Utilitate Linguarum.

[215] This city was founded in 1067-68 by En-Nacer ben Alennas ibn Hammad, who made it his capital.

[216] MSS. of the Liber Abbaci are to be found in Florence, Bibl. Naz. i. 2616, iii. 25, and xi. 21. The first of these has been exactly reprinted by Boncompagni at Rome, 1857. Other MSS. are in the Boncompagni library, see Narducci’s Catalogue, Nos. 176 and 255. The most important work on the whole subject is ‘Della Vita e delle Opere di Leonardo Pisano,’ by Boncompagni, Rome, 1852.

[217] See infra, chap. ix.

[218] The University Library of Genoa has an interesting MS. (F. vii. 10), written in Arabic by an African hand. It belonged, A. H. 483, to Judah ben Jaygh ben Israel, servant of Abu Abdallah Algani Billah, a Moor of Malaga. It contains medical works by Johannes ben Mesue, Rases, Alkindi, Geber, and others.

[219] For an account of the school of Salerno, see Sprengel, Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Artzneykunde; Carmoly, Histoire des MÉdecins Juifs, Bruxelles, 1844; and De Renai, Collectio Salernitana, Naples, 1852.

[220] The De Urinis. See ante, p. 20.

[221] Historia Ecclesiastica, xii. 495. Dempster professed at Pisa and Bologna between the years 1616 and 1625.

[222] This was Symphorien Champier, physician to Henry II. of France.

[223] See the Sibbald Collections, Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh.

[224] See D’Herbelot. This author was a Jew.

[225] See ante, pp. 20, 151. Further investigation might show that it was Michael Scot himself who undertook this work for the Emperor. In that case it would probably be the original from which the two Italian versions mentioned above were made. Nor is it unlikely he should have devoted himself to medicine as early as 1212 considering the nature of the work by Avicenna on which we know he was engaged in 1210.

[226] In Ideler’s Physici et Medici Graeci Minores, Berlin, 1842, vol. ii.

[227] Florence, Bibl. Naz. xv. 27, cod. chart. saec. xv.; Naples, Bibl. Naz. cod. chart. saec. xv. from the Minieri Riccio collection.

[228] Vatican, Fondo della Regina di Svezia, 1159, p. 149. This treatise closes thus: ‘et istud sufficit tempore presenti facto urinarum. Finis urinarum Magistri Michaelis Scoti. Incipit Practica Magistri R. de Parma Medecinarum.’

[229] British Museum, add. MSS. 24,068. This is a volume in 8vo containing a medical collection. It belonged in 1422 to Heinrich Zenner and afterwards to Magister Wenceslaus Brock. No. 22, at fol. 97vo, is as follows: ‘Pillulae Magistri Michaelis Scoti, quae fere competunt omnibus egritudinibus, et non possit scribi earum bonitas, unde nolo eas amplius laudare etc. Recipe Aloe epatice optimum, uncias iii., brionie, mirobolonorum indorum, reb. belliricorum, emblicorum, citrinorum, masticiis, dyagridii, azari, rosarum, Reubarbari an. unciam i. Confice cum succo caulium vel absynthii. Dosis sit vii. vel v. Et iste competunt convenienti et ydonea dieta observata. Et valent iste pillulae contra omnem dolorem capitis, ex quacumque causa, vel ex quocumque humore procedat, purgant mire omnes humores, Leticiam generant, mentem acuunt, visum reddunt et reparant, auditum restituunt, Juventutem conservant, Scotomiam et vertiginem reparant, canes (? canities) retardant, memoriam conservant, Emigraneam depellunt, oculos illuminant, aciem reparant, et in puerilem etatem reducunt. Et si aliquis humorum est impedimenti in gingivis et dentibus, medifica[n]t et in soliditatem conservant, arterias de flemate purgant, Epiglotum et uvam (? uvulam) cum voce clarificant, appetivam virtutem confortant, Stomachum epar et splenem coadjuvant. Sonitum aurium et surditatem tollunt, causas febrium omnino extingunt et auferunt, ascarides vermes necant, omnibus etatibus et temporibus tam masculino quam feminino sexui conveniunt.’ In the Laurentian Library, xii. 27. p. 48, I find a similar prescription which may have been given either by Michael Scot or Master Volmar who succeeded him as court physician. It is as follows: ‘Pulvis Domini Fred. Imperatoris, valens contra omnium humorum exceptionem et precipue contra fleumaticum et melanconicum, ex quibus diuturnae infirmitates capitis et stomachi habent [?] provenire. Valet quippe contra defectum visus et stomachi debilitatem cibaria sumpta digeri et membris incorporari facit, valet contra stomachi ventositatem Scotomiam ante oculos inducentem, restaurat memoriam quocumque humore perditum, verum (?) dolorem ex frigiditate provenientem mitigat. Recipe: Carium, petrosillini anisi, marati, sexmontani, Bethonice, Cymini, calamite, pulegii, ysopi, spicenardi, piperis, sal gemme, rute, centrumgalli, herbae regiae, heufragie, olibani, mastici, croci, mirabolanorum, omnium, et plus de citrinis, an. ? 1. et utaris omni tempore indifferenter. Addenda sunt ista; Cynamomi, Schinati, maiorane, folii balsamite, mzimi, (?) cardamomi, galenge, regulitie, an. ? 1. pulverizza, et utaris indifferenter.’ The MS. is in a hand of the thirteenth century. The Myrobalans, long discarded from the Pharmacopoeia, were the dried fruits of various species of Phyllanthus and Terminalia which grow in India. They are still used in native practice, especially in the preparation of the Bit laban, a remedy in rheumatic gout prepared by calcining these seeds with the fossil muriate of soda. See Asiatic Researches, xi. pp. 174, 181, 192. The bellirica and emblica are other species of the same plant, the Terminalia. See Bauhin’s Historia Plantarum, 1613. The Dyagridium or Dacridium is an alternative name for scammony. Azarum, the same as asarum, the Aristolochia. Maratum or Marathrum an old name for fennel. Reb. is probably the Robes of the early chemical authors = a vinegar, here impregnated with the active principle of the fruits prescribed. Cyminum = cumin. Calamita = mint. Pulegium = pennyroyal, another of the mints. Salgemma = rock-salt. We shall become familiar with this term in perusing the Liber Luminis of Michael Scot. Centrumgallus, according to Du Cange, the common garden cockscomb. Herbia regia, the Ocymum citrinum or citron basil. Olibanum, frankincense. Galengha, the root of a species of Alpinia. Regulitia, liquorice. I have been greatly helped in identifying several of these forgotten simples by the kindness of Mr. J. M. Shaw, sub-librarian to the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.

[230] Year viii. of his Pontificate, namely Jan. 16, 1223. See the interesting article by Milman in the Miscellany of the Philobiblon Society, vol. i. 1854. He refers to the papers of Mr. W. R. Hamilton in the British Museum, and especially to vol. ii. pp. 214, 228, 246.

[231] Monumenta, sub anno 1259, Feb. 12.

[232] ‘Quod inter literatos vigeat dono scientiae singulari.’

[233] Theiner, Monumenta, p. 23, ad annum viii. Hon. III. i.e. 1223.

[234] Declinature noted June 20, 1223.

[235] Milman’s Church History, vol. iv. p. 17.

[236] ‘Nec contentus littera tantum erudire Latina, ut in ea melius formaretur, Hebraice et Arabice insudavit laudabiliter et profecit, et sic doctus in singulis grata diversorum varietate nitescit.’—Hamilton MSS. in British Museum, vol iii. p. 57.

[237] He was a Calabrian abbot, who died in 1202.

[238] This author died in 1306.

[239] See Muratori ‘Rerum Italicarum Scriptores,’ viii. (1726) ad calcem Mem. Potest Reg.

[240] Muratori, Op. cit. ix. 669 B.

[241]

‘Quaedam de Te presagia, Cesar,

A Michaele Scoto me percepisse recordor.

Qui fuit astrorum scrutator, qui fuit Augur,

Qui fuit Ariolus, et qui fuit alter Apollo.’

Poem of Henri d’Avranches in ‘Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte,’ xviii. (1878), p. 486.

[242] Vol. x. p. 105. See also the same vol., pp. 101 and 148.

[243] L. ii. xvii. 338, p. 183vo.

[244] Bibl. Univ. No. 1557, p. 43. This MS. is of the fifteenth century.

[245] ‘Chronica F. Salimbene,’ Parma 1857, pp. 176-177.

[246] Muratori, Op. cit. ix. 660 B.

[247] Similar deceitful prophecies are not uncommon in mediÆval story. Walter Map in the De Nugis Curialium tells how Silvester II. was assured by his familiar spirit that he would not die till he had said Mass at Jerusalem. The prediction was fulfilled, however, when the Pope did so at the altar called ‘in Gerusalemme’ in one of the Roman Churches, and soon thereafter expired.

[248] Muratori, Op. cit. ix. pp. 128 B, 670; and xiv. p. 1095. Other forms of this word are cerebrerium, celeberium or cerobotarium. It is of course derived from cerebrum, and the English equivalent would be brainpiece.

[249] See the Epistolarium of Petrus de Vineis. Jourdain reprints this letter with a French translation in his Recherches, pp. 156-162.

[250] In 1224.

[251] Frederick sought at Bologna for scholars to fill the chairs in Naples.

[252] Martenne, ‘Vett. scriptt. et Monumenta,’ ii. 1220.

[253] Opus Majus, pp. 30, 37, ed. Jebbi. ‘Tempore Michaelis Scoti, qui, annis 1230 transactis, apparuit, deferens librorum Aristotelis partes aliquas de naturalibus et mathematicis, cum expositoribus sapientibus, magnificata est Aristotelis philosophia apud Latinos.’

[254]

‘Veridicus Vates Michael, haec pauca locutus,

Plura locuturus obmutuit, et, sua mundo

Non paciens archana plebescere, jussit

Eius ut in tenues prodiret hanelitus auras.

Sic acusator fatorum fata subivit.’

Op. cit. verse 80 et seq.

[255] ‘History of the Rt. Hon. Name of Scot,’ in Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note W.

[256] The diploma is dated at Melfi on the 9th of August 1232. The colophon to the copy then made of the Abbreviatio Avicennae is as follows: ‘Completus est liber Avicenne de animalibus, scriptus per Magistrum Henricum Coloniensem, ad exemplar magnifici Imperatoris nostri Domini Frederici, apud Meffiam civitatem Apulie, ubi Dominus Imperator eidem Magistro hunc librum premissum commodavit, anno Domini MCCXXXII, in Vigilia Beati Laurentii, in domo Magistri Volmari medici Imperatoris.’ See Huillard-BrÉholles, Hist. Diplom. Frid. II., vol. iv. part i. pp. 381-2.

[257] See this poem, canto xxv. oct. 42 and 259. Consult also Soldan, Magia Antica, and Storia dei Processi di Stregheria, and Conrad de Marburg.

[258] Illustrium Miraculorum, v. 4. See also i. 33 for another tale of the same kind.

[259] See Lenormant, La Magie ChaldÉenne.

[260] See Wright’s Cat. of the Syriac MSS. in the British Museum. Iamblicus occurs in cod. dccxxix.

[261] I use this word in the general sense then given to it, which seems to indicate how little the Greek language was understood in those days.

[262] Said to be written by Norbar the Arab, who compiled it from many sources in the twelfth century. It consists of four books: I. De Coelo, II. De figuris Coeli, III. De proprietatibus Planetarum, IV. De proprietatibus Spirituum; and was translated into Latin by command of Alfonso X. (1252-84). Two MSS. of this version exist in the Bib. Naz. of Florence, xx. 20 and 21. Arpenius gives some account of it in his ‘De prodigiosis Naturae,’ Hamburg, 1717, p. 106. It is to be hoped it may never be translated into any modern language.

[263] As the author of the De Coelo et Mundo, the treatise most nearly bordering on this magical doctrine.

[264] ‘In quo exposuit secretiora Naturae.’—Opus Majus, p. 37.

[265] That the Arabian magic was familiar to Scot, there can, however, be no manner of doubt. Take, for instance, the following passage from the Liber Introductorius (MS. Bodl. 266, p. 113): ‘Puteus, qui alio nomine sacrarius, navigantibus per contrarium eo quod sequitur caudam scorpionis inter astra, et dicitur poetice quod Dii prius fecerunt in eo con[junctio]nem et sacrificium, cum esset locus secretus intrinsecus, et locus plenus spiritibus multe sapientie, a quorum astuciis pauci evadunt, et ipsi sunt fortiores ceteris ad opera conjuratorum de omni dum con[junctio]ne removentur obedientes vate (?) et[iam] ante pyromancie. Illos libentius convocant contra ceteros, et sibi reperiunt in agendo valentiores, set ipsi sunt multis penis ignis afflicti, et ex hac de causa nigromantici requirunt studiose Puteum intueri, sive stellas Sacrarii, ut eorum auxilio plenius operentur optata. Et dicitur a multis quod de illo exeunt lapides et sagipte tonitruale, opere spirituum inferorum. Cum non sit ymago celi, habet stellas pervisibiles quatuor, dispositio quarum sic certificatur: in superfitie flammarum exeuntium sunt duo, et duo parum sub ore puthealis, et hec est forma in celo aspectus sui.’ Over against this we find the application, as follows: Natus in hoc signo erit gratiosus habere experimenta et scire incantationes, constringere spiritus et mirabilia facere, et mulieres convincere artis ingeniosus erit, quietus, sagax, et plus pauper quam dives, et uti metallis, et alchemesta, et nigromanticus et erit homo quietus, ingeniosus, sagax, secretus, debilis, pauidus, timidus, etc.’ The superstition of which Mirandola accuses Scot is very evident here, but it is no less plain that the author’s purpose was astrological and not magical.

[266] See especially the circular letter of Gregory IX., anno 1239.

[267] Albert Beham, Regist. Epistol. p. 128.

[268] Book iv. chap. ix. ‘De imaginibus quae virtutes faciunt mirabiles, et fuerunt inventae in libro qui fuit inventus in Ecclesia de Cordib.’

[269] Nectanebus, sometimes spelt Neptanebus, is perhaps the ‘Naptium’ of the Picatrix (iii. 8). See also on this curious subject the Pancrates of Lucian, the verses of Adalberone or Ascelin (A.D. 1006) in the Recueil des Hist. des Gaules (Bouquet x. 67), the English romance of Alisaundre (Early English Text Soc. 1867) and the Alexander of Juan Lorenzo Segura de Astorga. In this last poem, which belongs to the thirteenth century, the hero’s arms are said to have been forged by the fairies. There is an article on ‘Nectanebo’ by D. G. Hogarth in the Eng. Hist. Review, Jan. 1896. The same mystic fame attached itself to Pythagoras.

[270] In the poem of AlbÉric de BesanÇon.

[271] St. Chrysostom (A.D. 398) speaks of the custom of using brass coins of Alexander as amulets.

[272] It is a curious fact that under the historic Nekhtneb (362-45 B.C.) the Greek philosophers Eudoxus and Chrysippus spent eleven years in Egypt to learn the astronomical secrets of the priests.

[273] A Geomancy, said to be the work of Scot, is preserved in the Munich Library, No. 489 in 4to, saec. xvi. See the Thousand Nights for instances of the prevalence of this art.

[274] This MS. reached me from Germany. It is unbound and contained in an envelope made from the leaf of an old choir-book covered with manuscript music. This cover is secured by three large seals bearing the arms of Dunkelsphuhl, to which family it seems to have belonged. The preface is dated at Prague. It is possible the MS. may have had something to do with the magical studies of Dr. John Dee, who spent some time in Prague at the beginning of the seventeenth century. See Appendix IV.

[275] Leonardo Pisano uses this word in the Liber Abbaci. See p. 187vo of the Florence MS. Bibl. Naz. i. 2616, where the following passage occurs: ‘Secundum modum algebrae et almuchabalae, scilicet ad proportionem et restaurationem.’ In an ancient list of works by Gerard of Cremona (? the younger) found in the Vatican (No. 2392) we have this title: ‘Liber alcoarismi de iebra et almucabala tractatus.’ See Boncompagni’s Life of Gerard, Rome 1851. Works on almuchabola are found also under the names of Al Deinouri, Al Sarakhsi, Al Khouaresmi, Khamel Schagia ben Aslam, and Al Thoussi. See D’Herbelot.

[276] They show a distinct likeness to the Magreb or West African writing.

[277] This resemblance should be studied in the remarkably beautiful MS. of the Liber Abbaci, numbered xi. 21 in the Bibl. Naz. Florence.

[278] Epistola de Secretis, ed. Master of the Rolls, Longmans, 1859, pp. 531, 544.

[279] Explanatio in Prophetias Merlini, iii. 26.

[280] See the interesting work by Graf, Miti, Leggendi e Superstizioni del Medio Evo, Torino, Loescher, 1893.

[281] ‘Otia Imperialia’ in Leibnitz Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium, i. 921.

[282] Illustrium Miraculorum, xii. 12. The next tale, in chap. xiii., relates how some men, wandering by chance on Etna, heard a voice cry from under the hill ‘Prepare the fires.’ This was heard by them a second time, and then the cry was ‘Prepare a great fire,’ upon which other voices asked for whom this should be done, and the answer came back that it was for the Duke of Thuringia, a friend and trusty servant of these lower powers. This the hearers made faith of in a writing given to the Emperor Frederick, and it presently appeared that Bertolph of Thuringia, a noted tyrant, heretic and persecutor of the Church, had died at the very day and hour when these voices were heard on Etna.

[283] See Anecdotes Historiques, by Lecoy de la Marche, Paris, 1877, p. 32.

[284] This romance was published by the Roxburghe Club, London, 1873.

[285] See Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie.

[286] The sarcophagus was opened in 1781 and all was found as described above. The body of the great Emperor was in good preservation and with it were remains of Peter II. of Aragon, and Duke William, son of Frederick II. of Aragon.

[287] German prophecies of the same kind are given by Grimm, op. cit.

[288] See Pertz Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, xviii. 796.

[289] For example, he is called: Dei ‘coÖperator, et Vicarius constitutus in terris’; ‘the cornerstone of the Church,’ etc. See Huillard-BrÉholles Vie et correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne, Paris, Plon, 1864.

[290] See also another romance called L’Histoire de Maugis d’Aygremont.

[291] See also Leyden’s Scenes of Infancy, pt. ii.

[292] Timbs’s Abbeys, Castles, and Ancient Halls of England and Wales: London, Warne, vol. iii. p. 126.

[293] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note Y.

[294] I quote from the edition of Florence, 1580.

[295] P. 343. See ante, pp. 140, 192, and Renan’s AverroËs, p. 314.

[296] P. 375.

[297] I cannot leave this interesting though obscure author without noticing the undoubted reference he makes in his Specchio to the Gipsies. ‘Certain people,’ he says (p. 351), ‘have a superstition regarding lucky and unlucky days, which have been pointed out to them by those who call themselves Egyptians.’ We have hitherto supposed that 1422 was the time when Gipsies first appeared in the West. That year is cited by Muratori in his Dissertazioni as the date of a document which speaks of the coming of Andrew, who called himself Duke of Egypt, and all his tribe. Passavanti, however, wrote about 1350, so that the epoch of migration must be carried back at least a century.

[298] Inferno, xx. 116, 117.

[299] Lane’s Modern Egyptians, 1837, vol. i. p. 360. For a tract on Es SeÉmiya, by the Shaik Ali Al Tarabulsio (of Tripoli), who composed it in 1219, see Asseman, Cat. Bibl. Pal. Med. p. 362.

[300] See the De Secretis of Bacon for a curious account of these tricks as practised in his day.

[301] Inferno di Dante col Comento di Jacopo della Lana, Bologna, 1866, vol. i. p. 351.

[302] In the ninth novel of the eighth day.

[303] Wesseloffsky, Bologna, 1867, vol. ii. pp. 180-217.

[304] No. xx.

[305] Chiose sopra Dante, published by Lord Vernon; Florence, 1846, pp. 162-163.

[306] Pl. lxxxix. sup. cod. 38.

[307] No. 489.

[308] Fondo Vaticano 2392, p. 97vo. and 98ro. See Boncompagni, Della vita e delle opere de Gherardo Cremonese; Roma, 1851, p. 7.

[309] Maccheronea, xviii.

[310] ‘Innumerabiles fabulae aniles circumferuntur, et jam nunc hodie.’ Hist. Eccl. p. 494.

[311] Obiit 1625.

[312] ‘Chiose anonime alla prima Cantica della Divina Commedia’; Torino, Salmi, 1865, p. 114.

[313] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note W.

[314] Ibid. Note Z.

[315] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note Y.

[316] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note Y.

[317] ‘Et, ut puto, in Scotia libri ipsius dicebantur, me puero, extare, sed sine horrore quodam non posse attingi ob malorum daemonum praestigias quae, illis apertis, fiebant.’—Hist. Eccl. p. 495.

[318] Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note W.

[319] Apologie des Grands Hommes accusez de Magie, Paris, 1669.

[320] De Michaele Scoto, Veneficii injuste damnato, 1739.

[321] My readers owe these tales to the kindness of Mr. C. G. Leland, who procured them for me from an old Florentine woman. She is familiar to Mr. Leland’s friends as ‘Maddalena,’ and is the depository of that traditional lore on which he has so happily drawn in his Legends of Florence. Her stories are interesting if only as an example of folklore up to date, and of the way in which an Italian mind deals with the legend of Michael Scot, while some points they offer are certainly original and highly curious.

[322] This may be a variant of ‘Maugis’ or Merlin. In the romance of Maugis d’Aygremont we find the following passage: ‘Il n’y avoit meilleur maistre que lui … et l’appelloit-on Maistre Maugis.’ On the other hand Mengot is a genuine early Teutonic name. ‘Et hic liber finitus est per manus Mengoti Itelbrot, Anno domini mºcccºlxxxv.’ is the colophon to a manuscript of the Almagest of Ptolemy in the Vatican, Fondo Palatino, 1365, p. 206ro.

[323] ‘M’hai scottato me, ma ora scotto te.’ This play on words is the turning-point of the tale.

[324] ‘Scorticata.’ It may be that a play on words is intended here also.

[325] This is no doubt the benj or bhang of the Arabs and Indians which still furnishes them with a potent narcotic.

[326] Laurentian Library, P. lxxxix, sup. cod. 38, p. 409 (old number 256) verso.

[327] Here and elsewhere in this text are astrological signs which cannot be reproduced in print.

Transcriber’s Note: By comparison with a copy of Scot’s manuscript (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 89 sup. 038, ff. 409v-413r), the correct astrological signs have here been added.

[328] Cf. with the expression in the colophon ‘qui summus inter alios nominatur magister.’

[329] The manuscript shows a drawing of a magic circle here. It has the names of demons alternately with those of the cardinal points.

[330] These are names of philosophers probably the same as the ‘vnay et melchia’ of the Luminis Luminum, the rather that the phrase ‘non convertitur perfecte in lunam’ occurs in both passages. I do not know how to explain the fact that two paragraphs of the Liber Dedali correspond so closely with one in the Liber Luminis.

[331] There is probably a reference here to the disputes which divided the different alchemical schools.

[332] The nature of this powder of moles is explained a little further on in the Liber Dedali, par. 10.

[333] A double chloride of ammonium and mercury, represented by the formula 2NH4Cl. HgCl2, H2O.

[334] The use of matters derived from the animal kingdom, carbonised toads or moles, may be illustrated from the Liber Dyabesi (Ricc. ms. l. iii. 13, 119, p. 4 recto) which treats of what had been ‘ab omni Latinitate intemptatum’ viz. the distillation of a white land-tortoise (v. p. 7 verso). Pliny remarks that goat’s blood sharpens and hardens iron tools and polishes steel better than any file.

[335] This passage is highly significant, and furnishes a key to the title of the treatise.

[336] The doctrine of the vitriols is here substantially the same as in the great work of Ibn Beithar of Malaga.

[337] There is a well-known tract De aluminibus et salibus ascribed to Rases in the Paris MS. (6514 p. 128); it also occurs in the Speciale MS.

[338] This phrase is found in the De aluminibus et salibus of Rases (Paris ms. 6514 p. 128) who calls the place ‘Elebla.’ Vincent of Beauvais ascribes the saying to Geber.

[339] The use of the first person singular here agrees with the notion that in this part of the Liber Luminis we have the record of the author’s own experiments. See ante, p. 87.

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