MICHAEL SCOT
Bibliographical note--Michael Scot and Frederick
II--Some dates in Michael’s career--Michael Scot
and the papacy--Prominent position in the world of
learning--Relation to the introduction of the new
Aristotle--Thirteenth century criticism of Michael
Scot--General estimate of his learning--God and the
stars--A theological digression--The three Magi--Astrology
distinguished from magic--The magic arts--Experiments
of magic--History of astronomy--The spirits in the sky,
air, and earth--Occult medicine--The seven regions of the
air--Michael’s miscellaneous content--Further astrological
doctrine--Omission of nativities--Magic for every
hour--Quaint religious science--The _Phisionomia_--Influence
of the stars on human generation--Discussion of
divination--Divination from dreams--Works of divination
ascribed to Michael Scot--Medical writings--Occult
virtues--Astrology in the _Commentary on the
Sphere_--Dionysius the Areopagite and the solar eclipse
during Christ’s passion--Alchemy--Works of alchemy ascribed
to Michael Scot--Brother Elias and alchemy--_Liber luminis
luminum_ and _De alchemia_--Their further characteristics.
[Sidenote: Michael Scot and Frederick II.]
But little can be said with certainty concerning the life of Michael
Scot.[964] However, a poem by Henry of Avranches, addressed to the
emperor Frederick II in 1235 or 1236,[965] shows that Michael was then
dead and that he apparently had occupied the position of astrologer at
the court of Frederick II at the time of his death. The poet explains
how astrologers (_mathematici_) “reveal the secrets of things,” by
their art affecting numbers, by numbers affecting the procession of
the stars, and by the stars moving the universe. He recalls having
heard “certain predictions concerning you, O Caesar, from Michael Scot
who was a scrutinizer of the stars, an augur, a soothsayer, a second
Apollo”; and then tells how “the truthful diviner Michael” ceased
to publish his secrets to the world, and “the announcer of fates
submitted to fate,” apparently in the midst of some prediction made
on his death-bed. Michael’s own statements also show that he was one
of Frederick’s astrologers.[966] If at the time of his death Michael
was Frederick’s astrologer, it is more questionable at what date his
association with Frederick began, and in what countries Michael resided
with the emperor, or accompanied him to, whether Sicily, southern
Italy, northern Italy, or Germany. From the fact that three of Michael
Scot’s works, or rather, the three chief divisions of his longest
extant work,[967] namely, _Liber Introductorius_, _Liber Particularis_,
and _Phisionomia_, were written at the request of Frederick II for
beginners[968] and apparently in the time of Innocent III,[969] J.
Wood Brown jumped to the conclusion that Michael was Frederick’s tutor
before that monarch came of age, and that he spent some time in the
island of Sicily, from which Brown failed to distinguish Frederick’s
larger kingdom of Sicily.[970] As a matter of fact, there would seem
to be rather more evidence for connecting Michael with Salerno than
with any Sicilian city, since in one manuscript of his translation
for the emperor of the work of Avicenna on animals he is spoken of as
“an astronomer of Salerno,”[971] while in another manuscript he is
associated with a Philip, clerk of the king of Sicily, and this royal
notary in two deeds of 1200 is called Philip of Salerno.[972] Brown was
inclined to identify him further with Philip of Tripoli, the translator
of the pseudo-Aristotelian _Secret of Secrets_.
[Sidenote: Some dates in Michael’s career.]
No date in Michael’s career before the thirteenth century is fixed. If
it is true that the three sections of his main work were written under
Innocent III, that places them between 1198 and 1216. The date of his
translation of the astronomical work of Alpetragius or Alpetrangi (Nûr
ed-din el-Betrûgî, Abû Ishâq) seems to have been in the year 1217 on
Friday, August 18, in the third hour and at Toledo.[973] Brown holds
that Michael translated Avicenna on animals in 1210 for Frederick II
and that the emperor kept it to himself until 1232, when he allowed
Henry of Cologne to copy it.[974] But the date 1210 perhaps applies
only to a glossary of Arabic terms which accompanies the work and which
is ascribed to a “Master Al.”[975] In a thirteenth century manuscript
at Cambridge Michael Scot’s translation of Aristotle’s _History of
Animals_ is accompanied by a note which begins, “And I Michael Scot
who translated this book into Latin swear that in the year 1221 on
Wednesday, October twenty-first.”[976] The note and date, however, do
not refer to the completion of the translation but to a consultation
in which a woman showed him two stones like eggs which came from
another woman’s womb and of which he gives a painstakingly detailed
description. There is, however, something wrong with the date, since in
1221 the twenty-first of October fell on Thursday.[977]
[Sidenote: Michael Scot and the papacy.]
The career of Michael Scot affords an especially good illustration
of how little likelihood there was of anyone’s being persecuted by
the medieval church for belief in or practice of astrology. Michael,
although subordinating the stars to God and admitting human free will,
as we shall see, both believed in the possibility of astrological
prediction and made such predictions himself. Yet he was a clergyman,
perhaps even a doctor of theology,[978] as well as a court astrologer,
and furthermore was a clergyman of sufficient rank and prominence
to enable Pope Honorius III to procure in 1224 his election to the
archbishopric of Cashel in Ireland.[979] At the same time the papal
_curia_ issued a dispensation permitting Michael to hold a plurality,
so that he evidently already occupied some desirable benefice. Michael
declined the archbishopric of Cashel, on the ground that he was
ignorant of the native language but perhaps because he preferred a
position in England; for we find the papacy renewing its efforts in
his behalf, and Gregory IX on April 28, 1227, again wrote to Stephen
Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, urging him to make provision for
“master Michael Scot,” whom he characterized as “well instructed not
only in Latin but also in the Hebrew and Arabic languages.”[980]
[Sidenote: Prominent position in the world of learning.]
Whether Michael ever secured the additional foreign benefice or not,
he seems to have remained in Italy with Frederick until the end of
his days. He also seems to have continued prominent among men of
learning, since in 1228 Leonardo of Pisa dedicated to him the revised
and enlarged version of his _Liber abaci_,[981] important in connection
with the introduction of the Hindu-Arabic numerals into western Europe.
[Sidenote: Relation to the introduction of the new Aristotle.]
Roger Bacon in the _Opus Maius_[982] in a passage often cited by
historians of medieval thought ascribes the introduction of the new
Aristotle into western Latin Christendom to Michael Scot who, he says,
appeared in 1230 A. D. with portions of the works of Aristotle in
natural philosophy and metaphysics. Before his time there were only
the works on logic and a few others translated by Boethius from the
Greek; since 1230 the philosophy of Aristotle “has been magnified
among the Latins.” Although many writers have quoted this statement
as authoritative in one way or another, it must now be regarded as
valuable only as one more illustration of the loose and misleading
character of most of Roger’s allusions to past learning and to the
work of previous translators. We know that the books of Aristotle on
natural philosophy had become so well known by that time that in 1210
the study of them was forbidden at the university of Paris, and that
about that same year, according to Rigord’s chronicle of the reign of
Philip II, the books of Metaphysics of Aristotle were brought from
Constantinople, translated from Greek into Latin, and began to be read
at Paris.[983] But Bacon’s date is more than twenty years too late, and
we have already mentioned the translation of _The Secret of Secrets_,
which Bacon regarded as genuine, the acquaintance of Alexander Neckam
with works of Aristotle, Alfred of England’s translation of the _De
vegetabilibus_ and of three additional chapters to the _Meteorology_,
the still earlier translation of the rest of that work by Aristippus
from the Greek and by Gerard of Cremona from the Arabic, and Gerard’s
numerous other translations of works of Aristotle in natural
philosophy. The translations of Gerard and Aristippus take us back to
the middle of the twelfth century nearly a century before the date set
by Bacon for the introduction of the new Aristotle.[984] Michael Scot,
then, did not introduce the works of Aristotle on natural science and
Bacon’s chronological recollections are obviously too faulty for us to
accept the date 1230 as of any exact significance in even Michael’s own
career, to say nothing of the history of the translation of Aristotle.
This is not to say that Michael was not of some importance in that
process, since he did translate works of Aristotle and his Arabic
commentators, especially Avicenna and Averroes. Frederick II is
sometimes said to have ordered the translation from Greek and Arabic
of such works of Aristotle and other philosophers as had not yet
been translated from Greek or Arabic.[985] But the letter which has
been ascribed in this connection to Frederick is really by his son
and successor, Manfred,[986] for whom many translations were made,
including several Aristotelian treatises, genuine and spurious, by
Bartholomew of Messina. Already, however, in 1231 and 1232 a Jew at
Naples had translated Averroes’ abridgement of the _Almagest_ and
his commentary on the _Organon_, in the latter extolling Frederick’s
munificence and love of science.[987] Michael Scot has been shown to
have translated from the Arabic the _History of Animals_ and other
works on animals, making nineteen books in all, and also Avicenna’s
compendium of the same, the _De caelo et mundo_, the _De anima_ with
the commentary of Averroes, and perhaps the _Metaphysics_ or part of
it.[988] His translation of the _De caelo et mundo_ was accompanied by
a translation of Alpetrangi’s commentary on the same.[989]
[Sidenote: Thirteenth century criticism of Michael Scot.]
Scholars of the succeeding generation sometimes spoke unfavorably of
Michael’s work. Although Roger Bacon recognized his translations as the
central event in the Latin reception of the Aristotelian philosophy,
and spoke of him as “a notable inquirer into matter, motion, and
the course of the constellations,”[990] he listed him among those
translators who “understood neither sciences nor languages, not even
Latin,” and charged more than once that a Jew named Andrew was really
responsible for the translations credited to Michael.[991] Albertus
Magnus asserted that Michael Scot “in reality was ignorant concerning
nature and did not understand the books of Aristotle well.”[992] Yet
he used Michael’s translation of the _Historia Animalium_ as the basis
of his own work on the subject, often following it word for word.[993]
Michael was, however, listed or cited as an authority by the thirteenth
century encyclopedists, Thomas of Cantimpré, Bartholomew of England,
Vincent of Beauvais, and at the close of that century is frequently
cited by the physician Arnald of Villanova in his _Breviarium
practicae_.[994]
[Sidenote: General estimate of his learning.]
Michael Scot may be said to manifest some of the failings of the
learning of his time in a rather excessive degree. His mind, curious,
credulous, and uncritical, seems to have collected a mass of undigested
information and superstition with little regard to consistency or
system. Occasionally he includes the most childish and naïve sort of
material, as we shall illustrate later. He continues the Isidorean
type of etymology, deriving the name of the month of May, for example,
either from the majesty of Jupiter, or from the major chiefs of
Rome who in that month were wont to dedicate laws to Jupiter, or
from the _maioribus_ in the sense of elders as June is derived from
Juniors.[995] He also well illustrates the puerilities and crudities
of scholastic argumentation. Thus one of the arguments which he lists
against regarding a sphere as a solid body is that solids can be
measured by a straight line and that it cannot.[996] Asking whether
fire is hot in its own sphere, he says that it might seem not,
because fire in its own sphere is light and light is neither hot nor
cold.[997] This argument he rebuts in the end, and he finally decides
that a sphere is a solid. But he would have seemed wiser to the modern
reader to have omitted these particular contrary arguments entirely.
Such propositions continue, however, to be set up and knocked down
again all through the thirteenth century, and such famous men as
Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Abano are guilty of much the same sort
of thing. To Michael Scot’s credit may be mentioned his considerable
power of experimentation and of scientific observation. Perhaps some
of the “experiments” attributed to him are spurious, but they show
the reputation which he had for experimental method, and on the whole
it would seem to be justified. The note in his name in a thirteenth
century manuscript at Cambridge,[998] giving a carefully dated and
detailed account of two human foetuses which had solidified into stones
like eggs, shows a keen sense of the value of thorough observation
and a precise record of the same. Experimental science would seem to
have received considerable encouragement at the court of Frederick II,
judging from the stories told of that emperor and the pages of his own
work on falconry.[999]
[Sidenote: God and the stars.]
But let us examine Michael’s views and methods more particularly. In
opening the long preface to his voluminous _Introduction to Astrology_
he states that hard study is requisite to become a good astrologer,
but he finds incentive to such effort in citations from Seneca, Cato,
and St. Bernard that it is virtuous to study and to be taught, and
in the reflection that one who knows the conditions and habitudes of
the superior bodies can easily learn those of inferior bodies. The
signs and planets are not first movers or first causes, and do not
of themselves confer aught of good or evil, but by their motion do
indicate “something of truth concerning every body produced in this
corruptible world.” The hour of conception is important and Michael
explains why two persons born at the same moment may be unlike. He
then jumbles together from Christian and astrological writers such
assertions as that the stars are only signs, not causes, and that their
influence on inferior creation may be compared to the action of the
magnet upon iron, or that we see on earth good men suffer and bad men
prosper, which has usually been regarded as a better argument for a
fatalistic or mechanical universe than for divine control. He agrees
that the universe is not eternal and that everything is in God’s power,
but insists that much can be learned concerning the future from the
stars.[1000]
[Sidenote: A theological digression.]
Michael then embarks upon a long theological digression[1001] in the
course of which he quotes much Scripture concerning the two natures,
angelic and human. After telling us of the nine orders of angels in the
empyrean heaven, he deals with the process of creation, just as William
of Conches and Daniel of Morley had done in their works of astronomy
and astrology. In the first three days God created spiritual substances
such as the empyrean heaven, angels, stars, and planets; in the other
three days, visible bodies such as mixtures of the elements, birds,
fish, and man. Michael also answers various questions such as why man
was created last, although nobler than other creatures, what an angel
is, whether angels have individual names like men, and much concerning
the tenth part who fell. Perhaps the emperor Frederick is supposed to
put these queries to Michael, but there seemed to be no indication
to that effect in the manuscript which I examined. The reply to the
question where God resides is, potentially everywhere but substantially
in the intellectual or empyrean heaven.[1002] Michael discusses the holy
Trinity and thinks that we have a similitude of it in the rational
soul in the three faculties, intellect, reason, and memory,[1003]
although he attempts no association of these with the three Persons
as William of Conches imprudently did in the case of power, wisdom,
and will. He indulges, however, in daring speculation as to where the
members of different professions will go after they die. Philosophers,
“who die in the Lord,” will be located in the order of Cherubim, which
is interpreted as plenitude of science; sincere members of religious
orders and hermits will become Seraphim; while pope, emperor,
cardinals, and prelates will enter the order of Thrones.[1004] Michael
also contributes the following acrostic of eight sins whose initials
compose the word, “Diabolus”:
Desperatio
Invidia
Avaritia
Blasphemia
Odium
Luxuria
Ventris ingluvies
Superbia.[1005]
[Sidenote: The three Magi.]
In the course of the foregoing digression Michael inserted an account
of the Magi and the star that appears to be based in part but with
variations on the spurious homily of Chrysostom. He makes them three in
number, one from Europe, Asia, and Africa respectively; and states that
forewarned by Balaam’s prophecy they met together annually for worship
on the day of Christ’s nativity, which they appear to have known
beforehand. They stood in adoration for three days continuously on
Mount Victorialis until on the third day they saw the star in the form
of a most beautiful boy with a crown on his head. Then they followed
the star upon dromedaries which, Michael explains, can go farther in
a day than horses can in two months. Beside the star three suns arose
that day at equal distances apart and then united in token of the
Trinity; and Octavianus, emperor of the Romans, saw the Virgin holding
the Child in the center of the sun’s disk. As for the word _magus_,
Michael explains that it has a threefold meaning,--which, however, has
nothing to do with the Trinity,--namely: trickster, sorcerer, and wise
man, and that the Magi who saw the star were all three of these until
their subsequent conversion to Christianity.[1006]
[Sidenote: Astrology distinguished from magic.]
The remainder of Michael’s lengthy and lumbering preface is largely
occupied with the utility of astrology, which he often calls
“astronomy” (_astronomia_), and differentiation of it from prohibited
arts of magic and divination. While, however, he distinguishes these
other occult arts from astrology, he affirms that nigromancers,
practitioners of the notory art, and alchemists owe more to the
stars than they are ready to admit.[1007] He also distinguishes a
superstitious variety of astrology (_superstitiosa astronomia_),[1008]
under which caption he seems to have in mind divination from the
letters of persons’ names and the days of the moon, and other methods
in which the astronomer or astrologer acts like a geomancer or sorcerer
or tries to find out more than God wills. Scot also distinguishes
between _mathesis_, or knowledge, and _matesis_, or divination, and
between _mathematica_, which may be taught freely and publicly, and
_matematica_, which is forbidden to Christians.[1009]
[Sidenote: The magic arts.]
Michael condemns magic and necromancy but takes evident joy in telling
stories of magicians and necromancers and shows much familiarity with
books of magic. He explains “nigromancy” as black art, dealing with
dark things and performed more by night than day, as well as the
raising of the dead to give responses, in which the nigromancer is
deceived by demons.[1010] He repeats Hugh of St. Victor’s definition
that the magic art is not received in philosophy, destroys religion,
and corrupts morals. As he has said before, the _magus_ is a trickster
and evil-doer as well as wise in the secrets of nature and in
prediction of the future.[1011] Michael lists twenty-eight varieties
or methods of divination. He believes that they are all true: augury
by song of birds, interpretation of dreams, observance of days, or
divination by holocausts of blood and corpses. But they are forbidden
as infamous and evil. Later on, in the text itself, he returns to this
point, saying that these methods of predicting the future are against
the Christian Faith, but nevertheless true, like the marvels of Simon
Magus.[1012] Michael defines and describes various magic arts in much
the same manner as Isidore, Hugh of St. Victor, and John of Salisbury;
but with some divergences. Under aerimancy he includes divination from
thunder, comets, and falling stars, as well as from the shapes assumed
by clouds. Hydromancy he calls “a short art of experimenting” as well
as divining. The gazing into clear, transparent, or liquid surfaces
for purposes of divination is performed, he says, with some observance
of astrological hours, secrecy, and purity by a child of five or seven
years who repeats after the master an incantation or invocation of
spirits over human blood or bones. He speaks of a _maleficus_ as one
who interprets characters, phylacteries, incantations, dreams, and
makes ligatures of herbs. The _praestigiosus_ deceives men through
diabolic art by phantastic illusions of transformation, such as
changing a woman into a dog or bear, making a man appear a wolf or ass,
or causing a human head or limb to resemble that of some animal. Even
alchemy, or perhaps only the superstitious practice of it, Michael
seems to classify as a forbidden magic art, saying, “Alchemy as it were
transcends the heavens in that it strives by the virtue of spirits to
transmute common metals into gold and silver and from them to make a
water of much diversity,” that is, an elixir. Lot-casting, on the other
hand, both the authority of Augustine and many passages in the Bible
pronounce licit.
[Sidenote: Experiments of magic.]
Michael more than once ascribes an experimental character to magic
arts. Besides calling hydromancy “a short art of experimenting,” he
states that, since demons are naturally fond of blood and especially
human blood, nigromancers or magicians, when they wish to perform
experiments, often mix water with real blood or use wine which has
been exorcized in order to make it appear bloody. “And they make some
sacrifice with the flesh of a living human being, for instance, a
bit of their own flesh, or of a corpse, and not the flesh of brutes,
knowing that consecration of a spirit in a bottle or ring cannot be
achieved except by the performance of many sacrifices.”[1013] Despite
his censure of the art in the preface under discussion, we find a
necromantic experiment of an elaborate character ascribed to Michael
Scot in a fifteenth century manuscript[1014] which purports to copy it
“from a very ancient book,”[1015] a phrase which scarcely increases
our confidence in the genuineness of the ascription. The object of the
experiment is to secure the services of a demon to instruct one in
learning. Times and astrological conditions are to be observed as well
as various other preliminaries and ceremonies; a white dove is to be
beheaded, its blood collected in a glass vessel, a magic circle drawn
with its bleeding heart; and various prayers to God, invocations of
spirits, and verses of the Bible are to be repeated. At one juncture,
however, one is warned _not_ to make the sign of the cross or one will
be in great peril.
[Sidenote: History of astronomy.]
But to return to Michael’s _magnum opus_. The preface closes with a
rather long and very confused[1016] account of the history of astronomy
and astrology. While Zoroaster of the lineage of Shem was the inventor
of magic, the arts of divination began with Cham, the son of Noah,
who was both of most subtle genius and trained in the schools of the
demons. He tested by experience what they taught him and having proved
what was true, indited the same on two columns and taught it to his
son Canaan who soon outstripped his father therein and wrote thirty
volumes on the arts of divination and instructed his son Nemroth in
the same. When Canaan was slain in war and his books were burned,
Nemroth revived the art of astronomy from memory and was, like his
father, deemed a god by many because of his great lore. He composed a
work on the subject for his son Ionicon,[1017] whose son Abraham also
became an adept in the art and came from Africa to Jerusalem and taught
Demetrius and Alexander of Alexandria, who in turn instructed Ptolemy,
king of Egypt, who invented astronomical canons and tables and the
astrolabe and quadrant. The giant Atlas brought the art to Spain before
Moses received the two tables containing the ten commandments. If this
chronology surprises us, there is something more amazing to follow. At
this point in the manuscript the copyist has either omitted a great
deal[1018] or Atlas was extremely long-lived, since we next read
about his showing the astrolabe to two “clerks of France.” Gilbertus
(presumably Gerbert) borrowed the instrument for a while, conjured up
demons--for he was the best nigromancer in France, made them explain
its construction, uses, and operation to him, and furthermore all the
rest of astronomy. Later he reformed and had no more dealing with
demons and became bishop of Ravenna and Pope. Having thus got rather
ahead of time, Michael mentions various other learned astronomers,
most of whom really lived before Gerbert, such as Thebit ben Corat,
Messahalla, Dorotheus, Hermes, Boethius, Averroes, John of Spain,
Isidore, Zahel, and Alcabitius.
[Sidenote: The spirits in the sky, air, and earth.]
Having finally terminated his preface, Michael begins the first book
with a description of the heavens and their motion. Some say that the
planets are moved by angels; others, by winds; but he holds that they
are ruled by divine virtues, spiritual and not corporeal, but of whom
little further can be predicated, since they are imperfectly known
to man and naturally will remain so.[1019] Later he states that they
do not move or rule the celestial bodies naturally but as a service
of obedience to their Creator.[1020] He has already spoken in the
preface of spirits in the northern and southern air, and asserted that
very wise spirits who give responses when conjured dwell in certain
images or constellations among the signs of the zodiac.[1021] In the
_Liber particularis_ he speaks of similar demons in the moon.[1022]
Now he mentions “a legion of spirits damned” in the winds.[1023] In
later passages in the _Liber introductorius_ he gives the names of the
ruling spirits of the planets, Kathariel for Saturn,[1024] and so on,
and a list of the names of spirits of great virtue who, if invoked by
name, will respond readily and perform in marvelous wise all that may
be demanded of them.[1025] And as the planets are said to have seven
rectors who are believed to be the wisest spirits in the sky, so the
seven metals are said to have seven rectors who are believed to be
angels in the earth.[1026] Names of angels also occur in some of his
astrological diagrams.[1027] This education of the reader in details
of astrological necromancy shows that Michael is not to be depended
upon to observe consistently the condemnation of magic and distinction
between astrology and necromancy with which he started out in the
preface.
[Sidenote: Occult medicine.]
By affirming that the physician must know the state of the moon and
of the wind and that “there are many passions of the soul under the
sphere of the moon,”[1028] Michael introduces us to the subject of
astrological medicine, a theme to which he returns more than once in
the course of the work.[1029] The practice of flebotomy is illustrated
by a figure showing the influence of the signs of the zodiac upon the
human body.[1030] From the fact that there are fourteen joints in the
fingers of the hand or toes of the foot Michael infers that man’s
span of life should be 140 years, a maximum which sin has reduced to
120.[1031] There are as many medicines as there are diseases and these
consist in the virtues of words, herbs, and stones, as illustrations
of which Michael adduces the sacrament of the altar, the magnet and
iron used by deep-sea sailors, and plasters and powders.[1032] In some
cases, however, neither medicine nor astrology seems to avail, and,
despite his preliminary condemnation of the magic arts, Michael argues
that when the doctor can do nothing for the patient he should advise
him to consult an enchantress or diviner.[1033]
[Sidenote: The seven regions of the air.]
From the seven planets and sphere of the moon Michael turns to the
seven regions of the air, which are respectively the regions of dew,
snow, hail, rain, honey, laudanum, and manna.[1034] This is the
earliest occurrence of this discussion which I have met, and I do not
know from what source, if any, Michael took it. It is essentially
repeated by Thomas of Cantimpré in his _De natura rerum_, where he
gives no credit to Michael Scot but cites Aristotle’s _Meteorology_
in which, however, only dew, snow, rain, and hail are discussed. In
the _History of Animals_[1035] Aristotle further states that honey is
distilled from the air by the action of the stars and that the bees
make only the wax. Michael similarly describes the honey as falling
from the air into flowers and herbs and being collected by the bees;
but he distinguishes two kinds of honey, the natural variety just
described and the artificial honey which results from the bee’s
process of digestion. He also explains that sugar (and molasses?) is
not a liquor which will evaporate like honey and manna, but is made
from the pith of canes.[1036] “Laudanum” is a humor of the air in the
Orient, and manna descends mainly in India with the dew, being found
in Europe only in times of great heat. It is of great virtue, both
medicinal and in satisfying hunger, as in the case of the children of
Israel under Moses.
[Sidenote: Michael’s miscellaneous content.]
We cannot take the time to follow Michael in all his long ramblings
through things in heaven above and earth beneath: sun, tides, springs,
seasons, the difference between _stella_, _aster_, _sidus_, _signum_,
_imago_, and _planeta_, the music of the spheres, the octave in music,
eight parts of speech in grammar, and eight beatitudes in theology,
zones and paradise, galaxy and horizon and zenith, divisions of time,
the four inferior elements and the creatures contained in them,
eclipses of sun and moon, Adam protoplasm and _minor mundus_ as the
letters of his name indicate, the mutable and transitory nature of this
world, the inferno in the earth, and purgatory.
[Sidenote: Further astrological doctrine.]
Sooner or later Michael comes to or returns to astrological doctrine
and technique, lists the qualities of the seven planets and head and
tail of the dragon,[1037] explains the names and some of the effects
of the signs of the zodiac,[1038] gives weather prognostications
from sun and moon,[1039] states the moon’s influence in such matters
as felling trees and slaughtering pigs,[1040] and expounds by text
and figures planetary aspects, exaltations, and conjunctions,[1041]
friendships and enmities.[1042] The planet Mercury signifies in regard
to the rational soul, grammar, arithmetic, and every science.[1043]
The election of hours is considered and a list given of what to do and
not to do in the hour of each planet and that of the moon in each
sign.[1044] There then follows, despite Michael’s animadversions in
the preface against interpreters of dreams and those observing days,
an “Exposition of dreams for each day of the moon,”[1045] nativities
for each day of the week, and a method of divination from the day of
the week on which the New Year falls.[1046] A discussion of the effect
of the moon upon conception is interrupted by a digression on eggs:
how to estimate the laying power of a hen by the color and size of
its crest, the effect of thunder upon eggs, how from eggs to make a
water of great value in alchemy, and how to purify bad wine with the
white of an egg.[1047] Returning again to the moon, we are told that
in the new moon intellects are livelier, scholars study and professors
teach better, and all artisans work harder. Michael Scot used to say
to the emperor Frederick that if he wished clear counsel from a wise
man, he should consult him in a waxing moon and in a human and fiery
or aerial sign of the zodiac.[1048] Michael had spoken earlier of the
planets as judges of the varied questions of litigators,[1049] and
now, although admitting the freedom of the human will, he proceeds
to discuss at considerable length[1050] the art of interrogations
by which the astrologer answers questions put to him. With this the
Bodleian manuscript of the _Liber introductorius_ ends, apparently
incomplete.[1051]
[Sidenote: Omission of nativities.]
In the marginal gloss accompanying a Latin translation of the
astrological works of Abraham Avenezra in a manuscript of the fifteenth
century[1052] Michael Scot is quoted a good deal on the subject of
nativities. But the _Liber introductorius_, or at least as much of it
as appears in the Bodleian manuscript, contains little upon this side
of astrology, except the brief nativities for each day of the week.
A passage quoted by Brown[1053] to the effect that the person born
under a certain sign will be an adept in experiments and incantations,
in coercing spirits and working marvels, and will be an alchemist and
nigromancer, appears in the manuscript as a marginal addition rather
than part of the text and so is presumably not by Michael Scot himself.
[Sidenote: Magic for every hour.]
In connection with the subject of elections Michael gives a list of the
prayers, conjurations, and images appropriate for each of the twelve
hours of the day and of the night.[1054] For instance, in the first
hour of the day men pray to God and it is a good time to bind all
tongues by images, characters, and conjurations. In the second hour
angels pray to God and images and other devices to promote love and
concord should be constructed then. In the third hour birds and fishes
pray to God and it is a good time to make images and other contrivances
to catch birds and fish. In the first hour of the night demons hold
colloquy with their lord and the time is favorable for the invocation
of spirits.
[Sidenote: Quaint religious science.]
A more Christian and less magical enumeration of the hours occurs in
the _Liber particularis_.[1055] At morning Christ was arrested on the
Mount of Olives. In the first hour Christ was presented to Ananias and
Caiaphas, the high priests; in the third hour, to Pontius Pilate; in
the sixth hour He was brought back to Herod and taken to Mount Calvary;
in the ninth He was given vinegar and gave up the ghost and the earth
quaked and the veil of the temple was rent in twain; at vespers He was
taken down from the cross. Another specimen of this quaint religious
science is found in the _Liber introductorius_,[1056] where Michael,
writing before the invention of the telescope, speaks of the limits
set to seeing into the heavens except by special grace of God, as in
the case of Katherine and of Stephen, the first martyr, who, when
stoned, saw the heavens opened. A third example occurs in the third
part of the _opus magnum_, or _Phisionomia_, where it is stated that
at birth a male child cries “Oa” and a female child “Oe,” as if to say
respectively, “O Adam (or, O Eve) why have you sinned that I on your
account must suffer infinite misery?”[1057] In the same work Michael
gives original sin as one of two reasons why a baby cannot talk and
walk as soon as it is born.[1058]
[Sidenote: The _Phisionomia_.]
The third part of Scot’s main work, and the only section which has
been printed, is that primarily devoted to the pseudo-science of
physiognomy, which endeavors to determine a man’s character from signs
furnished by the various parts of his body. The _Phisionomia_[1059]
is addressed to the Emperor Frederick II who is exhorted to the
pursuit of learning in general and the science of physiognomy in
particular. This is probably a conscious or unconscious imitation of
the remarks addressed to Alexander by the Pseudo-Aristotle in _The
Secret of Secrets_, of which also a considerable portion is devoted
to physiognomy, and from which Rasis and Michael borrowed a good
deal.[1060] Indeed, the _Phisionomia_ of Michael Scot is also often
entitled _De secretis naturae_ and really only a certain portion of it
is devoted exclusively to physiognomy proper. Its early chapters and
first part deal rather with the process of generation and it is only
with the twenty-third chapter and second part that Michael “reverts to
the doctrine of physiognomy.” Perhaps these chapters on generation had
more to do with the popularity and frequent printing of the work than
did those on physiognomy.
[Sidenote: Influence of the stars on human generation.]
In this discussion of the process of human generation the influence
of the stars receives ample recognition. Michael regards the moment
of conception as of great astrological importance; then according to
the course of the stars and the disposition of the bodies conceiving
the foetus receives “similarly and simultaneously” each and all of
the determining factors in its subsequent nature and history.[1061]
This we may perhaps regard as a medieval approach to the theory of
Mendel. Michael further urges every woman to note the exact moment
of sexual intercourse, when this is to result in generation, and so
make astrological judgment easy.[1062] Yet he states later that God
gives a new and free soul with the new body, just as a father might
give his son a new tablet on which to write whatever he wills of good
or evil.[1063] He notes the correspondence of the menstrual fluid to
the waxing and waning of the moon and that planet’s influence during
the seventh month of the formation of the child in the womb,[1064]
and gives the usual account of the babe’s chances of life or death
according as it is born within seven months, or during the eighth, or
ninth, or tenth month. It is not quite clear if it is because there
are seven planets that Michael affirms that a woman can bear as many
as seven children at once.[1065] He adds that in this case the child
conceived in the middle one of the seven cells of the matrix will be a
hermaphrodite.[1066]
[Sidenote: Discussion of divination.]
Scot’s treatise on Physiognomy has considerable to say of other forms
of divination and they here appear in a more favorable light than in
his discussion of varieties of the magic arts in the preface preceding
his _Liber introductorius_. Among signs to tell whether a pregnant
woman will give birth to a boy or a girl he suggests “a chiromantic
experiment”[1067] which consists simply in asking her to hold out her
hand. If she extends the right, the child will be a boy; if the left,
a girl. He also expounds methods of augury at some length, although
again stating that they are in the canons of the church, that is to say
prohibited by canon law. The divisions of space employed in augury are
twelve in number after the fashion of the signs of the zodiac.[1068]
Michael also discusses the significance of sneezes. If anyone sneezes
twice or four times while engaged in some business and immediately
rises and moves about, he will prosper in his undertaking. If one
sneezes twice in the course of the night for three successive nights,
it is a sign of death or some catastrophe in the house. If after making
a contract one sneezes once, it is a sign that the agreement will
be kept inviolate; but if one sneezes thrice, the pact will not be
observed.[1069]
[Sidenote: Divination from dreams.]
Dreams and their interpretation are also discussed in the
_Physionomia_.[1070] The age of the dreamer, the phase of the moon,
and the stage reached in the process of digestion, all have their
bearing upon interpretation. A dream which occurs before the process of
digestion has started either has no significance or concerns the past.
The dream which comes while the food is being digested has to do with
the present. Only when the process of digestion has been completed do
dreams occur which signify concerning the future. In order to recall a
dream in the morning Michael recommends sleeping upon one’s other side
for the remainder of the night or rubbing the back of the head the next
day. Some dreams signify gain, others loss; some joy, others sadness;
some sickness, others health, others war; some labor, others rest. For
instance, to catch a bird signifies gain, to lose a bird in one’s dream
signifies loss; to mourn in dreams portends joy, to laugh indicates
grief. The rest of his discussion of dreams Scot limits to their
significance in matters of health and physical constitution. He takes
up dreams indicative of predominance of blood, red cholera, phlegm,
and melancholy respectively; of heat, cold, dryness, and humidity; of
excess of humors and of bad humors.
[Sidenote: Works of divination ascribed to Michael Scot.]
While on the subject of divination we may note that a geomancy[1071]
and a chiromancy[1072] have been ascribed to Michael Scot, and also
prophetic verses concerning the fate of Italian cities in the style
of the Sibylline verses and prophecies of Merlin. Brown held that the
evidence for the authenticity of these verses was as convincing as that
for any event in Scot’s life.[1073]
[Sidenote: Medical writings.]
It would not be surprising to find that Michael himself practiced
medicine as well as astrology, in view of the attention given to human
physiology and the process of generation in his _Physiognomy_ and
elsewhere, and the interest in biology which his translation of the
Aristotelian works on animals evidences. A treatise on prognostication
from the urine is ascribed to him[1074] and “Pills of Master Michael
Scot” are mentioned in at least one manuscript,[1075] where they are
declared to be good for all diseases and of virtue indescribable.
[Sidenote: Occult virtues.]
Michael’s general allusion to the occult virtue of words, herbs, and
stones in the _Liber introductorius_ may be supplemented by a few
specific examples of the same from the other two divisions of his
main work. In the _Liber particularis_ he mentions such virtues of
stones as the property of the agate to reveal various signs of demons
and illusions of enchantment, and the power of the jasper to render
its bearer rich, amiable, and eloquent.[1076] In the _Phisionomia_
he suggests that persons who cannot maintain physical health without
frequent sexual intercourse may be able to do so by carrying a jasper
or topaz.[1077] He also states that bathing in the blood of a dog
or of two-year-old infants mixed with hot water “undoubtedly cures
leprosy,”[1078] and that many sorceries can be wrought by use of the
menstrual fluid, _semen_, hairs of the head, blood, and footprints in
dust or mud.[1079]
[Sidenote: Astrology in the _Commentary on the Sphere_.]
Michael Scot’s _Commentary upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco_[1080]
confines itself rather more strictly to astronomical and astrological
topics than did the _Liber introductorius_, but otherwise their
contents are not dissimilar. In the Commentary Michael discusses such
questions as whether the universe is eternal, one or many, and what
form or figure it should have; whether the mover of the sky is moved,
whether the stars are spherical bodies, and whether the zone between
the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle is temperate and
inhabited. Also whether the elements are four in number, and whether
the heavens include a ninth sphere. One argument against its existence
is that there are no stars in it, on which account some hold that it
would exert no influence upon the earth. But Michael replies that it
has light apart from any starry bodies and by virtue of this light
does exert influence. Other astrological questions which he raises
are whether the signs of the zodiac should be designated by the
names of animals, whether the first heaven is a more potent cause of
generation and corruption than the circle of the zodiac is, whether
celestial bodies have particular properties as terrestrial bodies do,
whether the heavens are animate, whether their motion is natural or
voluntary, whether the motion of the planets is rational, and whether
supercelestial bodies act upon inferiors by virtue of their motion.
In mentioning the departments of life over which the seven planets
rule, Michael cites either theologians or astrologers[1081] to the
effect that Saturn signifies concerning pagans, Jews, and all other
adversaries of the Faith, who are slow to believe just as Saturn is
slow of movement and chilling in effect, while Jupiter is the sign of
true believers and Christians.
[Sidenote: Dionysius the Areopagite and the solar eclipse during
Christ’s passion.]
In commenting upon Sacrobosco’s concluding passage concerning the
miraculous eclipse at the time of Christ’s passion and the remark
attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, “Either the God of nature
suffers or the machine of the universe is dissolved,” Michael explains
that ancient Athens was divided into three parts. One of these was the
shore which was consecrated to Neptune, but in place of the plain and
the mountains, Michael appears to take a leaf out of Plato’s _Republic_
and mentions the region of the warriors, dedicated to Pallas, goddess
of war, and the residential quarter of the philosophers, named the
Areopagus from Ares meaning virtue and _pagus_ meaning villa. According
to Michael the altar to the unknown god was erected by Dionysius the
Areopagite at the time of the darkness and earthquake accompanying
Christ’s passion, and when Paul came and preached the Christ whom he
ignorantly worshiped, Dionysius was converted, and became a missionary
to the Gauls, bishop of Paris, and finally gained a martyr’s crown.
[Sidenote: Alchemy.]
In the _Liber Introductorius_ Michael seemed to associate alchemy
with the magic arts. In his _Commentary on the Sphere_ his attitude
is more favorable. After citing the fourth book of the _Meteorology_
and other passages from Aristotle to the effect that no element can be
corrupted and hence the transmutation striven after by the alchemists
is impossible, Michael explains that the word element may be taken
in two senses. As a part of the universe it is neither generable nor
corruptible, but in so far as an element is mixed with active and
passive qualities, it is both generable and corruptible.[1082]
[Sidenote: Works of alchemy ascribed to Michael Scot.]
Thanks perhaps to this passage the composition or translation of
several works of alchemy is ascribed to Michael Scot in manuscripts
or printed editions. The _Quaestio curiosa de natura Solis et Lunae_,
which was printed as Michael’s in two editions of the _Theatrum
Chemicum_,[1083] was apparently written after his death.[1084] A
Palermo manuscript contains among other alchemical tracts a “Book of
Master Michael Scot in which is contained the mastery.”[1085] In at
least one manuscript Michael Scot is called the translator of the
_Liber luminis luminum_, of which Rasis is elsewhere mentioned as the
original author.[1086] In an Oxford manuscript a _De alchemia_ is
attributed to Michael Scot. It is addressed to “you, great Theophilus,
king of the Saracens”[1087] rather than to the Emperor Frederick, and
speaks of “the noble science” of alchemy as “almost entirely rejected
among the Latins.” Michael Scot mentions himself by name in it rather
too often for us to accept the treatise as his without question, while
the allusions to “Brother Elias” the Franciscan as a fellow-worker in
alchemy are perhaps also open to suspicion.
[Sidenote: Brother Elias and alchemy.]
We find, however, another suggestion of Brother Elias’s interest in
alchemy and association therein with Michael Scot in the fact that in
the same manuscript containing the translation of the _Liber luminis
luminum_ ascribed to Michael occurs another _Liber lumen luminum_ which
Brother Elias, General of the Friars Minor, edited in Latin for the
Emperor Frederick.[1088] A brother Cyprian translated it from Arabic
into Latin for him. In view of the later interest of another Franciscan
friar, Roger Bacon, in alchemy and the supposition which some have
entertained that he was persecuted by his Order because of his
experimental studies, this reputation of Brother Elias as an alchemist
is interesting to note. One of St. Francis’s earliest followers, he
succeeded him in 1226 as General of the Order. Deposed by the pope in
1230 on the charge of promoting schism in the Order, he was re-elected
in 1236 and was again deposed by the pope in 1239, after which he
joined the imperial party and was excommunicated from 1244 until just
before his death in 1253.[1089] Brown suggested that his alchemical
activities were alluded to by the pope on the occasion of his first
deposition in the words “_mutari color optimus auri ex quo caput erat
compactum_.”[1090] But if Elias was an alchemist, no open objection to
this appears to have been made either by the pope or his Order. Indeed,
many of the alchemists in Italy of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
were clergy and even friars.[1091]
[Sidenote: _Liber luminis luminum_ and _De alchemia_.]
Brown has already discussed the contents of the _Liber luminis luminum_
and _De alchemia_ (or, _alchimia_)[1092] but erroneously and from not
quite the same standpoint as ours. He incorrectly interprets “the
secrets of nature” which the writer says he has investigated as the
title of a book which has formed his chief source.[1093] Brown also
states that one of several features which distinguishes the _De
alchemia_ from the _Liber luminis_ “is an early passage which refers
to the correspondence between the metals and the planets.”[1094] But
there is a similar passage connecting seven metals with the seven
planets in the opening paragraph of his own printed text of the _Liber
luminis luminum_.[1095] The latter treatise, brief as it is, divides
into five parts dealing with salts, alums, vitriols, spirits, and the
preparation of alums, and the employment of these in transmutation. The
_De alchemia_ is less orderly in arrangement and seems largely a brief
collection of particular recipes for transmutation.
[Sidenote: Their further characteristics.]
Both works emphasize the secret character of alchemy. The _De alchemia_
holds forth concerning the great secret of Hermes and Ptolemy, and
tells how most men’s eyes are blinded, and to how few the truth of the
art is revealed. The _Liber luminis luminum_ narrates that “when the
great philosopher was dying he said to his son, ‘O my son, hold thy
secret in thy heart, nor tell it to anyone, nor to thy son, unless
when thou canst retain it no longer.’ Wise philosophers have yearned
with yearning to know the truth of this salt. But few have known it
and those who have known it have not told in their books the truth
concerning it as they saw it.”[1096] Both works also are largely
experimental in form and in the _De alchemia_ we are assured more than
once that “I, Michael Scot, have experienced this many times.”[1097]
The books of the ancients and past philosophers are cited both in
general and by name, but a black vitriol from France called French
earth[1098] and a gum found in Calabria and at Montpellier[1099] are
mentioned as well as herbs and minerals from India and Alexandria, and
we also hear of the experiments of brother Elias, certain Saracens who
seem of comparatively recent date, and of the operation at Catania
or Cortona by master Jacob the Jew which “I afterwards proved many
times.”[1100] The _Liber luminis luminum_ often speaks of “the great
virtue” of this or that, and both treatises make much use of animal
substances such as “dust of moles,” the urine of the _taxo_ or of a
boy, the blood of a ruddy man or of an owl or frog. Five toads are
shut up in a vessel and made to drink the juices of various herbs with
vinegar as the first step in the preparation of a marvelous powder for
purposes of transmutation.[1101]
FOOTNOTES:
[964] James Wood Brown, _An inquiry into the life and legend of Michael
Scot_, Edinburgh, 1897. While this book has been sharply criticized
(for instance, by H. Niese in HZ, CVIII (1912), p. 497) and has its
failings, such as an unsatisfactory method of presenting its citations
and authorities, it gives, obscured by much verbiage intended to make
the book interesting and popular and much fanciful speculation as to
what may have been, a more reliable account of Michael’s life and a
fuller bibliography of his writings than had existed previously. But it
must be used with caution.
_Liber introductorius_: extant only in MSS, of which some are:
Bodleian 266, 15th century, 218 fols. “Quicumque vult esse bonus
astrologus ... / ... finitur tractatus de notitia pronosticorum.” This
is the MS which I have used.
CLM 10268, 14th century, 146 fols. Described by F. Boll (1903), p. 439.
I tried to inspect this MS when I was in Munich in 1912 but it had been
loaned out of the library at that time.
Brown further mentions BN nouv. acq. 1401 and an Escorial MS of the
14th century which I presume is the same as Escorial F-III-8, 14th
century, fols. 1-126, “Incipit prohemium libri introductorii quem
edidit Michael Scotus,” etc.
The following are perhaps extracts from the _Liber Introductorius_:
BN 14070, 13th-14th-15th century, fol. 112-, Mich. Scoti de notitia
conjunctionis mundi terrestris cum celesti; fol. 115-, Eiusdem de
presagiis stellarum.
Vienna 3124, 15th century, fols. 206-11, “Capitulum de hiis quae
generaliter significantur in partibus duodecim celi sive domibus.”
Vatican 4087, fol. 38r, “Explicit liber quem edidit micael scotus de
signis et ymaginibus celi.”
See also MSS mentioned by Brown at p. 27, note 2.
* * * * *
_Liber particularis_, or _Astronomia_; also extant only in MSS.
Canon. Misc. 555, early 14th century, fols. 1-59. “Cum ars astronomie
sit grandis sermonibus philosophorum....” This is the MS I have used;
others are:
Escorial E-III-15, 14th century, fols. 41-51, Michaelis Scoti ars
astronomiae ad Federicum imperatorem II.
CLM 10663, 18th century, 261 fols., Michael Scot, Astronomia.
At Milan, Ambros. L. 92.
* * * * *
_Phisionomia_: eighteen editions are said to have appeared between 1477
and 1660. I have used the following text:
Michael Scot, _De secretis naturae_, Amsterdam, 1740, where it follows
at pp. 204-328 the _De secretis mulierum_ and other treatises ascribed
to Albertus Magnus.
It occurs at fols. 59-88 of Canon. Misc. 555, immediately after the
_Liber particularis_, and is found in other MSS.
* * * * *
_Commentary on The Sphere of Sacrobosco._
_Eximii atque excellentissimi physicorum motuum cursusque siderei
indagatoris Michaelis Scoti super auctorem sperae cum questionibus
diligenter emendatis incipit expositio confecta Illustrissimi
Imperatoris Dn̄i D. Fedrici precibus_, Bologna, 1495. I have also used
an edition of 1518, and there are others.
* * * * *
_Liber lumen luminum._
Riccardian 119, fols. 35v-37r, “Incipit liber luminis luminum
translatus a magistro michahele scoto philosopho.”
Printed by Brown (1897), Appendix III, pp. 240-68.
I presume it is the same as the _Lumen luminum_ ascribed to Rasis in
BN 6517 and 7156--see Berthelot (1893), I, 68--but I have not compared
them.
In the same Riccard. 119 at fol. 166r is a Liber lumen luminum
ascribed to Brother Elias, general of the Franciscans. “Incipit liber
alchimicalis quem frater helya edidit apud fredericum Imperatorem.
Liber lumen luminum translatus de sarraceno ac arabico in latinum
a fratre cypriano ac compositus in latinum a generali fratrum
minorum super alchimicis. Incipit liber qui lumen luminum dicitur ex
libris medicorum et experimentis et philosophorum et disciplinarum
ex(t)ranearum.”
* * * * *
_De alchimia_ (or, _alchemia_)
Corpus Christi 125, fols. 97v-100v, Michaelis Scoti ad Theophilum
Saracenorum regem “de alkemia.” “Explicit tractatus magistri michaelis
Scoti de alke.”
The above-mentioned books and manuscripts are those especially
discussed and utilized in the present chapter. The following may be
noted, since they are omitted by Brown, although they have little to do
with our investigation:
_Mensa philosophica._ Of this brief work ascribed to Michael Scot
several incunabula exist in the library of the British Museum.
* * * * *
Amplon. Folio 179, 14th century, fols. 98-99, “Liber translative
theologie de decem kathegoriis.” The attribution of this to Michael
Scot might be taken to support the tradition that he was a doctor of
theology at Paris.
[965] The poem is printed in _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_,
XVIII (1878), p. 486. Yet Cantor II (1913), p. 7, has Michael outlive
Frederick and transfer his residence to the court of Edward I of
England.
[966] Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 44v, “Quadam vice me michaelem scotum sibi
fidelem inter ceteros astrologos domestice advocavit.”
[967] That they are sections of one work is made clear from his
statement at the end of the long preface to all three: Bodleian 266,
fol. 25v; Boll (1903), p. 439, quotes the same passage from CLM 10268.
[968] “Scolares novitii.”
[969] The MSS say “Innocent IV,” but Michael had died before his
pontificate.
[970] Brown (1897), chapter II. Criticized by H. Niese in _Historische
Zeitschrift_, vol. 108 (1912), p. 497, note 3.
[971] Bologna University Library 693, 16th century, “Michaelis Scoti
astronomi Salernitani liber de animalibus. Incipit liber primus
de animalibus Avicenne rubrica. Frederice domine mundi Romanorum
Imperator, suscipe devote hunc laborem Michaelis Scoti.”
[972] Laurentian P. lxxxix, sup. cod. 38, 15th century, p. 409; printed
in Brown (1897), pp. 231-4. Concerning Philip see also Brown, pp.
19, 36-7. The important passage in the MS is, “Explicit nicromantiae
experimentum illustrissimi doctoris Domini Magistri Michaelis Scoti,
qui summus inter alios nominatur Magister, qui fuit Scotus, et servus
praeclarissimo Domino Philipo Regis Ceciliae coronato; quod destinavit
sibi dum esset aegrotus in civitate Cordubae, etc. Finis.” Brown, p.
19, translates the last clause, “which experiment he (i. e., Michael)
contrived when he lay sick in the city of Cordova,” and so concludes
that Scot visited that city; but I should translate it, “which he
(Michael) sent to him (Philip) while he (Philip) lay sick in the city
of Cordova.” Otherwise why is Philip mentioned at all?
[973] Brown, p. 104, citing Jourdain, _Recherches_, p. 133, who called
attention to two Paris MSS, Anciens fonds 7399 and Fonds de Sorbonne
1820, in one of which the MS is dated 1217, while the other gives the
year as 1255 which is the exactly corresponding year of the Spanish
era. Arsenal 1035, 14th century, fol. 112, a MS not noted by Jourdain
or Brown, states the year as 1207 A. D., but this is evidently a
mistake for 1217, since it gives the same day of the week and month as
the other MSS and August 18th fell on Friday in 1217, but not in 1207.
BN 16654, 13th century, fol. 33, gives the date as 1217.
[974] P. 55, arguing from a Vatican MS which is described at pp. 235-7.
[975] “Glosa magistri al. Explicit anno domini mccx.”
[976] Gonville and Caius 109, fols. 102v-103r, written in a different
hand from the text of the _History of Animals_, “Et iuro ego michael
scotus qui dedi hunc librum latinitati quod in anno MCCXXI, xii kal.
novembr. die mercurii....”
[977] Perhaps the year is correct, but “xii kal.” should be “xiii kal.”
[978] HL XX, 47; Brown (1897), p. 14; both citing Du Boulay, _Hist.
univ. Paris._, 1656-1675.
[979] See Denifle et Chatelain, _Chartularium Universitatis
Parisiensis_, 1889, I, 104, for a letter of Honorius III of January 16,
1224, asking Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, to secure a
benefice for Michael Scot whom he calls “singularly gifted in science
among men of learning”: and Theiner, _Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et
Scotorum_, Rome, 1864, p. 23, for a letter of Honorius III of June in
the same year, stating that Michael has declined the archbishopric of
Cashel and appointing another man. Brown has incorrectly dated both
letters in 1223.
[980] Denifle and Chatelain, I, 110.
[981] For the date and MSS see Boncompagni, _Intorno ad alcune opere di
Leonardo Pisano_, Rome, 1854, pp. 2 and 129-30.
[982] Bridges (1897) I, 55; in Jebb’s edition, pp. 35-6.
[983] _Rigordus de Gestis Philippi II_; quoted in the Leo XIII edition
of Aquinas, Rome, 1882, vol. I, p. cclix, “legi Parisiis coepisse
libellos quosdam aristotelis, qui docebant metaphysicum, de novo
Constantinopoli delatos et a graeco in latinum translatos.”
[984] P. Duhem, “Du temps où la Scolastique latine a connu la physique
d’Aristote,” in _Revue de philosophie_, August, 1909, pp. 163-78,
argues that the _Physics_ was known to Latins in the twelfth century.
[985] Petrus de Vineis III, ep. lxvii; Latin cited in Dissertation 23
in vol. I of the Rome, 1882, edition of the works of Aquinas. Frederick
II is not even mentioned in Grabmann’s dissertation on the translation
of Aristotle in the thirteenth century. In the preface to his _De arte
venandi cum avibus_ Frederick refuses to follow Aristotle who, he says,
had little or no practice in falconry: Haskins, EHR XXXVI (1921) 343-4.
[986] The letter of Manfred accompanied his gift to the University of
Paris of copies of the translations made for him. See _Chartularium
Universitatis Parisiensis_, I, 435-6.
[987] Renan, _Averroès et Averroïsme_, p. 188.
[988] Grabmann (1916), pp. 143-4, 175-6, 186-7, 198.
[989] BN 17155, 13th century, fol. 225-.
[990] Brown, 145.
[991] Brown, 119, Brewer (1859), p. 91.
[992] _Meteor._ III, iv. 26 (Borgnet, IV, 697).
[993] See Jourdain, _Recherches_, etc., and more recently H. Stadler,
“Irrtümer des Albertus Magnus bei Benutzung des Aristoteles,” in
_Archiv f. d. Gesch. d. Naturwissenschaften u. d. Technik_, VI (1913)
387-93.
[994] De Renzi, I, 292.
[995] Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 6.
[996] _Sphere_ (1518), p. 106.
[997] _Ibid._, p. 107.
[998] Gonville and Caius 109, fol. 1O2v-1O3r.
[999] C. H. Haskins, “The ‘De Arte Venandi cum Avibus’ of the Emperor
Frederick II,” EHR XXXVI (1921) 334-55.
[1000] Bodleian 266, fols. 1r-v. Future citations, unless otherwise
specified, will be to this MS.
[1001] It extends from fol. 2 to fol. 19.
[1002] fol. 4r.
[1003] fol. 10r.
[1004] fols. 11v-12r.
[1005] fol. 17v.
[1006] fol. 3r-v.
[1007] fols. 2 and 20v.
[1008] fols. 21v-22r.
[1009] fol. 22r.
[1010] fol. 22v.
[1011] In another passage at fol. 23r which speaks of a _magus_ as
inspecting entrails of animals I take it that the word is a slip of the
copyist for _haruspex_.
[1012] fol. 175r.
[1013] fol. 22v.
[1014] Printed by Brown (1897), pp. 231-4.
[1015] _Ibid._, p. 18.
[1016] At least in the MS which I have used; Bodleian 266, fols.
24r-25r.
[1017] What purported to be this work is listed in the _Speculum
astronomiae_ of Albertus Magnus, and Haskins, “Nimrod the Astronomer,”
_Romanic Review_, V. (1914), 203-12, has called attention to the
following MSS: S. Marco VIII, 22; Vatic. Pal. Lat. 1417; and an
extract in Ashmole 191. Haskins notes various mentions of Nimrod as an
astronomer in medieval authors, but not the above passage from Michael
Scot. Although Latin writers make Ioathon or Ionaton (and various other
spellings) the disciple of Nimrod, in Syrian writers Ionitus is the
fourth son of Noah and himself the discoverer of astronomy and teacher
of Nimrod (Haskins, _op. cit._ 210-11).
[1018] The word _Explicit_ is written across the knees of a figure of
the giant Athalax or Caclon who supports the heavens on his head at
fol. 25r, col. 1, but the passage concerning “Gilbertus” follows and
the proper Explicit of the preface does not occur until fol. 25v, col.
1. See Haskins, _op. cit._ p. 207 for pictures in the MSS of Atlas and
Nimrod side by side, the one standing on the Pyrenees and supporting
the starry firmament; the other on the mount of the Amorites bearing
the starless heavens.
[1019] fol. 28r-v; also Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 22r.
[1020] fol. 68v.
[1021] fol. 21v.
[1022] Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 17v.
[1023] fol. 29v.
[1024] fols. 150v-158r.
[1025] fol. 172.
[1026] fol. 145v.
[1027] fol. 128v.
[1028] fols. 30r, 31r.
[1029] fol. 174r.
[1030] fol. 144v.
[1031] fol. 173v.
[1032] fol. 173r, “Nam tot sunt medicine quot sunt infirmitates et hae
constant in tribus videlicet in verbis, herbis, et lapidibus, virtutes
quorum quotidie videmus ut in hostia sacrata super altare, in magnete
et ferro navigantes in alto mari, et in emplastris, pulveribus, et
consertis.”
[1033] fol. 175v.
[1034] fols. 32v-35r.
[1035] _Hist. Animal._ V, xix, 4.
[1036] fol. 35r, “de zuccaro et zaccara. Saccarum et zathara non sunt
liquores vaporabiles ut mel et manna sed sit de medula cannarum.”
[1037] fols. 44r et seq.; fols. 150-8.
[1038] fol. 75r et seq.; fols. 108-114.
[1039] fols. 117-8.
[1040] fol. 89.
[1041] fol. 124 et seq.; fols. 132-5.
[1042] fols. 145v-147v.
[1043] fol. 45r.
[1044] fols. 162v-163.
[1045] fol. 164v.
[1046] fol. 165.
[1047] fol. 176r-v.
[1048] fol. 177v.
[1049] fol. 28r.
[1050] fols. 178-218.
[1051] As Madan’s description of the MS says, “The first book contains
four _distinctiones_, of which the second ends on fol. 178, but it is
difficult to state whether the MS contains anything beyond the first
portion of the third _distinctio_ of this first book, owing to the
absence of decisive rubrics.”
F. Boll (1903) states that the fourth _distinctio_ is also missing in
CLM 10268.
[1052] BN 7438, 15th century.
[1053] In a footnote at page 185, from Bodl. 266, fol. 113.
[1054] fol. 162r.
[1055] Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 4.
[1056] Bodleian 266, fol. 47r.
[1057] _Phisionomia_ (1740) cap. xi, p. 235.
[1058] _Ibid._, cap. ix, p. 229.
[1059] Or _Phisonomia_ as it is often spelled in the medieval texts
themselves.
[1060] Brown (1897), 32 and 37.
[1061] Edition of 1740, p. 210, “Et secundum cursum corporum superiorum
sicut dispositionem corporum concipientium foetus recipit similiter
et semel omnia et singula quae postea discernunt ordinem temporum et
naturae.”
[1062] Cap. 7 (1740), p. 226.
[1063] Cap. 8 (1740), p. 228.
[1064] Cap. 3 (1740), p. 218; cap. 10, p. 230.
[1065] Cap. 2 (1740), p. 213.
[1066] Cap. 7 (1740), p. 227.
[1067] Cap. 18 (1740), p. 248, “In chiromantia est illud
experimentum....”
[1068] _De notitia auguriorum_, cap. 57 (1740), p. 285.
[1069] Cap. 58 (1740), pp. 288, 289, 290.
[1070] Caps. 46-56 (1740), p. 280, _et seq._
[1071] CLM 489, 16th century.
[1072] _Chiromantica Scientia, quarto minori sine notis typographicis,
foliis 28 constat impressis. “Ex divina philosophorum academia
secundum nature vires ad extra chyromantitio diligentissime collectum.
Exordium.” Cl. Denis, qui alias editiones huius operis adfert,
Michaelum Scotum auctorem eiusdem censeri tradit._
[1073] Brown (1897), 163 _et seq._
[1074] Vatican, Regina di Svezia, 1159, fol. 149, “Finis urinarum
Magistri Michaelis Scoti.” To the two MSS listed by Brown, p. 153, note
6, containing an Italian translation, may be added Perugia 316, 15th
century, fols. 91-106, “Qui chomenza el tractato delle orine secondo
come mete maistro Michelle sthato strollogo del re Ferigo ai nostri
bexogni.”
[1075] Addit. 24068, 13th century, fol. 97v.
[1076] Canon. Misc. 555, fol. 50r-v.
[1077] (1740), p. 222.
[1078] _Phisionomia_, cap. 14 (1740), p. 241.
[1079] _Ibid._, cap. 10, p. 233.
[1080] If the ascription of this _Commentary_ to Michael is correct,
probably either he wrote it toward the end of his life or Sacrobosco
composed the _Sphere_ fairly early in his career, since he appears
to have outlived Michael and to have composed his _Computus
ecclesiasticus_ or _De anni ratione_ in 1244: see Duhem III (1915),
p. 240. The lines quoted in DNB “John Holywood or Halifax” as on his
tomb in the cloister of the Mathurins and as having reference to the
date of his death are really the verses at the close of his _Computus
ecclesiasticus_:
“_M Christi bis C quarto deno quater anno_ _De Sacro Bosco discrevit
tempora ramus_ _Gratia cui dederat nomen divina Johannes_,” etc.
Cantor II (1913), p. 87, however, speaks of two different tomb
inscriptions given by Vossius and Kästner but says that they agree on
1256 as the date of Sacrobosco’s death. The first line above quoted is
sometimes interpreted as giving the date 1256 rather than 1244.
[1081] In the _editio princeps_ of 1495 the marginal heading is, “_Quid
de planetis sentiunt theologi,”_ but in the text we read “_thrologi_,”
which is possibly derived from “_asthrologi_” by a dropping off of the
first syllable.
[1082] Edition of 1495, fol. b-ii, verso.
[1083] Strasburg, 1622 and 1659.
[1084] And is not a chapter from the _Liber Introductorius_; see Brown,
77-8.
[1085] _Liber Magistri Michaelis Scotti in quo continetur Magisterium_,
No. 44 in a MS belonging to the Speciale family. I have not seen the
MS. It is described briefly by Brown, 78-80; see further S. A. Carini,
_Sulle Scienze Occulte nel Medio Evo_, Palermo, 1872.
[1086] See bibliographical note at the beginning of this chapter.
[1087] This expression occurs in the course of the text itself--Corpus
Christi 125, fol. 97r--in addition to the words scratched in the upper
margin at the beginning by another hand, “_Michael Scotus Theophilo
Regi Saracenorum_.” The conclusion of the treatise is in a 14th century
hand, the remainder in a 15th century hand.
[1088] See bibliographical note at opening of this chapter.
[1089] Brown, p. 91, citing Wadding, I, 109.
[1090] Brown, p. 91, note 2.
[1091] Berthelot (1893) II, 74 and 77; Lippmann (1919) 481. I doubt if
there is much ground for their further assertion that such clerics fell
easily under suspicion of heresy and hence wrote in ciphers like Roger
Bacon’s for gunpowder. At p. 688 I have refuted the notion that Bacon
employed a cipher to conceal the recipe for gunpowder.
[1092] In his fourth chapter, “The Alchemical Studies of Michael Scot.”
[1093] If the title of any book were meant, it would rather be
Michael’s own _De secretis naturae_, since he not only says,
“Cum rimarer et inquirerem secreta naturae ex libris antiquorum
philosophorum....,” but also, “Quedam extraxi et ea secretis nature
adiunxi....”
[1094] P. 92.
[1095] P. 240, “Et notum est quod sicut 7 sunt metalla ita 7 sunt
planete et quodlibet metallum habet suum planetam,” etc.
[1096] For Latin text see Brown, p. 248. The same passage occurs in
another alchemical treatise, _Liber Dedali philosophi_, which Brown
printed on opposite pages to the text of the _Liber luminis luminum_.
[1097] Corpus Christi 125, fol. 99v, “et ego multotiens sum expertus,”
fol. 100r, “Et ego michael scotus multotiens sum expertus,” etc.
[1098] Brown, p. 262, “Vitriolum nigrum apportatur de Francia et
idcirco dicitur terra francigena. Cum isto mulieres vulvam constringunt
ut virgines appareant. Non est autem magne utilitatis in ista arte.”
[1099] Corpus Christi 125, fol. 99r.
[1100] _Ibid._, fol. 100r, “Et ego vidi istam operationem scilicet apud
cartanam a magistro jacobo iudeo et ego postea multotiens probavi....”
[1101] Brown, p. 252, for Latin text.