[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.
[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.
[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 len̄ite.’ 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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[190] Colophon to cod. lxxix. 18 of the Laurentian Library.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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. ʒ 1. et utaris omni tempore indifferenter. Addenda sunt ista; Cynamomi, Schināti, maiorane, folii balsamite, mzimi, (?) cardamomi, galenge, regulitie, an. ʒ 1. pulverizza, et utaris indifferenter.’ The MS. is in a hand of the thirteenth century. The Myrobalans, long discarded from the Pharmacopœia, 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.’