[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.
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.’
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.
[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.