An Enquiry Into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot

PREFACE AFTER some considerable time spent in making collections for the work which is now submitted to the public, I became aware that a biography of Michael S...cot was in t ce which had been composed as early as the close of the sixteenth century. This is the work of Bernardino Baldi of Urbino, who was born in 1553. He studied medicine at Padua, but soon turned his attention to mathematics, especially to the historical de velopmeuts of that science. Taking holy orders, he became Abbot of Guastalla in 1586, and in the quiet of that cloister found time to produce hia work De le Yite de Matematici of which the biography of Scot forms a part. He died in 1617. This discovery led me at first to think that my original plan might with some advantage be modified. Baldi had evidently enjoyed great advantages in writing his life of Scot. His time lay nearer to that of Scot by three hundred years than our own does. He was a nati e of Italy, where so large a part of Scots life was passed. He had tudied at Padua, the last of the great schools in which Averroes, whom Scot first introduced to the Latins, still held intellectuaJ. sway. All this seemed to indicate him as one who was exceptionally situated and suited for the work of collecting such accounts of hlichael Scot as still survived in the sout, h when he lived and mote. The purpose he had in view was also such as promised a serious biography, not entirely, nor even chiefly, occupied mith the recitation of traditional tales, but devoted to a solid account of the philo sophers scientific fame in what was certainly one of the most considerable branches of science which he followed. It occurred to me herefore that an edition of Baldis life of Scot, which has never yet been printed, might give scope for annotations and digressions embodying all the additional material had in hand or might still collect, and that a work on this plan would perhaps best answer the end in view. A serious dificulty, however, here presented itself, and in the end proved insuperable, as I was quite unable to gain access to the work of Baldi. It seems to exist in no more than two manuscripts, both of them belonging to a private library in Rome, that of the late Prince Baldassare Bon compagni, who had acquired them from the Albani collection. The Boncompagni library has been now for some time under strict seal, certaiu legal proceedings, and aLL my endeavours to get even a sight of the manuscripts were in vain. In these circumstances I fell back upon a printed volume, the Cronica de slfc temmtici overo Epitome debl7Istoria deEEe vite loro, which is an abbreviated form of Baldis work and was published at Urbino in 1707. The account of Michael Scot which it gives is not such its to increase my regret that I cannot present this biography to the reader in its most complete form. Tlius it runs Michele Scoto, that is Michael the Scot, was a Judicial Astrologer, in which profession he served the Emperor Frederick . He wrote a most learned treatise by way of questions upon the Sphere of John de Sacrobosco which is still in common use. Some say he was a Magician, and tell how he used to cause fetch on occasion, by magic art, from the kitchen of great Princes whatever he needed for his table. He died from the blow of a stone falling on his head, having already foreseen that such would be the manner of his end...Detailed info »« Brief info