An Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot. J. Wood Brown

      Like the De Animalibus ad Caesarem, the Abbreviatio Avicennae bears a dedication to Frederick conceived in the following terms: ‘O Frederick, Lord of the World and Emperor, receive with devotion this book of Michael Scot, that it may be a grace unto thy head and a chain about thy neck.’[93] It will always be matter of doubt whether in this address Scot appealed to a taste for natural history already formed in his pupil before he left Palermo, or whether the interest subsequently shown by this monarch in studying the habits of animals was awakened by the perusal of these two volumes. In any case they must have done not a little to guide both his interest and his researches. The chroniclers tell us of Frederick’s elephant, which was sent to Cremona, of the cameleopard, the camels and dromedaries, the lions, leopards, panthers, and rare birds which the royal menagerie contained, and of a white bear which, being very uncommon, formed one of the gifts presented by the Emperor on an important occasion. We hear too that Frederick, not content with gathering such rarities under his own observation, entered upon more than one curious experiment in this branch of science. Desiring to learn the origin of language he had some children brought up, so Salimbene tells us, beyond hearing of any spoken tongue. In the course of another inquiry he caused the surgeon’s knife to be ruthlessly employed upon living men that he might lay bare the secrets and study the process of digestion. If these experiments do not present the moral character of the Emperor in a very attractive light, they may at least serve to show how keenly he was interested in the study of nature.

      This interest indeed went so far as to lead Frederick to join the number of royal authors by publishing a work on falconry.[94] In it he ranges over all the species of birds then known, and insists on certain rarities, such as a white cockatoo, which had been sent to him by the Sultan from Cairo. He thus appears in his own pages, not merely as a keen sportsman, but as one who took no narrow interest in natural history. Clearly the dedication of the De Animalibus and the Abbreviatio Avicennae was no empty compliment as it flowed from the pen of Scot. He had directed his first labours from Toledo to one who could highly appreciate them, and to these works must be ascribed, in no small measure, the growth of the Emperor’s interest in a subject then very novel and little understood.

      As regards the Abbreviatio Avicennae indeed, we have actual evidence of the esteem in which Frederick held it. The book remained treasured in the Imperial closet at Melfi for more than twenty years, and, when at last the Emperor consented to its publication, so important was the moment deemed, that a regular writ passed the seals giving warrant for its transcription.[95] Master Henry of Colonia[96] was the person selected by favour of Frederick for this work, and, as most of the manuscripts of the Abbreviatio now extant have a colophon referring in detail to this transaction, we may assume that Henry’s copy, made from that belonging to the Emperor, was the source from which all others have been derived.

      This Imperial original would seem to be more nearly represented by the Vatican copy[97] than by any other which remains in the libraries of Europe. From it we discover that the Arabic names with which the Abbreviatio abounds were given in Latin in the margin of the original manuscript, which Scot sent to the Emperor.[98] These hard words and their explanations were afterwards gathered in a glossary, and inscribed at the end of the treatise; an improvement which was probably due to Henry of Colonia. The glossary has, however, been quite neglected by later copyists, nor does it appear in the printed edition of the Abbreviatio Avicennae. The completeness with which it is found in the Vatican manuscript shows the close relation which that copy holds to the one first made by the Emperor’s permission. The Chigi manuscript[99] seems to be the only other in which the glossary is to be found. It therefore ranks beside that of the Vatican, but is inferior to it as it presents the glossary in a less complete form.

      The originality of the Vatican text perhaps appears also in the curious triplet with which it closes: ‘Liber iste inceptus est et expletus cum adiutorio Jesu Christi qui vivit, etc.