An Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot. J. Wood Brown
left half his heart behind, enchained in that remarkable devotion which Lutetia could so well inspire in her children.[30] Bologna might be, as we have represented it, the gate to a new Eden, that of Scot’s Italian and Spanish life, yet how could he enter it without casting many a longing glance behind to the Paradise he had quitted for ever when he left the banks of the Seine?
CHAPTER II
SCOT AT THE COURT OF SICILY
All tradition assures us that the chief occupation of Scot’s life was found at the Court of Frederick II., King of Sicily, and afterwards Emperor of Germany: a Prince deservedly famous, not only for his own talent, but for the protection and encouragement he afforded to men of learning. A manuscript in the Laurentian Library,[31] hitherto unnoticed in this connection, seems to throw some light upon the time and manner of this employment: points that have always been very obscure. The volume is a collection of Occulta, and at p. 256 we find the following title, ‘An Experiment of Michael Scot the magician.’ What follows is of no serious importance: such as it has we shall consider in speaking of the Master’s legendary fame. The concluding words, however, are of great interest, especially when we observe that this part of the manuscript, though written between 1450 and 1500, is said[32] to have been copied ‘from a very ancient book.’ The colophon runs thus: ‘Here endeth the necromantic experiment of the most illustrious doctor, Master[33] Michael Scot, who among other scholars is known as the supreme Master; who was of Scotland, and servant to his most distinguished chief Don Philip,[34] the King of Sicily’s clerk;[35] which experiment he contrived[36] when he lay sick in the city of Cordova. Finis.’
Taking the persons here named in the order of their rank, we notice first the great Emperor Frederick II., the patron of Michael Scot. It is worth remark that he is styled simply ‘King of Sicily,’ a title which belongs to the time previous to 1215, when he obtained the Imperial crown. This is a touch which seems to give high originality and value to the colophon. We may feel sure that it was not composed by the fifteenth century scribe, who would certainly have described Frederick in the usual style as Emperor and Lord of the World. He must have copied it, and everything leads one to suppose that he was right in describing the source from which he drew as ‘very ancient.’
Next comes Don Philip, whom we have rightly described as the clerk of Sicily, for the word coronatus in its mediæval use is derived from corona in the sense of the priestly tonsure, so that Philippus coronatus is equivalent to Philippus clericus.[37] Of this distinguished man we find many traces in the historical documents of the period.[38] Two deeds passed the seals of Sicily in the year 1200 when the King, then a boy of five years old, was living under the care of his widowed mother the Queen Constantia. These are countersigned by the royal notary, who is described as ‘Philippus de Salerno, notarius et fidelis noster scriba.’ His name is found in the same way, apparently for the last time, in 1213. This date, and the particular designation of Philip the Notary as ‘of Salerno,’ connect themselves very naturally with the title of a manuscript belonging to the De Rossi collection.[39] It is as follows: ‘The Book of the Inspections of Urine according to the opinion of the Masters, Peter of Berenico, Constantine Damascenus, and Julius of Salerno; which was composed by command of the Emperor Frederick, Anno Domini 1212, in the month of February, and was revised by Master Philip of Tripoli and Master Gerard of Cremona at the orders of the King of Spain,’ etc. The person designed as Philip of Salerno was very likely to be put in charge of the revision of a medical treatise, and as he disappears from his duties as notary for some time after 1213 we may suppose that it was then he passed into the service of the King of Spain. This conjecture agrees also with the mention of Cordova in the Florence manuscript, and with other peculiarities it displays, such as the spelling of the name Philippus like Felipe, and the way in which the title Dominus is repeated, just as Don might be in the style of a Spaniard. There is, in short, every reason to conclude that Philip of Salerno and Philip of Tripoli were one and the same person. We may add that Philip was the author of the first complete version in Latin of the book called Secreta Secretorum, the preface of which describes him as a clericus of the See of Tripoli. As will presently appear, Michael Scot drew largely from this work in composing one of his own;[40] another proof that in confronting with each other these three names—Philippus coronatus or clericus; Philippus de Salerno, and Philippus Tripolitanus—and in concluding that they belong to one and the same person, we have a reasonable amount of evidence in our favour.
From what has just been said it is plain that three distinct periods must have composed the life of Philip so far as we know it: the first when he served as an ecclesiastic in Tripoli of Syria or its neighbourhood; the second when he came westward, and, not without a certain literary reputation, held the post of Clerk Register in Sicily; the last when Frederick sent him, in the height of his powers and the fulness of his fame, to that neighbouring country of Spain, then so full of attraction for every scholar. In which of these periods then was it that Michael Scot first came into those relations with Philip of which the Florentine manuscript speaks? The time of his residence in Spain, likely as it might seem on other accounts, would appear to be ruled out by the fact that it was too late for Philip to be then described as servant of the King of Sicily. Nor did he hold this office, so far as we can tell, until he had left Tripoli for the West. We must pronounce then for the Sicilian period, and precisely therefore for the years between 1200 and 1213. This conclusion, however, does not hinder us from supposing that the relation then first formally begun between Michael and Philip continued to bind them, in what may have been a friendly co-operation, during the time spent by both in Spain.
The period thus determined was that of the King’s boyhood, and this opens up another line of argument which may be trusted not only to confirm the results we have reached, but to afford a more exact view of Scot’s occupation in Sicily. Several of his works are dedicated to Frederick, from which it is natural to conclude that his employment was one which brought him closely in contact with the person of the King. When we examine their contents we are struck by the tone which Scot permits himself to use in addressing his royal master. There is familiarity when we should expect flattery, and the desire to impart instruction instead of the wish to display obsequiousness. Scot appears in fact as one careless to recommend himself for a position at Court, certain rather of one which must have been already his own. What can this position have been?
A tradition preserved by one of the commentaries on Dante[41] informs us that Michael Scot was employed as the Emperor’s tutor, and this explanation is one which we need feel no hesitation in adopting, as it clears up in a very convincing way all the difficulties of the case. His talents, already proved and crowned in Paris and Bologna, may well have commended him for such a position. The dedication of his books to Frederick, and the familiar style in which he addresses the young prince, are precisely what might be expected from the pen of a court schoolmaster engaged in compiling manuals in usum Delphini.[42] Nay the very title of ‘Master’ which Scot had won at Paris probably owed its chief confirmation and continued employment to the nature of his new charge. Since the fifth century there had prevailed in Spain the habit of committing children of position to the course of an ecclesiastical education.[43] They were trained by some discreet and grave person called the magister disciplinae, deputed by the Bishop to this office. Such would seem to have been the manner of Frederick’s studies. His guardian was the Pope; he lived at Palermo under charge of the Canons of that Cathedral,[44] and no doubt the ecclesiastical character of Michael Scot combined with his acknowledged talents to point him out as a suitable person to fill so important a charge. It was his first piece of preferment, and we may conceive that he drew salary for his services under some title given him in the royal registry. This would explain his connection with Philip, the chief notary, on which the Florentine manuscript insists. Such fictitious employments have always been a part of court fashion, and that they were common in Sicily at the time of which we write may be seen from the case of Werner and Philip de Bollanden, who, though in reality most trusted and confidential advisers of the Crown, were known at Court as the chief butler and baker, titles which they were proud to transmit to their descendants.[45]
It was at Palermo,