Michael Scot Research Articles

Michael Scot and the Music of the Spheres

Herein, it is shown that Kepler’s contribution involving the “Music of the Spheres” can be traced back to Pythagoras and Ibn Arabī through Michael Scot. We find threads linking this body of work associating music with astronomy leading to the modern and extensive astronomical subject of orbital resonances. In particular, we find that Fibonacci numbers play a significant role in this context.

Foreseeing the Future in Unexpected Events: The Case of the Liber introductorius of Michael Scot

Le but de cet article est de contribuer au débat sur la relation entre les pratiques prédictives et l’orthodoxie religieuse, telle qu’elle est exposée dans le Liber introductorius de Michel Scot. Au cœur de ce travail se trouve l’étude de la discussion de l’interprétation des signes inhabituels et des événements inattendus par Michel Scot, à la fois dans le Liber quatuor distinctionum et le Liber particularis. L’analyse de nouvelles preuves textuelles, jusque là passées inaperçues, permettra par ailleurs la réévaluation de la réception de Michel Scot en tant qu’autorité dans le domaine des pratiques prédictives.

“MEMBERS OF THE COVENANT OF THE GUIDE”: READING MAIMONIDES IN CHRISTIAN TOLEDO

This article argues that Moses Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed first became known to a Latin Christian audience in Toledo before 1220, and that the section of it translated as the Liber de parabolis et de mandatis in 1223–24 (Guide III.29–49) is the work of Samuel ibn Tibbon and Michael Scot. Moreover, the introduction to exegesis that prefaces the translation reflects the work of ibn Tibbon. The article considers the impact early contact with the Guide had, first in Toledo, and then in Paris and Provence. The Guide presented a God who worked through the principles of Aristotelian physics, and offered an incentive to translate and study those works of Aristotle and his interpreters that illuminated these questions. Texts translated in Toledo under the inspiration of the Guide became core texts for Paris scholastics. William of Auvergne, the first Parisian scholar to use the translation, would play a key role in the trial of the Talmud. And Cardinal Romanus, to whom the Liber de parabolis et de mandatis was dedicated, is implicated in the controversy of the Guide itself among Jews at Montpellier.

Michel Scot: Liber particularis, Liber physonomie. Édition critique, introduc­tion et notes by Oleg Voskoboynikov

Michael Scot (d. ca 1235) has long been known as an important figure in medieval intellectual history. Translator (from Arabic) of Greek scientific and philosophical texts, notably of al-Bitrūjī and Averroes, he spent the last years of his life as an astrologer at the court of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II (1220–1250) in Palermo. It is at the request of the emperor that Scot composed his major work, the Liber introductorius, a massive encyclopaedia in three parts dealing respectively with astrology and astronomy (the Liber quatuor distinctionum), cosmology (the Liber particularis), and physiognomy (the Liber physonomie). Reviewed by: David Juste, Published Online (2021-08-31)Copyright © 2021 by David JusteThis open access publication is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND) Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/aestimatio/article/view/37731/28732 Corresponding Author:David Juste,Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, MunichE-Mail: djuste@ptolemaeus.badw.de

New Evidence for Ben Jonson’s Epigrammes (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records

New Evidence for Ben Jonson’s <i>Epigrammes</i> (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records

The influence of the stars and the intervention of demons in wars: an insight into the "Liber Introductorius" of Michael Scot

The influence of the stars and the intervention of demons in wars: an insight into the "Liber Introductorius" of Michael Scot

Michael Scot and the Four Rainbows

We apply a physical and historical analysis to a passage by the medieval scholar Michael Scot concerning multiple rainbows, a meteorological phenomenon whose existence has only been acknowledged in recent history. We survey various types of physical models to best decipher Scot’s description of four parallel rainbows as well as a linguistic analysis of Scot’s special etymology. The conclusions have implications on Scot’s whereabouts at the turn of the 13th century.

TheElucidariumof Honorius Augustodunensis in the Prohemium of theLiber Introductoriusof Michael Scot

This article examines the use of Honorius Augustodunensis’s Elucidarium in the Prohemium of a three-part introduction to the astrological sciences, namely the Liber introductorius by Michael Scot. ...

Necromancy and the Magical Reputation of Michael Scot: John Rylands Library, Latin MS 105

Necromancy, the practice of conjuring and controlling evil spirits, was a popular pursuit in the courts and cloisters of late medieval and early modern Europe. Books that gave details on how to conduct magical experiments circulated widely. Written pseudonymously under the name of the astrologer and translator Michael Scot (d. 1236), Latin MS 105 from the John Rylands Library, Manchester, is notable for the inclusion, at the beginning of the manuscript, of a corrupted, unreadable text that purports to be the Arabic original. Other recensions of the handbook, which generally travelled under the pseudo-Arabic title of Almuchabola Absegalim Alkakib Albaon, also stressed the experiments non-Western origins. Using Latin MS 105 as the main case study, this article aims to investigate the extent to which a magic books paratextual data conveyed a sense of authority to its contemporary audience.

Michael Scot’s Translation of Aristotle’s Books on Animals and the Pleasures of Knowledge

Michael Scot’s thirteenth-century Arabic-Latin translation of Aristotle’s zoological works strongly influenced the medieval reception of these books. Whereas Scot’s translation was mostly scientific, a growing public was offered the opportunity to experience the pleasures of this kind of knowledge in general.

Visions of the Milky Way in the West: The Greco-Roman and Medieval Periods

Before the new Greek cosmological system was developed, many ancient cultures had pictured the Milky Way as a vertical axis or tree, which was seen as a route leading into the heavens of a layered universe. This model began to change from about the sixth century BC, when the image of a spherical earth and geocentric universe became increasingly widespread among the educated people of Greece. The new model, standardised by Ptolemy during the second century AD, visualised a universe comprised of eight concentric crystalline spheres surrounding a fixed earth. By the Middle Ages, the Ptolemaic system had become the established picture of the cosmos in Europe and the Islamic world. Losing its old vertical image, the Milky Way was now pictured as a circular band surrounding the spherical earth. Now known as the Milky Circle, it kept something of its earlier religious significance in the pagan world. In Rome it was visualised as a post-mortem place of purification, located below the sphere of the moon. With the establishment of traditional Christianity, the Milky Way’s position became unclear. It had always been a scientific puzzle to thinkers trying to analyse its substance and define its place in the Ptolemaic universe, and its true nature remained unresolved. In one of its most intriguing identities, originated by the thirteenth century astrologer Michael Scot, it migrated to the sphere of the fixed stars where it became a mysterious, living constellation, known as the Daemon Meridianus.

Causes and Motives for Misunderstanding of Ibn Rushdʼs Philosophy for Western Scholars in Medieval Europe

Owing to the translations of Ibn Rushdʼs works in Toledo, particularly by Michael Scot, his books became accessible for Medieval Western scholars. But these translators have made numerous mistakes and misinterpretations on account of ignorance of the commentaries and critique too. Therefore Ibn Rushdʼs real ideas became obscure for his reader in various periods. This problem imports the famous theory of double truth of Averroism. Ibn Rushd has become a pioneer of freethinking and atheism for Europe in various periods. He found numerous followers and opponents among catholic philosophers. Among them were: Siger de Brabant, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Raymound Lully, Servite fra Urbano of Bologna, Paul of Venice, Nicoletto Vernias and others.

Book Review: Michael Scot's Liber de Signis: Sternstunden am Kaiserhof: Michael Scotus und sein Buch von den Bildern und Zeichen des Himmels

MICHAEL SCOT'S LIBER DE SIGNIS Sternstunden am Kaiserhof: Michael Scotus und sein Buch von den Bildern und Zeichen des Himmels. Silke Ackermann (Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2009). Pp. 642. euro91. ISBN 978-3-631-59489-6.Based on twenty years of research into Michael Scot and his writings, Silke Ackermann's Sternstunden am Kaiserhof is a significant contribution to our knowledge of medieval astronomy and, in particular, of Michael Scot's role in the Geistesleben of the thirteenth century. The centrepiece of this volume is the Editio princeps of Michael's Liber de signis et imaginibus celi, which introduced six new constellations into the Western tradition. The text has a very complex manuscript tradition, which Ackermann admirably clarifies, thus establishing a proper foundation for its study. Little by little, Michael Scot and his work are coming into sharper focus. With Ackermann's book, we take a large step forward in this endeavour.Ackermann's book is divided into four parts: (i) a discussion of Michael's life and works that offers the scholarly status quaestionis on many of the outstanding questions (pp. 13-61); (ii) a study of the text, its content and sources (63-92); (iii) its influence (93-7); and (iv) a Latin edition with a facing German translation ( 1 06-28 1 ) and an extensive commentary, both philological and scientific-historical (282-572). The volume ends with a lengthy bibliography (577-642).Much is written about Michael Scot, but very little is known about his biography beyond that he worked as a translator in Toledo in the circle of Archbishop Raymond, received several benefices to support his scholarly work, and lived in Bologna for a time. He was born before 1 195/1200 and died by 1238. We know nothing of his origins, although he himself and others called him Scotus. He was denoted Magister in papal documents of the 1220s. Leonardo Fibonacci also called him Magister in dedicating the new edition of his Liber abacci to Michael in 1228. Michael also had something to do with translations from Arabic into Latin in Toledo, but we do not know which languages he knew, where he learned them or what precise role he played in the translations.Nevertheless, Michael was revered as one of the most learned men of his time, and was the astrologus Frederici Imperatoris Romanorum. He compiled numerous books at Emperor Frederick H's expense, but we know nothing else about his role at court. Ackermann tells us what we actually know, but raises many more questions than she answers. Her treatment will provide a solid foundation to develop in future research.Comprised of an introduction, a description of the twelve zodiacal signs, thirtysix additional constellations and the seven planets, the Liber de signis is one part of the Liber quattuor distinctionum (a book in four parts), the first of three books that collectively - along with a provocative prohemium - make up Michael's Liber introductorius. …

Avicenna and Aquinas’s De Principiis Naturae, cc. 1–3

1 Aristotle, Metaphysics 5.1.1012b34-1013a16: “We call a principle . . . (3) that from which, as an immanent part, a thing first arises, e.g. as the keel of a ship and the foundation of a house, while in animals some suppose the heart, others the brain, others some other part, to be of this nature. (4) That from which, not as an immanent part, a thing first arises, and from which the movement or the change naturally first proceeds, as a child comes from the father and the mother, and a fight from abusive language. . . . (6) That from which a thing can first be known; for this also is called the principle of the thing, e.g., the suppositions are the origins of demonstrations.” 577 The Thomist 76 (2012): 577-610 AVICENNA AND AQUINAS’S DE PRINCIPIIS NATURAE, CC. 1-3 R. E. HOUSER Centre for Thomistic Studies Houston, Texas T HE SHORT TREATISE De principiis naturae ad fratrem Sylvestrem (De principiis naturae), addressed to an otherwise unknown brother Dominican, was composed by Br. Thomas of Aquino, O.P., early in his writing career (1252-56). In the oldest catalogue of his works, its companion piece, De ente et essentia, is also addressed to his “brothers and associates” (ad fratres et socios). Both works were written for his confreres at Paris, in response to the kind of request Thomas honored throughout his life. Here, for the first time in his career, he set out systematically the “principles of nature”: matter, form, privation, agent, and end. In the Aristotelian tradition, such “principles” are conceived in two ways: as ontological principles found in real physical things and as cognitional principles which must be understood from the outset when pursuing any demonstrative science.1 Later in his commentary on the Physics, Thomas said that in book 1 Aristotle had presented the real “principles of natural things,” while in book 2 he had laid out “the principles of natural R. E. HOUSER 578 2 Aquinas, II Physic., lect. 1: “Postquam philosophus in primo libro determinavit de principiis rerum naturalium, hic determinat de principiis scientiae naturalis.” 3 Avicenna, Liber primus naturalium: Tractatus primus de causis et principiis naturalium, ed. S. Van Riet (Leiden: Brill, 1992). science.”2 The difference between the two is one of emphasis, but that emphasis will prove helpful in understanding De principiis naturae, where Thomas focuses on them as principles of natural science. As Thomas conceived it, his task in De principiis naturae was to offer a concise presentation of the principles of nature, and therefore of natural science, in order to help his confreres understand them. In order to do so, four options lay before him: he could offer his own views, without reference to particular philosophers, or he could turn to the texts of one of the three authors who represented for him the grand Aristotelian tradition of physical science: Aristotle himself or the two most important Muslim Aristotelians, Avicenna and Averroës. His way of writing philosophy within a tradition led him to eschew the first option, since he took truth where he found it and was happy to give credit to pagan and Muslim philosophers. The difficulties of Aristotle’s text (which were exacerbated in Michael Scot’s Latin translation, taken from the Arabic translation) led him to the Muslim philosophers. At the present time, the predominant interpretation of De principiis naturae is that Thomas’s primary source was Averroës, but this view is implausible. Averroës had composed a very detailed, line-by-line commentary on each of Aristotle’s books, but what Thomas’s confreres needed was a brief introduction, bringing together the main points they must learn. This was unavailable from Averroës, but could be offered by way of a suitable condensation of the Latin translation of Avicenna’s Physics of the Healing, Book 1, known to Thomas as the Liber primus naturalium: Tractatus primus de causis et principiis naturalium.3 In what follows I will offer a detailed comparison of Avicenna’s presentation of the principles of nature in that text with Thomas’s presentation in De principiis naturae. What emerges from this Quellenforschung is that Aquinas’s presentation of...

Sur les traces du De motibus / iudiciis planetarum attribué à Ptolémée

AbstractA short astrological treatise about the properties of the planets in the zodiac, called De motibus / iudiciis planetarum and attributed to Ptolemy (inc. Sub Saturno sunt hec signa Capricornus et Aquarius et sunt eius domus), appears from the thirteenth century onwards in two distinct traditions: in the encyclopedias of Bartholomew the Englishman and Arnold of Saxony, both written around 1230–1240, and in astronomical miscellanies copied in the fifteenth century either in or around Basel and in Northern Italy. These fifteenth-century manuscripts fall into two distinct groups of astronomical texts: the first is copied together with the De signis of Michael Scot, the second together with a part of the third book of Hyginus' De astronomia. The present article aims to describe the characteristics of the distinct textual filiations of De m. / iud. pl. and gives the first critical edition of the text.

The Ars alchemie: the First Latin Text on Practical Alchemy

The Ars alchemie is a collection of alchemical recipes associated with the names of the Arabic–Latin translator Michael Scot and the major general of the Friars Minor, Elias Cortona, of the first half of the thirteenth century. This articles investigates the various forms in which this text appears in the four manuscripts that contain it. It shows the dependence of one of its prologues on the work of an earlier translator, Hugo of Santalla, and the overlap of its contents with other alchemical treatises: Liber luminis luminum, Liber Dedali, Liber de aluminibus et salibus and Liber Hermetis de blchkmkb. Its mention of the alum of Aleppo corresponds with references to trade in this material in the thirteenth century. Its main characteristics are its compilatory nature and its emphasis on practical applications.

Behind the Scenes of a Revision: Michael Scot and the Oldest Manuscript of His Abbreviatio Avicenne

MS Chisianus E VIII 251 in the Vatican Library contains the oldest copy of Michael Scot’s Arabic- Latin translation of Aristotle’s De animalibus and Avicenna’s commentary to this text, known as the Abbreviatio Avicenne. The codex in question was produced at the court of Frederick II during the period 1225–1250, and this article argues that Scot himself was involved in its production. This conclusion is based on an analysis of three unusual correction techniques encountered in the Abbreviatio Avicenne: the use of a struck-out d to “flag” a mistake; the replacement of a quire with faulty text for one that contained an improved reading; and the filling in of lacunae left behind during the copying of the main text. The revisions executed with these techniques likely represent a combined effort by Scot and a small number of correctors to improve the Abbreviatio Avicenne on a textual level. The revised text was completed before 1232 and was placed in the emperor’s library. While it is unlikely that MS 251 contains autograph notations by the translator, this essay argues that Michael Scot functioned as an authority behind the scenes: his role in the revision project was to provide answers to the queries of the correctors.

Maestros de Occidente: Estudios sobre el pensamiento andalusí (review)

Reviewed by: Maestros de Occidente: Estudios sobre el pensamiento andalusí Massimo Campanini Maestros de Occidente: Estudios sobre el pensamiento andalusí. By A. Martínez Lorca. Madrid: Editorial Trotta, 2007. Pp. 264. Maestros de Occidente: Estudios sobre el pensamiento andalusí is a collection of seventeen papers by Andres Martínez Lorca, sixteen of which were previously published in different places between 1992 and 2007. The book is divided into three parts. The first is devoted to general problems: the birth of philosophy in Andalusia, Aristotle’s philosophical language in the translations of William of Moerbeke and Michael Scot, and the Almohad Reform in the Muslim West. The second part is devoted to a wide range of Muslim thinkers and philosophers, from Ibn Hazm to Ibn Tufayl, and from Averroës and Maimonides to Ibn Khaldūn. The third part is devoted to two prominent Spanish Arabists, Miguel Asín Palacios and Emilio García Gomez. Thus, both the whole history of Arab Islamic thought in Andalusia through its protagonists and some important contributions to Spanish historiography on the same subject are covered. Martínez Lorca argues that we can understand Andalusian philosophy only if it is appropriately contextualized historically. Many of the papers here are overall reconstructions of either particular or general aspects of Andalusian thought, like the inquiries of Sa‘id al-Andalusi concerning the history of science, the pivotal role of Ibn Rushd, and the Aristotelian attitude of Maimonides on the one hand and a global philosophical overview of the same Jewish thinker on the other. One of the aims pursued by Martínez Lorca is to demonstrate the valuable contribution made by the “masters of the Islamic West” to the geographical and cultural West, that is, Europe in the so-called Middle Ages. This is the reason why he emphasizes in particular the “modernity” of Andalusian philosophy: “What did Muslim Spain bring to the common roots of Islamic pluralism? In particular, a deeper accentuation of that pluralism and the raising of a philosophical rationalism with unquestionable elements of modernity” (p. 25). Averroës/Ibn Rushd is obviously the champion of this philosophical rationalism directed toward modernity, being the philosopher who led Europe in that direction. He renewed philosophy, applying the laws of logic and a rational reflection to the data provided by the natural world, making of philosophy an autonomous science whose inner dialectics allows the correction of mistakes (p. 124). Averroës was the most important interpreter of the intellectual revolution of the thirteenth century. He changed philosophy through a new intellectual style, since after all he preferred accurate commentaries to Avicenna’s encyclopedias, and through a new role for philosophy, emphasizing its autonomy and rationality (pp. 150–151). Martínez Lorca is keen to bring out the novelty of the thinkers he studies. Thus, Sa‘id al-Andalusi is credited as the first to have written a universal history of science since ancient times. Moreover, his Tabaqat al-umam is a far better historiographical [End Page 107] work than Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Famous Philosophers (p. 103). Ibn Khaldūn elaborated a new conception of history because he did not confine himself to telling historical facts; rather he looked for the causes of the historical facts, trying to explain them (p. 218). This valuable book includes three indexes: an index of relevant Arab words and locutions, an index of Greek and Latin words and locutions, and finally an onomastic index. Massimo Campanini State University of Milano Copyright © 2009 University of Hawai'i Press

Rabbi Jeruham b. Meshullam, Michael Scot, and the Development of Jewish Law in Fourteenth-Century Spain

One of the most mysterious and haunting of all medieval halakhic figures must certainly be the fourteenth-century sage Rabbi Jeruham b. Meshullam. During the sixteenth century, he was known as “Tamiri”—“the concealed one”—a moniker given to him by Joseph Karo's heavenly interlocutor, the Maggid. Years later, David Azulai, the eminent eighteenth-century rabbinic bibliographer, reported that “a number of Rabbis who had composed commentaries on his work … were summoned to the heavenly academy [i.e., they died prematurely] or their work was lost.” Even today, scholars who have never opened Jeruham's books are nevertheless aware of the “curse” hanging over the work of this medieval author.

The Reception of Aristotle's History of Animals in the Marginalia of Some Latin Manuscripts of Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin Translation

AbstractA considerable number of the thirteenth and early fourteenth-century manuscripts of Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin translation of Aristotle's De animalibus (ca. 1215) display a system of guiding marginal glosses. These glosses are usually added by a later hand with respect to the hand that had written the text. The manuscripts were not only annotated for personal use, but also so as to allow for a better use in compiling commentaries, encyclopaedias and compendia. We can say that the marginalia form the main, if not only, key to our understanding today of the use that readers made of the text. Apart from offering a mere explanation of the contents, we can see that their interest in the text was chiefly related to biblical exegesis and to scientific and medical knowledge. The approach to the text was often allegorical and moralizing in character. Some remarks reflect the reader's own experience and associations in relation to the text.