Toynbee "Michele Scotto"
Michael Scot, 'the wondrous Michael Scott; / A wizard, of such dreaded fame' (from Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, II. xiii. 2-3); placed by D. among the Magicians and Soothsayers in Bolgia 4 of Circle VIII of Hell (Malebolge), [Inf. xx. 116]; quell'altro, [Inf. xx. 115]. D. represents him as being spare about the flanks (ne' fianchi . . . poco), in allusion probably to the usually emaciated appearance of such as devote their lives to ardent study and research. Benvenuto says:

Hoc dicit, vel quia erat naturaliter talis, vel quia propter studium erat mirabiliter extenuatus.

Michael Scot, who has been claimed by the Italians as a native of Salerno, and by the Spaniards as a native of Toledo, is commonly identified with Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie in Fifeshire, of whom Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to the The Lay of the Last Minlstrel (Canto ii), gives the foilowing account:

Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie flourished during the 13th century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III [1286]. . . .He was a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice 1496, and several treatises upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies of judicial astrology, alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster informs us that he remembers to have heard in his youth that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the malignant fiends who were thereby invoked Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495.

. . . the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity, is ascribed, either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial: some contend for Home Coltrame, in Cumberland; others for Melrose Abbey. But all agree, that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died. [Note 2 C; The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (Edinburgh, 1849), p. 52.]

Villani, who speaks of him as 'il grande filosofo maestro Michele Scotto' ({Villani. xii. 19}), records prophecies of his about Can Grande ({Villani. x. 101, 137}), and about Florence ({Villani. xii. 19, 92}).

Boccaccio introduces him into the Decameron (viii. 9):

. . . un gran maestro in nigromantìa il quale ebbe nome Michele Scotto, per ciò che di Scozia era, e da molti gentili uomini . . . ricevette grandissimo onore.

Benvenuto relates that he foretold the manner of his own death from the falling of a a small stone on his head, which in spite of all his precautions came to pass one day when he entered a church with uncovered head; he says of him:

Hic fuit Michael Scottus, famosus astrologus Federici II, . . . cui imperatori ipse Michael fecit librum pulerum valde, quem vidi, in quo aperte curavit dare sibi notitiam multorum naturalium, et inter alia multa dicit de istis auguriis. Et nota, quod Michael Scottus admiscuit nigromantiam astrologiae; ideo creditus est dicere multa vera. Praedixit enim quaedam de civitatibus quibusdam Italiae, quarum aliqua verificata videmus . . . Male tamen praevidit mortem domini sui Federici cui praedixerat, quod erat moriturus in Florentia, sed mortuus est in Florentiola in Apulia, et sic diabolus quasi semper fallit sub aequivoco. Michael tamen dicitur praevidisse mortem suam, quam vitare non potuit: praeviderat enim se moriturum ex ictu parvi lapilli certi ponderis casuri in caput suum: ideo providerat sibi, quod semper portabat celatam ferream sub caputeo ad evitandum talem casum. Sed semel cum intrasset in unam ecclesiam, in qua pulsabatur ad Corpus Domini, removit caputeum cum celata, ut honoraret Dominum; magis tamen, ut credo, ne notaretur a vulgo, quam amore Christi, in quo parum credebat. Et ecce statim cecidit lapibus super caput nudum, et parum laesit cutim; quo accepto et ponderato, Michael reperit, quod tanti erat ponderis, quanti praeviderat; quare de morte sua certus, disposuit rebus suis, et eo vulnere mortuus est.

Many wonderful feats of magic are related of him by the commentators, which Benvenuto characterizes as 'potius ficta quam facta'.

Of the real facts of Michael Scot's life but little is known. He may have been born at Balwearie c. 1175, and he probably died c. 1235. He is said to have studied at Oxford, Bologna, and at Paris. He translated (from Arabic into Latin), before 1220, the De animalibus, De caelo, and De anima of Aristotle; his translation of Alpetragius On the Sphere was completed at Toledo on Aug. 18, 1217; and he began, at Toledo, the translation of Averroes's commentary on Aristotle. From Spain he went to the papal court in Rome, and thence to the court of Frederick II at Palermo, where he probably served as the court astrologer. In addition to his translations, he wrote a series of treatises on astrology, the Liber introductorius, the Liber particularis, and the Physiognomia. Several other works have been ascribed to him.

[See C. H. Haskins, 'Michael Scot and Frederick II', Isis, iv (1922), 250-275.]

In spite of his reputation as a wizard Michael Scot holds an honourable place in the history of medieval philosophy, though both Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus speak disparagingly of him. The former, nevertheless, in his Opus Majus (written in 1266 and 1267), frankly recognizes the important part played by him in the introduction of the philosophy of Aristotle to the 'Latins'; he says:

. . . tempore Michael Scoti, qui annis Domini 1230 transactis apparuit deferens librorum Aristotelis partes aliquas de Naturalibus et Metaphysicis culn expositoribus authenticis, magnificata est philosophia Aristotelis apud Latinos. [ii. 13, The 'Opus Majus' of Roger Bacon, edited by J. H. Bridges (London, 1900), I, p. 55.]

It is curious that Michael Scot, who was subsequently chiefly famed as a wizard, was highly honoured by two contemporary popes, Honorius III having wished, it is said, to make him an archbishop, while Gregory IX, writing to the archbishop of Canterbury in 1227, speaks of him as 'carus filius noster', and warmly eulogizes his great learning and zeal for letters.

[See A.-L. Jourdain, TLA, pp. 124-134; A. Graf, 'La leggenda di un filosofo', in Miti, leggende e superstizioni del Medio Evo (Torino, 1892-1893), ii, pp. 237-299; F. Torraca, Nuovi studi danteschi (Napoli, 1921), pp. 343 ff.; J. Wood Brown, An Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot (Edinburgh, 1897); Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York, 1923), ii. 307-337; also his volume Michael Scot (London, 1965).]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press