72 Greek Biology 



A little better than these is the work of the wizard Michael 

 the Scot (1175 f-1234?). Roger Bacon tells us that Michael in 

 1230 ' appeared [at Oxford], bringing with him the works of 

 Aristotle in natural history and mathematics, with wise exposi- 

 tors, so that the philosophy of Aristotle was magnified among 

 the Latins '. Scott produced his work De animalibus about 

 this date and he included in it the three great biological works 

 of Aristotle, all rendered from an inferior Arabic version. 1 

 Albertus Magnus (1206-80) had not as yet a translation direct 

 from the Greek to go upon for his great commentary on the 

 History of animals, but he depended on Scott. The biological 

 works of Aristotle were rendered into Latin direct from the 

 Greek in the year 1260 probably by William of Moerbeke. 2 

 Such translations, appearing in the full scholastic age when 

 everything was against direct observation, cannot be said to 

 have fallen on a fertile ground. They presented an ordered 

 account of nature and a good method of investigation, but 

 these were gifts to a society that knew little of their real value. 3 



Yet the advent of these texts was coincident with a return- 

 ing desire to observe nature. Albert, with all his scholasticism, 

 was no contemptible naturalist. He may be said to have 

 begun first-hand plant study in modern times so far as 

 literary records are concerned. His book De vegetabilibus 



1 The latest and best work on the Aristotelian translations of Scott is an 

 inaugural dissertation by A. H. Querfeld, Michael Scottus und seine Schrijt, 

 De secretis naturae, Leipzig, 1919. 



2 J. G. Schneider, Aristotelis de animalibus historiae, Leipzig, 1811, 

 p. cxxvi. L. Dittmeyer, Guilelmi Moerbekensis translatio commentationis 

 Aristotelicae de generatione animalium, Dillingen, 1915. L. Dittmeyer, De 

 animalibus historia, Leipzig, 1907. 



3 The subject of the Latin translations of Aristotle is traversed by 

 A. and C. Jourdain, Recherches critiques sur Vdge des traductions latines 

 d'Aristote, 2nd ed., Paris, 1843 ; M. Grabmann, Forschungen iiber die 

 lateinischen Aristoteles-Ubersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Miinster 

 i/W., 1916; and F. Wiistenfeld, Die Ubersetzungen arabischer Werke in 

 das Lateiniscbe sett dem XI. Jahrhundert, Gottingen, 1877. 



