16 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OP MICHAEL SCOT 



as the ' Great Master ' : the brightest of all those 

 choice spirits of the schools on which Paris set 

 her stamp. 



At this point we may surely hazard a further 

 conjecture. Bacon tells us that in those days it 

 was the study of law, ecclesiastical and civil, rather 

 than of theology, which opened the way to honour 

 and preferment in the Church. 1 Now Paris was 

 not more eminently and distinctly the seat of arts 

 than Bologna was the school of laws. 2 May not 

 Michael Scot have passed from the French to the 

 Italian University ? Such a conjecture would be 

 worth little were it not for the support which 

 it undoubtedly receives from credible tradition. 

 Boccaccio in one of his tales 3 mentions Michael 

 Scot, and tells how he used to live in Bologna. 

 Many of the commentators on the Divine Comedy 

 of Dante dwell on the theme, and enrich it with 

 superstitious wonders. 4 It would be difficult to 

 find a period in the scholar's life which suits better 

 with such a residence than that we are now 

 considering. On all accounts it seems likely 

 that he left Paris for Bologna, and found in the 

 latter city a highly favourable opening, which led 

 directly to the honours and successes of his after- 

 life. 



He was now to leave the schools and enter a 

 wider sphere, not without the promise of high and 

 enduring fame. A child of the mist and the hill, 

 he had come from the deep woods and wild outland 

 life of the Scottish Border to what was already no 

 inconsiderable position. He knew Paris, not, need 



1 Opus Majus, p. 84. 2 Elinando. 



3 Decamerone, viii. 9. * See infra, chap. x. 



