48 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



The part of the Aristotelic writings to which 

 Michael Scot first turned his attention would seem 

 to have been the history of animals. This, in the 

 Greek text, consisted of three distinct treatises : 

 first the De Historiis Animalium in ten books ; next 

 the De Partibus Animalium in four books ; and 

 lastly, the De Generatione Anivnaliwn in five books. 

 The Arabian scholars, however, who paid great 

 attention to this part of natural philosophy and 

 made many curious observations in it, were accus- 

 tomed to group these three treatises under the 

 general title De Animalibus, and to number their 

 books or chapters consecutively from one to nine- 

 teen, probably for convenience in referring to them. 

 As Scot's work consisted of a translation from 

 Arabic texts it naturally followed the form which 

 had been sanctioned by the use and wont of the 

 eastern commentators. 



At least two versions of the De Animalibus ap- 

 peared from the pen of Scot. These have some- 

 times been confounded with each other, but are 

 really quite distinct, representing the labours of 

 two different Arabian commentators on the text of 

 Aristotle. We may best commence by examining 

 that of which least is known, the De Animalibus ad 

 Caesarem, as it is commonly called, and this the 

 rather that there is good reason to suppose it repre- 

 sents the first Arabian work on Natural History 

 which came into Scot's hands. 



Nothing is known certainly regarding the author 

 of this commentary. Jourdain and Steinschneider 

 conclude with reason that the text must have been 

 an Arabic and not a Hebrew one, as Camus * and 



1 Notices et extraits des Mss., vol. vi. p. 412. 



