76 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



palmy . period of Syrian studies, so in Spain three 

 hundred years later, the work was in its commence- 

 ment essentially one of interpretation, and the 

 first age of these labours was distinguished by the 

 number of versions which were then produced. 

 From 1182, through the whole of the following 

 century, students laboured in the translation of 

 Moorish books on chemistry. Only towards the 

 close of this period did a tendency become apparent 

 which led in the direction of improvement and 

 innovation. The seed already sown had begun to 

 bear fruit. The material thus derived from Eastern 

 sources was now treated with a new freedom, enriched 

 by the results of original experiment, and edited 

 in forms which betray the influence of scholastic 

 philosophy. The criticism, however, which would 

 determine the precise point when this change 

 began to be operative, and the extent to which 

 it proceeded, attempts what is perhaps an im- 

 possible and certainly a difficult task. For it 

 is a remarkable fact that no Arabic texts 

 have been preserved to us which can be regarded 

 as the originals from which these earlier Latin 

 versions were made. This want is probably due 

 to the widespread destruction which overtook the 

 Moorish libraries of Spain. 1 That such originals 

 did at one time exist, however, is made certain 

 by the correspondence which the Latin translations 

 show with those which have come down to us in 

 another language, the Hebrew. The labours of 

 these Latin translators during a hundred years 

 may be found in the manifold collections of chemical 



1 Gayangos, i. 8. Eighty thousand books are said to have been 

 burned in the squares of Granada alone. 



