THE ALCHEMICAL STUDIES OF SCOT 



Now there was a veritable chemist of this name who 

 lived during the fifth century. This author wrote a 

 treatise on his art in Greek verse. In later times 

 his name seems to have become common property, 

 as did so many others distinguished in alchemy, and 

 to have been freely used by some who wrote long 

 after his day. Thus the Biccardian manuscript 

 itself contains no less than three books ascribed to 

 this author : the Liber Archelai Philosophi de arte 

 alchimiae? called also in the margin Practica 

 Galieniin Secretis secretorum;* the Summula, 'quarn 

 ego Archilaus transtuli de libro secretorum ' ; 3 and 

 finally the Mappa Archilei nobilis philosophi* 



The fact that these titles mention the Secreta is 

 enough to show us that in following up the alchemy 

 of the Pseudo-Archelaus, we are on the right track. 

 As we proceed the traces become still more interest- 

 ing and significant. The Summula offers the follow- 

 ing curious passage : ' Et hoc feci amore Dei et 

 cuidam compatri meo, qui pauper sint [sic] et 

 infortunatus, et postea fortunatus fortuna bona et 

 amore Imperatoris Emanuelis et Frederici.' 5 



The name Emanuel is found in other alchemical 

 writings. The De Perfecto Magisteno, for example, 



1 Pp. 192vo-195vo. 



'- The Paris MS. 6514 has these words : ' Magister Galienus scriptor 

 qui utitur in Episcopatu est alkimista et scit albificare eramen ita quod 

 est album ut argentum commune.' 



^ Pp. 190ro.-192vo. * Pp. 185vo-190ro. 



Manuel Comnenus reigned as Emperor of the East from 1143 to 

 1180, while Frederick I. was Emperor of the West from 1152 to 1190. 

 This would seem to indicate the twelfth century as the time when these 

 works of the Pseudo Archelaus were produced^. It is curious to notice 

 that Manuel was the Emperor who suffered defeat by sea at the hands of 

 George of Antioch the Sicilian admiral (Gibbon, chap. Ivi.) This brave 

 ! seaman was the same who founded the library of the Martorana in Palermo 

 (see above, p. 25), and enriched it with the literary spoils of his con- 

 quests. It is highly probable that it was in this way the scholars of Sicily 

 became acquainted with the Byzantine alchemy. 



