THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



shine like gold, or to assume the appearance of 

 silver, was practically gold or silver to those who had 

 no means of discovering that the real nature of the 

 metal itself remained unchanged. Thus then are to 

 be understood the assertions of the Liber Luminis 

 regarding transmutation. They are plainly made 

 in all good faith, and depend on the doctrine already 

 mentioned, which held that the differences between 

 the metals were an affair of the superficial form 

 rather than of the underlying substance. To 

 change the appearance of one metal to that of 

 another, was therefore to effect a real transmuta- 

 tion : the only one conceivable by the philosophers 

 of that time. When the Liber Luminis speaks of 

 giving copper ' a good colour,' or preparing iron to 

 ' receive the appearance (forinam) of silver,' these 

 expressions reveal with frank sincerity the concep- 

 tions of this alchemy and the results it endeavoured 

 to obtain. 



One other alchemical work attributed to the pen 

 of Michael Scot remains to be noticed ; the De 

 Alchimia, contained in a manuscript of Corpus 

 Christi College. Oxford. 1 Tanner in his Bibliotheca 



O ' 



has noticed this work in the following terms : 

 ' Chymica quaedam ex interpretatione Michaelis 

 Scoti dedicata Theophilo regi Scotorum. Corpus 

 Christi MS. 125. In eodem codice MS. fol. est haec 

 nota " Explicit tractatus magistri Michaelis Scoti 

 de aelchali," huius vero tractatus, a priore diversi, 

 hoc tantum fol. extat.' This account is erroneous 

 in several particulars. ' Scotorum ' should be 

 ' Saracenorum,' and ' de aelchali ' is a misreading of 

 ' de alkimia,' as a glance at the manuscript informs 



1 Corpus Christi MS. cxxv. pp. 116-119. 



