92 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



mihi saepius retulistl te instabiliter multis viabus 

 operasse '), while at the same confessing that he was 

 not above learning some of the secrets of art from 

 the well-known Franciscan. This relation between 

 two such distinguished men has not hitherto been 

 noticed, and is certainly a curious point in the 

 history of the times. 



The De Alchimia presents several features which 

 distinguish it from the Liber Luminis. One of 

 these is an early passage which refers to the corre- 

 spondence between the metals and the planets, and 

 explains that when the latter are named we must 

 understand that the former are intended. Near 

 the end of the treatise a description of the materia 

 chemica occurs, but it would seem as if this had 

 been written to supplement that given in the Liber 

 Luminis, for it deals, not with salts, alums, vitriols, 

 or volatile substances, but with the different 

 varieties of what the author calls ' gummae,' which, 

 however, are mineral substances ; a and with ' tuchia ' 

 in all its various kinds. 



Many words and phrases, however, might be 

 cited to show how the strain of doctrine observable 

 in the Liber Luminis is continued with scarcely 

 any change in the De Alchimia. We have 

 hardly read a line in the first receipt before we meet 

 with the expression * sanguinem hominis rufi ' re- 

 calling the ' sanguinem hominis rubei ' of the Liber 

 Luminis. The ' pulvis bufonis ' indeed is here re- 

 placed by another ingredient derived from the 

 animal kingdom, the ' sanguis bubonis ' ; but, read- 

 ing a little further, we find the familiar ' urina taxi ' 



o * 



1 For example, ' quaedam gumina quae invenitur in alumine de pluina, 

 ct ista gumina est rubea, et gumma quae invenitur in alumine rubfo 

 et ista gumma est preciosa et bona valde.' The word becomes intelligible 

 when read as 'gemma.' 



