THE ASTRONOMICAL WRITINGS OF SCOT 99 



obtained with the astrolabe. Such a line of pro- 

 gress could not but lead to the time when the 

 Ptolemaic theory no longer lent itself by any 

 modification to the full explanation of ascertained 

 facts. Then and then only arose the new astronomy 

 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which is 

 thus seen to be vitally connected, even in its highest 

 reach and most splendid developments with the 

 now forgotten theories of the Moorish schools. 



Considering then the epoch at which he lived, 

 and the incomplete material which existed in his 

 j days for a true science of the heavens, Michael Scot 

 did all that could be reasonably expected of him. 

 iHe sat at the feet of those who were then the best 

 I authorities on this subject. He used his oppor- 

 tunities at Toledo to make the last and most subtle 

 [(theories of the Moors intelligible to those less 

 fortunate scholars whose attention these must 

 Mother wise have escaped. 



His services to astronomy appeared in the Latin 



\-ersion which he made from a treatise on the Sphere 



(lately composed by Alpetrongi. This author's 



laame is said to have been, in its Arabic form, Nur- 



fed-din el Patrugi. Munk, in his Melanges, tells us 



lhat the latter designation was derived from a 



1 pillage called Petroches lying a little to the north 



I>f Cordova. 1 The Latins corrupted the name in 



ilifferent ways, so that among them it became 



v4.venalpetrandi, Alpetrongi, or Alpetragius. The 



fLstronomer who bore it flourished about the year 



1 190, and is said to have been a renegade, and a 



1 This village gave name to another Moorish writer, Abu Gafar 

 '.hmed ben A bd- el-Rahman ben Mohammed, also surnamed el Bitraugi. 

 i ;[e died in 1147 and his fame survives as that of the author of an 

 < jQcyclopedia of science. 



