120 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



following remarks : ' By giving elegance and order 

 to what had been rudely and confusedly stated by 

 him (i.e. by Master Peter) he (i.e. Brother Peter 

 the Notary) has completed an epistle, or rather a 

 short treatise, which, as I believe, will be very use- 

 ful to many.' 1 



This correspondence throws a clear light upon 

 the case of Michael Scot in regard to the charge of 

 plagiarism. Like Master Peter, he was familiar with 

 both the Latin and the Arabic language. His weak 

 point, however, we may suppose to have made itself 

 felt with regard to the latter, which he probably 

 knew better in its colloquial than its literary 

 form, and this must have been the reason why 

 he availed himself of the aid of a Spanish Jew 

 to secure the accuracy of his work. Such col- 

 laboration seems to have produced nearly all the 

 previous versions which came from Toledo, and it 

 is obvious that the honour due to the various con- 

 tributors who combined in forming these trans- 

 lations can only be determined by those who have 

 it in their power to make a careful and unprejudiced 

 valuation of their individual labours in each case. 

 We may gravely doubt whether this was what 

 Bacon did before he sat down to pen his sharp 

 censure on Michael Scot. Certainly such an 

 estimate is now out of the question. We can only 

 affirm the undoubted fact that the critic was wrong 

 when he said Scot did not know Arabic. The 

 contrary appears, not only from the probability we 

 have already drawn from his Sicilian residence, but 

 by actual testimony of a very honourable kind. 2 



1 Bibl. Max. Vett. Patrum, Lugduni, 1677, vol. xxii. p. 1030. 



2 The letter, namely, of Pope Gregory ix. 



