SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROE3 123 



vorks produced in such a way ? Thus, at any rate, 

 ave the highest reputations in the world of art 

 isen into their deserved and enduring fame. 



Now, as it is certain that the Toledaii School 

 ursued similar methods in their literary labours, 

 ight requires that the reputation of its members 

 lould be judged by the same canons of criticism 

 -hich we apply without hesitation to pictorial art. 

 [is own day unhesitatingly gave Scot the chief 

 redit in the version of Averroes without inquiring 

 oo curiously w r hat parts had been executed by 

 le Cremonese, or other scholars, and what share 

 elonged to Andrew the Jew. It may make us 



more ready to accept this verdict and adopt it 

 s our own when we remember the intellectual 

 ualities of the Emperor for whom this work was 

 one. It is certainly out of the question to suppose 

 lat a reputation in letters, such as Michael Scot 

 ndoubtedly enjoyed at the court of Frederick n. , 

 ould have been gained by any but legitimate and 

 onourable means. 



Coming to an examination then of the various 

 ersions which came from the new Toledan School, 

 *e find that two of them expressly bear to have 

 een the work of Scot himself. The first of these 



the treatise commencing ' Maxima cognitio 

 aturae et scientiae.' It is the commentary of 

 i.verroes on the De Coelo et Mundo of Aristotle, 1 and 

 cot has prefaced it by an introduction conceived 

 s follows : ' To thee, Stephen de Pruvino, I, 

 lichael Scot, specially commend this %vork, which 

 have rendered into Latin from the sayings of 



1 Paris, Fonds de Sorbonne 924, !)50 ; St. Victor, 171 ; Navarre, 

 3 ; Venice, St. Mark, vi. 54 ; Fondo Vaticano, 2184, 2089, p. 6ro. 



