SCOT AGAIN AT COUKT 139 



,self, as we have seen, to the poet as a picturesque 

 leans of presenting the famous scholar to the world, 

 ot without a hidden reference to what was cer- 

 linlj one of the crowning moments of his life. 

 We may suspect indeed that the fashion of Scot's 

 ss was more than simply Spanish ; for the mode 

 Aragon at least must surely have been too familiar 

 Frederick's court to excite so much attention, 

 e philosopher had lived long in close company 

 ith the Moors of Toledo and Cordova. What he 

 re was probably no mere fragment of Eastern 

 hion but the complete costume of an Arabian sage, 

 e flowing robes, the close-girt waist, the pointed 

 p, were not unknown in Sicily where there was 

 a considerable Moorish population, yet they 

 it have sat strangely enough upon Scot when 

 ce he declared himself for what he was : the 

 erend ecclesiastic, the Master of Paris, the native 

 the far north. 



There is a fresco on the south wall 1 of the Spanish 

 apel in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella of 

 orence which contains a figure answering nearly 

 this conjecture regarding Scot's appearance. It 

 that of a man in the prime of life, slight and dark, 

 th a short brown beard trimmed to a point. He 

 ,rs a long close-fitting robe of a reddish colour, 

 ticeably narrow at the waist, with a falling girdle, 

 i his head is a tall red pointed cap from which the 

 lets of his dark hair escape on each side. He 

 ds amongthe con verts of the Dominican preachers 

 d bends towards the spectator with an intense 

 ression and action as he tears the leaves out of a 



According to ecclesiastical reckoning ; the direction of the altar 

 taken as eastward. The frontispiece reproduces part of this fresco. 



