SCOT AGAIN AT COURT 1 i7 



Faples, a fortress which we know to have been 

 uilt, or at least strengthened, by Frederick n. 

 That if the rest of the legend embalm, like a fly 

 amber, the tradition, strangely altered, of some 

 strument set up there to measure the force of 

 le earthquakes so prevalent in that part of Italy ? 



Such a notion is not the pure matter of conjec- 

 ire it may at first sight seem to be. Frederick was 

 relation with those who might well have put him 

 possession of this among other secrets. When 

 e Tartars stormed the Vulture s Nest, as it was 

 lied, in the Syrian castle of Alamout, they found 

 observatory well supplied with instruments of 

 ecision, and that of all kinds. 1 Now this place 

 *s the last refuge of the Assassins, that strange 

 who owned obedience to the Old Man of the 

 ountain. Frederick II. when in the East paid 

 iese people a visit,' 2 and again at Melfi, in his own 

 iminions, he received their ambassadors and enter- 

 ned them at a great banquet. 3 Considering then 

 3 Emperor's well-known curiosity in all matters 

 physical science, we may feel sure he would 

 fit by any improvements or discoveries the ob- 

 vers at Alamout could communicate. If the 

 trivance set up at Naples was really a seismo- 

 er, this would furnish a curious comment on 

 on's statement that Michael Scot excelled in 

 estigating the movements of matter.* 

 Passing to what rests on more certain evidence, 

 find Scot's fame in those days attested by one 



Lenormant, Quest. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 144, 145. 

 Cento Nmdle Antiche, No. C. 



22 July 1232. See 'Ann. Colon. Max.' in Pertz, Scriptores Bti 

 uinicae, xvii. 843. 



'Physicorum motuum.' The passage will be found in the De. 

 Mate Linguarum. 



