178 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



the work of transcribing it from the imperial copy. 

 A regular diploma passed the seals authorising him 

 to do this work, and from that writ we find that he 

 completed it at Melfi, on the vigil of St. Laurence 

 in the house of Master Volmar the imperial physi- 

 cian. 1 We may surely see in these facts a further 

 likelihood that by this time Scot was already dead. 

 Another holds his place as court-physician, another 

 wields his pen, or at least furnishes the copy from 

 which the world at large first came to know one 

 of his most important and characteristic works. 

 May we not take it then, that in ordering this 

 diploma to be drawn, Frederick desired to show 

 his concern at hearing he had lost so faithful and 

 able a servant, and his anxiety that no time should 

 elapse before the publication of his remaining works ? 

 Thus regarded, the Abbreviatio was a wreath laid on 

 the grave ; a tribute to the translator's memory, 

 while in itself it was a seal set to the fame of Michael 

 Scot as in his day the chief exponent of the mighty 

 Aristotle, and one who by these labours succeeded 

 in directing for many ages the course of study in 

 the European Schools. 



1 The diploma is dated at Melfi on the 9th of August 1232. The 

 colophon to the copy then made of the Abbreviatio Avicennae is as 

 follows : ' Completus est liber Avicenne de animalibus, scriptus per 

 Magistrum Henricum Coloniensem, ad exemplar magnifici Imperatoris 

 nostri Domini Frederici, apud Meffiam civitatem Apulie, ubi Dorninus 

 Imperator eidem Magistro hunc librum premissum commodavit, anno 

 Domini MCCXXXII, in Vigilia Beati Laurentii, in domo Magistri Volmari 

 medici Imperatoris.' See Huillard-Breholles, Hist. Diplom. Frid. n., 

 vol. iv. part i. pp. 381-2. 



