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scholar), by Michael the wizard 1 , and by other hands, 

 were converted into Latin; and, thus doubly dis- 

 guised, and half buried in glosses which not only 

 overlaid the text ("oscura glossa dov' piana la 

 lettera") but often supplanted it, were received with 

 pathetic eagerness by the ardent scholars of the 

 West. Aristotle, for instance, was now taught in 

 the schools of the West from a Latin translation 

 of a Hebrew translation of an Arab commentary 

 upon an Arab translation of a Syriac translation 

 of the Greek text*. Even in the sixteenth-century 

 medicine and anatomy were taught wholly from 

 books ; and teachers were forbidden to use other 

 than prescribed books. Students began with the 

 "Articella" of the Venetian physician Gregorio 

 Volpi, a compendium of translations with wood- 



1 Dante, Inf. (xx. 115). Michael Scot translated Averroes 

 from Arabian to Latin ; also the De ccelo and De anima of 

 Aristotle, which reached Roger Bacon about 1230. Thus we 

 may regard Michael as the founder of Paduan Averroism. 

 All persons who busied themselves with natural experiment 

 in the Middle Ages were accused of magic ; even Albert did 

 not escape the suspicion or the credit of sorcery. 



2 Renan, Averroes. And .to like eflect M. Haureau 

 says, " Le peripateticisme d'Averroes ne differe pas moins de 

 1'antique doctrine du Lycee que 1'Alhambra du Parthenon " ; 

 and he compares " le peripateticisme d' Albert et d'Aquinas " 

 to the " monuments fiers et bizarres du Gothique du xnime 

 siecle." 



