38 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



The English version of the Secreta came from the 

 hand of the poet Lydgate. 



Another treatise of the same school, to which 

 Scot was also indebted, is to be found in the Physio- 

 nomia ascribed, like the Secreta, to Aristotle. The 

 Latin version of this apocryphal work was made, it 1 

 is said, directly from a Greek original, by Bartholo- r) 

 mew of Messina. This author wrote for Manfred '1 ■ 

 of Sicily, and at a time which excludes the 

 notion that Scot could have seen or employed his 

 work. Yet several passages in / the preface to 

 Book II. of Scot's Pliysionomia have evidently 

 been borrowed from that of the Pseudo-Aristotle. 

 As no Arabic version of the treatise is known to 

 exist, the fact of this correspondence is one of 

 the proofs on which we may rely in support of 

 the conclusion that Scot must have known and 

 used the Greek language in his studies. 



The last two chapters of Book i. in the Physio- 

 nomia of Scot show plainly that he had the 

 Arabic version of Aristotle's History of Animals 

 before him as he wrote. We shall recur to this 

 matter when we come to deal with the versions 

 which Scot made expressly from these books. 

 Meanwhile let us guard against the impression 

 naturally arising from our analysis of the Pliysio- 

 nomia, that it was a mere compilation. Many 

 parts of the work show no correspondence with any 

 other treatise on the subject that is know^n to us, 

 and these must be held as the results of the author's 



mentariiim.' It is numbered E. vi. 205, and consists of 326 pages. The 

 Secreta Secretorum with the De Mineralibiis was printed at Venice 

 (? 1501), by Bernardinus de Vitalibus, and a new version by G. Manente, 

 comprehending the Morals and the Physionomia as well as the Secreta, 

 issued from the same place in 1538. It was printed in 4to by Tacuino 

 da Trino. 



