54 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



physics ; the De Anwia, called also Liber sextiis de 

 Naturalihus ; and the De generatione Lapidum of 

 Avicenna, had come from the school of Toledo 

 during the twelfth century in a Latin dress. The 

 last-named treatise was apparently a comment on 

 the Meteora of Aristotle, and the whole belonged to 

 that Kitab Alchefd, which was called by the Latins 

 the Assephae, Asschiphe or Liber Sufficientiae. This 

 collection was said to form but the first and most 

 common of the three bodies of philosophy composed 

 by Avicenna. It represented the teaching of 

 Aristotle and the Peripatetics, while the second 

 expounded the system of Avicenna himself, and 

 the third contained the more esoteric and occult 

 doctrines of natural philosophy.^ Of these the 

 first alone had reached the Western schools. 



It is plain then that until Michael Scot took the 

 work in hand Toledo had not completed the Latin 

 version of Avicenna by translating that part of the 

 Alchefd which concerned the Natural History of 

 Animals. The Abbreviatio Avicennae thus came to 

 sup23ly the defect and to crown the labours of the 

 ancient college of translators. This place of honour 

 is actually given to it in the Vatican manuscript 

 just referred to, where it follows the De generatione 

 Lapidum, and forms the fitting close of that re- 

 markable series and volume. Thus, while the De 

 Animalibus ad Caesar em connects itself with the 

 Physionomia, and with Scot's past life in Sicily, the 

 Abbreviatio Avicemw^e joins him closely and in a 

 very remarkable way with the whole tradition of 

 the Toledo school, of which, by this translation, he 

 at once became not the least distinguished member. 



^ See Roger Bacon, Opus Majus, p. 37. 



