SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROES 123 



works produced in such a way ? Thus, at any rate, 

 have the highest reputations in the world of art 

 risen into their deserved and enduring fame. 



Now, as it is certain that the Toledan School 

 pursued similar methods in their literary labours, 

 right requires that the reputation of its members 

 should be judged by the same canons of criticism 

 which we apply without hesitation to pictorial art. 

 His own day unhesitatingly gave Scot the chief 

 credit in the version of Averroes without inquiring 

 too curiously what parts had been executed by 

 the Cremonese, or other scholars, and what share 

 belonged to Andrew the Jew. It may make us 

 the more ready to accept this verdict and adopt it 

 as our own when we remember the intellectual 

 qualities of the Emperor for whom this work was 

 done. It is certainly out of the question to suppose 

 that a reputation in letters, such as Michael Scot 

 undoubtedly enjoyed at the court of Frederick ii., 

 could have been gained by any but legitimate and 

 honourable means. 



Coming to an examination then of the various 

 versions which came from the new Toledan School, 

 we find that two of them expressly bear to have 

 been the work of Scot himself. The first of these 

 is the treatise commencing ' Maxima cognitio 

 naturae et scientiae.' It is the commentary of 

 Averroes on the De Coelo et Mundo of Aristotle,^ and 

 Scot lias prefaced it by an introduction conceived 

 as follows : ' To thee, Stephen de Pruvino, I, 

 Michael Scot, specially commend this work, which 

 I have rendered into Latin from the sayings of 



^ Paris, Fonds de Sorbonne 924, 950; St. Victor, 171 ; Navarre, 

 75 ; Venice, St. Mark, vi. 54 ; Fondo Vaticano, 2184, 2089, p. 6ro. 



