204 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



magical arts ; a subject which the author would 

 seem to have studied closely. He may have been 

 influenced in this direction by S. Augustine's 

 De Civitate Dei, which he translated into Italian. 

 More than one passage of the Specchio may be 

 cited as illustrating the frescoes of the Spanish 

 Chapel. He tells us, for example, that the devil 

 is said to be able to teach science to his 

 disciples in an incredibly short space of time, how- 

 ever rude and ignorant they may be. For this 

 purpose he has given them a book called the Ars 

 Notoria,^ the same which is so severely condemned 

 by Aquinas. Now, as Aquinas, with open book of 

 heavenly doctrine, is figured in tlie chief position 

 on the opposite (north) wall of the chapel, it is no 

 unreasonable conjecture which finds in the magi- 

 cian's book on the south wall a pictorial representa- 

 tion of the Ars Notoria as it was conceived by 

 Passavanti. Elsewhere in the volume he again 

 returns to the subject of magical works. ^ Zoroaster, 

 he says, first learned the art from demons, and caused 

 it to be written on two columns, one of marble to 

 survive the floods, and one of terra-cotta to resist 

 the fire. This diabolic teaching, thus preserved, 

 flourished among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, 

 Persians, Indians, and other Oriental nations who 

 remained its chief exponents, 'though perchance,' 

 adds Passavanti, 'it may be more studied among 

 ourselves than we are ready to believe.'^ This 



^ P. 343. See ante, pp. 140, 192, and Kenan's Avcrroes, p. 314. 



2 P. 375. 



^ 1 cannot leave this interesting though obscure author without 

 noticing the undoubted reference he makes in his Specchio to the Gipsies. 

 'Certain people,' he says (p. 351), 'have a superstition regarding 

 lucky and unlucky days, which have been pointed out to them by those 

 who call themselves Egyptians.' We have hitherto supposed that 1422 



