viii THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



All this seemed to indicate him as one who was 

 exceptionally situated and suited for the work of 

 collecting such accounts of Michael Scot as still 

 survived in the south when he lived and wrote. 

 The purpose he had in view was also such as 

 promised a serious biography, not entirely, nor even 

 chiefly, occupied with the recitation of traditional 

 tales, but devoted to a solid account of the philo- 

 sopher's scientific fame in what was certainly one 

 of the most considerable branches of science which 

 he followed. It occurred to me therefore that an 

 edition of Baldi's life of Scot, which has never yet 

 been printed, might give scope for annotations and 

 digressions embodying all the additional material 

 I had in hand or might still collect, and that a 

 work on this plan would perhaps best answer the 

 end in view. 



A serious difficulty, however, here presented 

 itself, and in the end proved insuperable, as I was 

 quite unable to gain access to the work of Baldi. 

 It seems to exist in no more than two manuscripts, 

 both of them belonging to a private library in 

 Rome, that of the late Prince Baldassare Bon- 

 compagni, who had acquired them from the Albani 

 collection. The Boncompagni library has been now 

 for some time under strict seal, pending certain 

 legal proceedings, and all my endeavours to get 

 even a sight of the manuscripts were in vain. In 

 these circumstances I fell back upon a printed 

 volume, the Cronica de Matematici overo Epitome 

 dell'Istoria delle vite loro, which is an abbreviated 



