SCOT AT THE COURT OF SICILY 37 



Secretorum, to the Bishop under whom he had 

 hitherto lived and laboured : ' Guidoni vere de 

 Valentia, civitatis Tripolis glorioso pontifici ' : a 

 name and title little understood by the copyists, 

 who have subjected them to strange corruptions. 1 



It is highly in favour of our identifying, as 

 we have already done, Philip of Tripoli, the 

 translator of the Secreta, with Philip of Salerno, 

 the Clerk Register of Sicily, that we find Michael 

 Scot, who stood in an undoubtedly close relation 

 to the Clerk Register, showing an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the Secreta Secretorum. Foerster has 

 given us a careful and exact account of several 

 passages in different parts of the Physionomia of 

 Scot, which have their correspondences in the 

 works of Philip, so that it is beyond question that 

 the Latin version of the Secreta was one of the 

 sources from which Scot drew. Before leaving 

 this part of the subject, we may notice that trans- 

 lations of Philip's version into the vernacular 

 languages of Italy, France, and England were 

 made at an early date, both in prose and verse. 2 



1 By transposition 'G. de Valentia vere civitatis,' etc. (Bibl. Naz. 

 Flor. xxv. 10, 632) ; by corruption 'vere de violentia' (Barberini MS.), 

 or 'grosso pontifici' (Fondo Vaticano, 5047). This bishop has not yet 

 been identified. 



2 MSS. of the Secreta Secretorum are found in Florence, Bibl. Naz., 

 xxv. 10, 632, chart, saec. xv. ; Bibl. Laur. (S. Crucis) xv. sin. 9 ; Rome, 

 Fondo Vaticano, 5047 ; Oxford, Bibl. Bod. Can. Misc., 562 ; Troyes and 

 St. Omer, v. Cat. MSS. des Depart., vol. ii. pp. 517, 518, and iii. 295 ; 

 Berne, v. Sinner's Cat., vol. iii. p. 525. It is interesting to note that the title 

 of this last MS. is Physionomia,, just as the Physionomia of Scot is called 

 De Secretis in the editions of 1584 and 1598. This confirms the relation 

 between his work and that of Philippus Clericus. MSS. of the Italian 

 version of the Secreta Secretorum are found at Florence, Bibl. Riccard., 

 Q. I. xxii. 1297 ; R. I. xx. 2224 ; L. I. xxxiv. 108. The first of these 

 is dated 1450. In the Bibl. Naz., Florence, there is another, and a 

 similar one of the Physionomia Aristotelis. In the Chigi Library of 

 Rome there is a MS., chart, saec. xvii., with the curious title : 'Migel 

 franzas, auctor obscurioris nominis, ad Physionomiam Aristotelis Com- 



