SCOT AT TOLEDO 59 



In the Chigi manuscript, the place of these verses 

 is occupied by a curious feat of language : 



latinum arabicum sclauonicum teutonicum arabicum 

 Felix el melic dober Friderich salemelich. 1 



To whatever period it belongs, the writer's purpose 

 was doubtless to recall to the mind the four nations 

 over which Frederick II. ruled, and the splendid 

 kingdoms of Sicily, Germany, and Jerusalem which 

 he gathered in one under his imperial power. 



In the Laurentian Library there is a valuable 

 manuscript, written during the summer and autumn 

 of 1266, for the monks of Santa Croce. 2 It con- 

 tains the De Animalibus ad Caesar em ; the Abbre- 

 viatio Avicennae, and, as a third and concluding- 

 article, an independent version of the Liber de 

 Partibus Animalium, corresponding, as has been 

 said, to books xi.-xiv. of the other versions which the 

 volume contains. Bandini, in the printed catalogue 

 of the library, asserts that this third translation, 

 unlike the two which precede it, was made from 

 the Greek. This is probably correct, as it was only 

 the Greek text which treated these four chapters of 

 the Natural History as a distinct work. He further 

 ascribes the version to Michael Scot, relying no 

 doubt on the general composition of the volume, 

 for this particular translation does not seem to con- 

 tain any direct evidence of authorship. Thus the 



1 p. 164. 



2 PI. xiii. sin. cod. 9. Other MSS. of the Abbreviatio Avicennae are 

 these : Fondo Vaticano 7096 ; Fondo Eegina di Svezia 1151 ; Bibl. 

 Burgensis 8557 in 8vo memb. saec. xiii. vel xiv. ; Bibl. Pommersfeld, 

 saec. xiv. ; Paris, Anc. Fonds 6443 ; Venice, Bibl. St. Marc. 171 memb. 

 saec. xiv. (the same library has another MS. in 4to memb. saec. xiv., see 

 the Catalogue by Valentinelli, vol. v. p. 58). Bologna, Bibl. Univ. 1340 

 in fol. chart, saec. xiv. doubtful ; Oxford, Bodl. MSS. Canon. Misc. 562 

 saec. xiv. et xv. ; Merton Coll. MS. 277 saec. xiv. ; All Souls MS. 72 

 saec. xiv. 



